The divorce between the Golden State Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga was acrimonious, drawn out and messy. Now, as the details are coming out after the split, it's becoming more and more apparent that owner Joe Lacob’s legacy has been slightly tarnished by this whole saga.
A recent article from ESPN’s Anthony Slater breaks down the entire saga, and Lacob does not come out looking very good. He clearly favored Kuminga and wanted the Warriors to draft him back in 2021.
There was some disagreement within the organization about who would be the best player to take with the No. 7 overall pick, and ultimately Lacob won out. That proved to be a disastrous decision.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob deserves blame for Jonathan Kuminga saga
Ultimately, the reason the whole thing didn't work out because no one was on the same page about Kuminga. Lacob thought that Kuminga could be a future star to lead the post-Stephen Curry era, but head coach Steve Kerr and others in the organization thought that he was more of a role player rather than a star in the making.Â
It was that lack of alignment that led to hurt feelings and misunderstandings between everyone involved. Maybe the Warriors still draft Kuminga even without Lacob favoring him, but it's certainly possible that the organization would have went another direction had they been listening solely to coaches rather than the owner.
This whole saga is not on the same level as Jerry Krause tearing apart the Chicago Bulls, but there will certainly be grumbling for years amongst Warriors fans that Lacob’s meddling may have cost the the franchise another ring or two.
Maybe that’s wishful thinking to believe the Warriors would have gotten another championship, but with a better cast around Curry, who knows?
While it’s easy to blame Lacob for the Kuminga disaster, he still deserves a lot of credit for turning the franchise around in the first place. The Warriors didn’t start winning rings until Lacob became the principal owner of the franchise, making him undoubtedly a big part of the team’s dynasty.
However, Lacob has a big ego and wanted to prove that he was the one who orchestrated the dynasty, not the coaches or players on the floor. That is when owners and executives often go wrong: they try to prove they can win and don’t need their star players, and find out that luck actually had a good amount to do with their success.
They were lucky to land two of the best shooters of all time in Curry and Klay Thompson. Obviously skill and expertise was involved in the decision to draft them, but franchises make informed decisions every year in the draft and often come up empty.
Lacob should not be completely castigated by fans, but the whole Kuminga episode is a reminder that he should leave the roster construction to coaches and executives, and should not try to run the team himself.Â