Jonathan Kuminga never truly found his footing with the Golden State Warriors. Many have voiced their opinion on what went wrong, but even those who defended him awaited a formal explanation of what went wrong from head coach Steve Kerr, whose rotations rarely featured Kuminga in the way his skill set commanded.
With Kuminga now playing for the Atlanta Hawks and a highly-anticipated encounter with the Warriors looming, Kerr spoke candidly about how Golden State was the wrong team for him.
The Warriors selected Kuminga at No. 7 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft. It was meant to be a move that would help extend Stephen Curry's prime, with a talented and athletic perimeter scorer joining the fray to take pressure off of the franchise player. Unfortunately, that dream never came to fruition.
According to Nick Friedell of The Athletic, Kerr acknowledged that Kuminga would've been better off on a bad team that could've given him the 30-plus nightly minutes he needed to make and learn from his mistakes.
“I think this is part of the modern NBA,” Kerr said. “You’re getting guys who are so inexperienced. I will tell you, the optimal circumstance for JK when he entered the NBA would have been to go to a bad team. Instead, he came to a championship team. But the way to develop in this league is to play 30, 35 minutes every night, make your mistakes, learn from your mistakes, grow, be able to do it out of the spotlight. And he wasn’t able to do any of those things (here), and I recognize that. That’s why I’m really hoping that the change in scenery will be what he needed.”
Unfortunately, it took five formative years for the Warriors to finally let Kuminga out of a situation that the head coach himself is acknowledging wasn't ideal.
Steve Kerr openly acknowledges Warriors were a bad fit for Jonathan Kuminga
As Kerr noted, young volume scorers need the opportunity to play big minutes regardless of how well or poorly they're performing. It may sound counterintuitive, but players who are built to play with the ball in their hands need to learn by experience what they should and shouldn't—or can and can't—do.
Kuminga certainly fits the bill as a player who boasts career averages of 12.5 points per game and 20.4 points per 36 minutes. Unfortunately, he played just 22.1 minutes per game with the Warriors—far below the 30-plus Kerr himself acknowledged he needed.
Kuminga is now looking to make up for lost time with the Atlanta Hawks, hoping that irreparable damage to his development hasn't been done. Thankfully, he's played well early in his Atlanta tenure, averaging 14.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.0 steal in 22.7 minutes per contest.
Kuminga's minutes are still rather low, but there's some degree of justification in the sense that he's joining a new team and only recently returned from an injury-related absence.
As for the Warriors, the hunt is on for an assertive scorer who can take pressure off of Curry, 38, and Jimmy Butler, who will turn 37 before the 2026-27 season. Based on Kerr's description of what young players need and what Golden State can provide, the franchise will likely look for proven talent during the offseason.
One simply can't help but wonder if Kuminga could've developed into the very player the Warriors are devoid of had they given him the minutes Kerr acknowledges he needed.