On the Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN's Tim Bontemps highlighted the unexpected opportunity that former Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga now has with the Hawks.
"If Jalen Johnson could only play six minutes with a hip flexor injury, you would think he's probably going to miss at least a little bit of time. That's going to give Jonathan Kuminga a chance to step presumably into his spot in the starting lineup and have the ball in his hands a lot, and get shots up and make plays, and do all the stuff he has been wanting to do for a long time."
In other words, it could get worse for the Warriors after Kuminga scored a season-high 27 points in his Hawks debut. With Johnson out, Kuminga will have the green light, which is great for him, but could serve as a nonstop reminder to fans every time they turn on the television or open up social media.
Of course, it doesn't help at all that Kristaps Porziņġis, whom the Warriors traded Kuminga and Buddy Hield for, is out due to illness. If KP continues to miss time (we know he won't play on Wednesday), it will make a Kuminga breakout to end the season look even worse for Golden State.
Kuminga will have unexpected opportunity with Johnson's injury
Zach Lowe recently speculated that the Hawks could've traded for Kuminga more as a piece to move in the summer, given the forward's team option, suggesting they might not have been all that worried about questions about his fit.
Well, the questions about how he'll look beside Johnson are temporarily put on pause, assuming the All-Star will miss time. Kuminga will continue to be under the spotlight, an opportunity he wasted no time taking advantage of on Tuesday.
Kuminga did a little bit of everything against the Wizards — moving the ball (he found Gabe Vincent for a three-pointer before he recorded his first points), knocking down his looks (he shot 9-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 from deep), and pushing the pace in transition.
Guess what? He could have a repeat performance (literally), as Atlanta will host Washington again on Thursday.
Warriors fans know there is no escaping Kuminga, even though he left the Bay. He's a couple thousands miles away now, but that distance won't keep Golden State from living under a Kuminga-sized cloud if he continues to look like he did last night.
You know that he has March 21 circled on his calendar, too, as that's when the Warriors will visit Atlanta. He'll have just a little more motivation than usual in that matchup, giving Steve Kerr an up-close look at the player the coach never thought Kuminga could be.