Less than five minutes into the Golden State Warriors’ opening-night win over the Lakers last Tuesday, Jonathan Kuminga took a pass from Stephen Curry along the right wing, immediately put his head down and drove into the paint, and proceeded to fire up a contested 14-foot brick that damn near hit all backboard before anyone else had touched the ball.
You could almost feel the “here we go again” frustration coming from Steve Kerr, who has, for the past four years, been somewhere between hesitant and outright unwilling to trust Kuminga with regular rotation minutes, let alone the starting spot Kuminga has openly coveted, in large part because of shots like this.
But this time, Kuminga knew what he had done wrong. He immediately raised his hand and acknowledged his mistake. And sure enough, by the time the second half rolled around, he had fixed it. “The first few plays of the third quarter,” Kerr lauded, “it was beautiful.”
Indeed, Kuminga scored 13 of his 17 points on opening night in a brilliant third quarter, beginning with an in-rhythm 3 created off Golden State’s staple split action. Kuminga sets it all up from the corner, where Golden State likes to initiate this set. Entry pass to Draymond Green, go screen for Stephen Curry, clockwork.
But this is the beauty of Curry’s randomness. Depending on which way he goes off the screen, everything changes, and in turn you have to adjust your next move as his teammate. This is the “flow” Kerr is always emphasizing, and if you can read and react to the rhythms on the fly, the benefits are exponential.
Watch as Curry rejects Kuminga’s screen and instead cuts through the lane, taking basically the entirety of L.A.’s interior defense with him. Kuminga sees it, and without hesitation pops out into a sea of open shooting space for the second of his four triples on the night.
Thirty seconds later, Kuminga again exploits the attention being paid to Curry by slipping straight to the basket the instant he detects his own defender, Rui Hachimura, diverting his eyes to the greatest shooter in history coming off for a potential 3.
Opting for shots like this over his long-preferred short-mid-range pull-ups (of which he’s only taken a total of three this season after averaging four per game last year) is how Kuminga has opened the season with an off-the-charts .686 true-shooting percentage — but one of his across-the-board career highs in assists, rebounds and every other percentage you can find, all of which is worth noting despite the small sample.
Kerr has praised Kuminga’s maturity coming out of this summer’s contract saga, citing the “great conversations” they’ve had and the “better understanding” the fifth-year forward has of the role the Warriors need him to play — which is a vague way of saying to operate, by and large, in total service of Curry whenever they share the floor.
That’s not unique to Kuminga, by the way. Everyone on the Warriors, to a large degree, is expected to play this way. Even Kevin Durant’s isolation frequency hit career lows during his time with Golden State. You simply do not break off in pursuit of your own offense when the greatest shooter and probably most efficient scorer in history is running around. You screen for him. Pass to him. Pass to the guy that in turn passes to him. And if in the midst of all this movement, and the chaos it creates, you find yourself on a red-carpet path to your own offense, then you hit the gas. But generally speaking, not before.
This is especially true for Kuminga, who ranked among the league’s least-efficient shooters from his preferred spots last season (i.e. the aforementioned short midrange pull ups, 4-14 feet, which accounted for 36% of his attempts last season at just a 37% conversion rate, per Cleaning the Glass). You cannot justify jacking up low-percentage shots at the expense of getting Curry the ball.
Look at this example from March of last season against the Knicks. Kuminga ends up with the ball on the left wing with still 10 seconds on the shot clock and the Warriors in perfect position to run a split screen for Curry (note how far Josh Hart is sagged down, meaning when Draymond Green picks Curry’s man, he won’t be close enough to fly out to contest Curry’s 3). This is bread-and-butter stuff, but rather than allow the possession to play out, Kuminga takes matters into his own hands and winds up running into a brick wall. This was long an all-too-familiar sequence for Warriors fans and certainly for Kerr.
Now fast forward to this season. At the end of a beautiful possession on which every Warriors player touches the ball, watch Kuminga catch a kick-out pass from Brandin Podziemski, and note the time on the shot clock. Seven seconds. It’s getting late. These are the kinds of possessions that Kuminga wouldn’t have had the patience to let play out in the past, but this time, rather than mapping his own path into the paint and halting all this flow in the process, you can see him moving into a toss to Curry before the ball is even in his hands.
Here again, Kuminga takes a pass on the wing where he has ample space to either launch a 3 or put his head down and drive. It’s not that he’s not capable of scoring in either of these ways, but NBA offense is ultimately about priorities, and in Golden State Curry is always the priority. This new Kuminga that is recognizing all this sees the space between him and Deandre Ayton and rather than attack it himself, understands that if he rolls right into a handoff for Curry and rubs his man, Ayton is too deep to do step up in help before Curry turns the corner.
Kerr says Kuminga’s passing has “improved dramatically” and the film backs it up. Here he hits a cutting Green with a slick bounce pass through traffic.
Here he gets downhill, draws the defense, and dumps it off to Al Horford.
Here’s a great juxtaposition of Kuminga’s improved decision making from last year to now. The video on the left is from last season’s playoff series against Houston. Kuminga gets into the paint, where he forces up a bad shot despite being clearly cut off. The second clip is from the season-opener against the Lakers. Same thing. He gets in the paint, gets cut off, but this time, rather than gong bull in a china shop, he keeps his wits, stops, and whips a pass out to Podziemski for a 3.
This next one really stands out. Kuminga cuts to the middle of the key where he has historically had a one-track mind for his own shot, but now he’s sensing the defense collapsing and as soon as the ball hits his hands he’s turning and whistling a pass to a corner 3-point shooter.
Just like the example with the Curry passes up top, this is all about anticipation. You have to feel the floor before it shows itself to be one pass ahead in a system like Golden State’s. Quick decisions. Impromptu screens. It’s all about executing consistently inside chaos, playing smart without needing time to think, and the ones who can’t do it get weeded out.
There is, after all, a Warriors type player. It’s not for everyone. If you’re a role player, Kerr has to trust that you are going to serve in proper and selfless support of Curry. Playing time tells the tale, and so far this season Kuminga, who’s been in Kerr’s starting and finishing lineups, has played 90 of his 93 minutes alongside Curry.
This is not a coincidence. This is a result of Kuminga doing all the right things at all the right times. He’s improved his passing (even when he hasn’t been credited with an assist, he has made great passes). Kuminga is staying active off the ball as a cutter. He’s scoring and shooting efficiently while carding an appreciably reduced usage rate. He’s bumped his offensive and defensive rebounding percentages by 58% and 28%, respectively. And probably most importantly, he’s defending.
Indeed, playing in service of Curry isn’t just about setting him up offensively. It’s also about covering for him, as necessary, on the defensive end. With the Warriors leading by three in overtime against the Nuggets, Kuminga took control when he saw Curry on Nikola Jokić, directing him into a quick switch before blocking Jokić’s shot.
Look here as Kuminga defends the hell out of Luka Dončić on one end, then leads the break with his eyes up and, rather than hitting the gas to the basket himself, sets up Curry for a 3 on the other.
You have to get Kuminga a lot of credit. All he heard all summer was the Warriors didn’t really want him, and once they were basically forced into an arranged marriage, everyone assumed it was still headed for divorce. Perhaps that remains the case. Kuminga, whose two-year, $46.5 million contract (with the second year a team option) was priced to move, becomes eligible to be traded beginning Jan. 15, and there’s no question if he keeps playing this way his market value is going to skyrocket.
On the other hand, if Kuminga keeps playing this way his value to the Warriors might be even higher. Everyone, from Kerr on down, has always acknowledged Kuminga’s talent. He can do things athletically that nobody else on the Warriors can do, and when you combine that explosive element with this sudden mastery of the margins, you have an almost perfect player for this specific team.
“JK has had a really strong start to the season,” Kerr said. “… He’s come back in a great place emotionally. I’ve never felt better in terms of the connection we have, coaching wise, explaining what we need from him and him responding. I’m proud of him. And I’m excited for what’s ahead, for him and for us.”
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