{"id":110921,"date":"2024-12-06T17:17:05","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T22:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110921"},"modified":"2024-12-06T19:20:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T00:20:56","slug":"jonathan-kuminga-career-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/06\/jonathan-kuminga-career-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Kuminga\u2019s Career-High a Sign of Things to Come?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Warriors are finally back in the win column following a career-best<\/a> 33-point performance from Mr. Mystery-box himself, Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>. While Kuminga\u2019s<\/a> early season roller coaster continues, his latest performance has to have a ton of Golden State Warriors fans out there right now feeling a lot like Al Pacino in<\/a><\/span> The Godfather III.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All jokes aside, Kuminga couldn\u2019t have chosen a better game to show up for. Playing host to the red-hot Houston Rockets, the Warriors desperately needed a win to halt their five-game losing streak. Add on the fact that neither Stephen Curry<\/a> nor Draymond Green<\/a> were unavailable<\/a> for the game, and Warriors fans all across the Bay Area were surely preparing themselves for the worst. While Kuminga\u2019s performance was impressive\u2014and well-timed\u2014the question remains: will he be able to put forth similar performances once Curry and Green return?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonathan Kuminga\u2019s Career-High a Sign of Things to Come?<\/b><\/h2>\n

How Jonathan Kuminga Stepped Up vs. the Rockets<\/b><\/h3>\n

Against the Rockets on Thursday night, Kuminga looked as comfortable as he has all year long. Kuminga routinely got downhill and finished explosively through contact. He also looked very calculated in his cutting and his crashing of the offensive glass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Without Curry dominating the ball, Kuminga looked like a legitimate threat as the focal point of the offense. Furthermore, his numbers weren’t just empty calories either; he was efficient and intentional all night. The Warriors repeatedly looked to Kuminga to deliver down the stretch, and more often than not, he did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a team as defensively sound as the Rockets (second in the league in defensive rating<\/a>), however, it was certainly curious the way they allowed the Warriors\u2014and more specifically, Kuminga\u2014to continually manipulate them. Time and time again, the Warriors would run some sort of pick-and-roll or dribble handoff action, which would result in the Rockets’ Fred VanVleet<\/a> (listed at 6\u20190\u201d) switching onto Kuminga (6\u20198\u201d). This defensive scheme was especially puzzling from a Rockets\u2019 perspective, considering that the majority of the time, they didn’t have much rim protection waiting behind VanVleet to help out. No disrespect to soon-to-be-named All-Star Alperan Sengun, but rim-protection is not what he’s known for. With that being said, regardless of the Rockets’ questionable defensive strategy, Kuminga fully took advantage of his opportunities Thursday night. There’s no denying that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Can Jonathan Kuminga Realistically Continue to Provide<\/b><\/h3>\n

As great as Kuminga looked on Thursday night against the Rockets, consistency has never really been his calling card. There’s a reason Curry and Draymond were in street clothes during Kuminga\u2019s career performance. But there are certainly elements of Kuminga\u2019s performance against the Rockets that could or rather should resurface throughout the remainder of the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite Kuminga\u2019s latest heroics, he is not a number one option. He has clearly shown glimpses of his capabilities being a featured go-to option, but as things currently stand, he\u2019s probably not even suited to be a second or third option on a legitimate contender. Now, that\u2019s not to say Kuminga can\u2019t contribute. News flash: Kuminga is a freak athlete. There are not many players in the league who rival Kuminga in terms of aerial athleticism. But Kuminga simply lacks the necessary refinement as an offensive initiator to demand multiple iso\/post-up touches per game. Once Curry and Green return, Kuminga must scale up his timely cutting and scale down his one-on-one tendencies. Kuminga\u2019s athleticism, in tandem with the gravity provided by Steph Curry, should afford him ample opportunities for easy baskets.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a welcome sign for Warriors fans to see Kuminga fully unleashed every now and again. When the team is fully healthy, however, the fourth-year forward should apply most of his focus and energy toward finishing lobs, getting out in transition, attacking the offensive glass, and being a tenacious defender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Warriors have Jonathan Kuminga\u2014and Andrew Wiggins<\/a>\u2014to thank for finally bringing an end to their losing streak. However, fans should not expect high-scoring nights like Kuminga’s performance against the Rockets to become the norm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The versatile forward out of G-League Ignite clearly has a lot to offer, but perhaps more to another team<\/a> than the Warriors. As ecstatic<\/a> as the Warriors have to be for Kuminga, and as thrilled as they have to be to finally be off the schneid, moving him at the deadline has to still be on their minds. Kuminga\u2019s performance Thursday night was fun, even eye-opening perhaps, but what has Kuminga truly done consistently to prove he can be counted on to contribute to winning when it matters most? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Warriors are finally back in the win column following a career-best 33-point performance from Mr. Mystery-box himself, Jonathan Kuminga. While Kuminga\u2019s early season roller coaster continues, his latest performance has to have a ton of Golden State Warriors fans out there right now feeling a lot like Al Pacino in The Godfather III.\u00a0 All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5268,"featured_media":110941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[212,409,1244,4297,48],"class_list":["post-110921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warriors","tag-andrew-wiggins","tag-draymond-green","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110942,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110921\/revisions\/110942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}