The Golden State Warriors made an incredible trade in 2020 when they traded D’Angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins and a 2021 first-round pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Wiggins has found his form as an incredibly useful two-way wing for the Warriors and the 2021 pick ended up being Jonathan Kuminga.
Kuminga has incredible potential and showed flashes of it throughout his rookie season. He can be an All-NBA level player if he develops well, something that even Warriors ownership is evidently aware of.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob was a guest on Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner’s ‘Point Forward’ podcast and they discussed a lot of things about the Warriors and what the 2021-22 season meant to them. One of the interesting tidbits from the conversation came when Iggy brought up Kuminga and Lacob told him to tell the coach so that he plays Kuminga more.
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— warriorsworld (@warriorsworld) July 15, 2022
Iguodala: “Obviously Kuminga has got all the talent in the world. We know if he can just line up everything the way he should…”
Lacob: “Why don’t you tell our coach that so he plays him?
This is not a sign of discontent in Golden State but merely a suggestion from Lacob. Steve Kerr has brought a lot of success to the franchise so it is highly unlikely that there is a legitimate grievance from Lacob towards Kerr over Kuminga’s playing time. With the departures from the Warriors this season, Kuminga is most likely going to get a bigger role on the squad.
Kerr was hesitant over many stretches to trust Kuminga and Moses Moody for long stretches in games but the team needs to develop these young players on the court. Their second year should lead to some natural progression in minutes and their role. Kuminga could one day be the replacement for Draymond Green in GSW and Lacob will be hoping that Kerr extracts that potential out of the second-year player.
