For years Jonathan Kuminga wanted more playing time and a bigger role at the Golden State Warriors, yet Steve Kerr struggled to fulfil that wish and often overlooked the young forward in favor of veterans on a team with championship aspirations.
That means there's a great irony in the fact Kuminga is actually playing less minutes since his arrival at the Atlanta Hawks, but the 23-year-old is helping to impact winning on one of the hottest teams in the entire league.
Jonathan Kuminga irony won't be lost on Warriors fans
Following Wednesday's thrilling overtime win against the top-seed Detroit Pistons, the Hawks have now won 14 of their past 15 games, including being 9-0 with Kuminga whose impact on winning was questioned during his time with the Warriors.
There is still some question on that, with Atlanta's starting lineup -- one that hasn't featured Kuminga -- proving the primary reason in their recent form and surge up to the fifth-seed in the Eastern Conference standings.
There was an understanding that Kuminga needed to be on a worse team that would allow him to play through his mistakes, but now he's on a Hawks team that's far better than the current Warriors and who is keeping him in a bench role.
The former seventh overall pick has averaged 22 minutes in his nine games with the Hawks. For context, he averaged 23.8 with Golden State this season before the trade, and 24.3 and 26.3 in the previous two years in the Bay Area.
Part of the factor has been the ongoing management of Kuminga's knee injury suffered in his last game with the Warriors in January, but this level of playing time is likely to continue regardless given others are ahead of him in the rotation.
There's further irony in the fact that with season-ending injuries to Jimmy Butler and now Moses Moody, a healthy Kuminga would have likely averaged at least 30 minutes with Golden State over the past two months.
Jonathan Kuminga has delivered mixed performances with the Hawks
Much like his career at the Warriors, Kuminga's production in Atlanta has been somewhat up-and-down to this point. He started off in explosive fashion with 27, 17 and 20-point games, and also has a pair of 16-point outings in the past 10 days.
Yet along with those five performances, he also has four games of eight points or less, including in his first game against Golden State where, despite a comfortable win for the Hawks, he had just two points on 1-of-9 shooting from the floor.