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Apologies For Warriors Pick Should Be As Loud As Disrespect

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Fans cheer for Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga (00)

One game doesn’t change the reality of a situation, even if it was a victory against a championship contender. Two games won’t change a player’s overarching storyline, even if he scored 34 points in both. Nonetheless, after Golden State Warriors rising star Jonathan Kuminga’s second straight 34-point performance helped his team down Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns, the apologies need to be as loud as the disrespect.

Jonathan Kuminga Thriving During Warriors Roller Coaster Ride

The seventh overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Kuminga has been on an emotional roller coaster since being drafted by the Warriors.

Coming into the league, the Congolese forward wasn’t expected to put up All-NBA numbers right away. The Warriors still had Stephen Curry, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins at the time. In fact, with Draymond Green’s free agency approaching, the Warriors may have seen Kuminga as his eventual replacement.

To that point, Kuminga isn’t the playmaker Green is. However, he’s a barrel-chested frontcourt piece who’s athletic enough to guard multiple positions. At the very least, he would’ve been able to play off of the Warriors more established scorers while making his presence defensively.

Butterfly Effect

Kuminga’s timeline was accelerated by Green punching Poole in practice, a hit that had wide-ranging implications. Because the video of the incident was leaked, Poole became a public laughingstock, which only added to the locker room tension. Throughout that season, the Warriors appeared to be disjointed. When Green subsequently decided to re-sign with Golden State rather than leave in free agency, the writing was on the wall for Poole, who was soon traded to the Washington Wizards.

The next season, Kuminga stepped into a larger scoring role, helping to fill the void left by Poole. However, Thompson’s physical decline left the Warriors wanting more defensively. It was a perfect storm that allowed Kuminga to step into a starting spot. Though it was an awkward situation for Thompson and part of the reason he wanted to leave as a free agent, the results couldn’t be denied.

Golden State was 27-19 with Kuminga as a starter versus 13-15 when he came off the bench. In his starts, the physically-gifted forward averaged 17.2 points per game while making 53.1 percent of his field goal attempts. He needed to work on his off-ball shooting and off-ball defense but there was plenty to like.

Not On The Same Page

After an entertaining offseason that saw them making overtures for Paul George and Lauri Markkanen, it seemed like the Warriors were confident in Kuminga’s potential.

Yet, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn’t see Kuminga as an ideal starter because he believes was more than a power forward than small forward. If this was 25 years ago, Kerr’s argument would have more merit. However, the league is semi-positionless now, in part due to how team’s have to defend teams like Golden State.

His comments were more reflective the disconnect between him and Kuminga. Though Kerr has been critical of other players, he kicks it into high gear when it comes to the 22-year-old.

Whether it’s just hard coaching or hard feelings after being called out by him last season is debatable. Nonetheless, Kuminga has been relegated to a bench role. This hasn’t been in an effort to improve the team’s spacing but to keep Green as the starting four.

With that being said, Kuminga is averaging 21.3 points per game on 37.0 percent from three in December.

After being under fire at the start of the month, a lot of people are eating their words. However, it still doesn’t seem to matter how well his plays individually. Kerr may be waffling on his rotation every night but his mind is all but made up about what his role will be.

The post Apologies For Warriors Pick Should Be As Loud As Disrespect appeared first on Last Word On Basketball.