{"id":76921,"date":"2024-05-10T12:47:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=76921"},"modified":"2024-05-10T12:49:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:49:18","slug":"golden-state-warriors-budding-star-considered-untouchable-jonathan-kuminga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/10\/golden-state-warriors-budding-star-considered-untouchable-jonathan-kuminga\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors Budding Star Considered Untouchable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a disappointing 2023-24 season, many are expecting changes in the Golden State Warriors franchise. Former All-NBA guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klay Thompson<\/a> is set to hit unrestricted free agency, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wiggian01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Wiggins<\/a> is more than likely on his way out, and the team may move on from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a> after one season. However, the Warriors do not appear to have any sort of interest in cleaning house just yet. According to ESPN&#8217;s Ramona Shelburne, the Warriors will &#8220;do everything they can to keep&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuminjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jonathan Kuminga is considered untouchable by the Warriors, per <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ramonashelburne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ramonashelburne<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey&#8217;ll do everything they can to keep him. They don&#8217;t even want to talk about him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/957thegame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@957thegame<\/a> ) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7cA4QJkWEL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7cA4QJkWEL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1788960542486413527?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The third-year forward enjoyed a career year with Golden State this past season. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/01\/07\/what-the-warriors-should-do-with-jonathan-kuminga\/\" target=\"_self\">Kuminga<\/a> appeared in 74 games, starting 46 of them. In those games, the 21-year-old averaged 16.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game. Furthermore, he shot 52.9% from the field. All of these numbers are career-highs for Kuminga so far.<\/p>\n<p>Kuminga is eligible for a contract extension this summer. According to Logan Murdock of <a href=\"https:\/\/hoopshype.com\/rumor\/jonathan-kuminga-could-fetch-more-than-30-million-per-year-in-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Ringer<\/a>, there is a sense that &#8220;Kuminga could fetch more than $30 million per year on the open market.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Some analysts believe Kuminga could fetch more than $30 million per year on the open market, a figure that would make him the second-highest-paid player on Golden State\u2019s roster.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Golden State Warriors Budding Star Considered Untouchable<\/h2>\n<h3>The Golden State Warriors Believe in Jonathan Kuminga<\/h3>\n<p>In their three years as teammates in Golden State, Kuminga and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greendr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Draymond Green<\/a> have formed a mentor-mentee type of bond. As part of a feature with ESPN in March, Green spoke about knowing Kuminga had &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/hoopshype.com\/rumor\/2765421\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the gift<\/a>&#8221; even before the team drafted him in 2021.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;You knew the gift was there,\u201d Green said of Kuminga. \u201cHe would just need a few years. And for me, having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jackja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarrett Jack<\/a> telling me he\u2019s good, that means a lot.\u201d But Kuminga didn\u2019t initially take to Green\u2019s form of mentorship \u2014 at least not enough for the longtime vocal leader of the Warriors. \u201cYou get to a place in your career where you\u2019ve accomplished X, you\u2019ve accomplished Y and Z,\u201d Green said, \u201cso he should just listen to me. It\u2019s a slap in the face for me, not in a negative way, just like \u2018Wake up, you\u2019re not listening.&#8217;\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Furthermore, Warriors CEO Joe Lacob praised Kuminga&#8217;s game during the season, calling him &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/hoopshype.com\/rumor\/joe-lacob-on-jonathan-kuminga-if-he-continues-to-play-like-this-his-future-is-unlimited\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a monster.<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;He\u2019s a monster. If he continues to play like this, which I think he will and get better at 21 years old, his future is unlimited.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Last Word on Jonathan Kuminga<\/h3>\n<p>Despite a smaller role during his first two seasons with Golden State, it appears Kuminga is finally coming into his own. Whether he receives a contract extension this summer or not remains to be seen. However, early reports suggest the former champion is in their long-term plans. With Wiggins likely on the move, it makes sense for the Warriors to slide Kuminga into the starting small forward spot permanently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a disappointing 2023-24 season, many are expecting changes in the Golden State Warriors franchise. Former All-NBA guard Klay Thompson is set to hit unrestricted free agency, Andrew Wiggins is more than likely on his way out, and the team may move on from Chris Paul after one season. However, the Warriors do not appear [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":68261,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,25,62,3],"tags":[212,229,409,1251,4297,70],"class_list":["post-76921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-warriors","category-nba","category-news","tag-andrew-wiggins","tag-chris-paul","tag-draymond-green","tag-jarrett-jack","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-klay-thompson"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76921","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\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}