{"id":2517,"date":"2026-01-17T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/17\/fact-or-fiction-jonathan-kuminga-is-a-good-basketball-player\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:23:14","slug":"fact-or-fiction-jonathan-kuminga-is-a-good-basketball-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/17\/fact-or-fiction-jonathan-kuminga-is-a-good-basketball-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact or Fiction: Jonathan Kuminga is a good basketball player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we&#8217;ll dive deep into some of the league&#8217;s biggest stories in an effort to determine whether the trends are based more on fact or fiction going forward.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Last time: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Jaylen Brown is the NBA&#8217;s best player in two ways<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading\" data-jump-link-target=\"\" id=\"fact-or-fiction-jonathan-kuminga-is-a-good-basketball-player\"><strong>Fact or Fiction: Jonathan Kuminga is a good basketball player<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Jonathan Kuminga has not appeared in a Golden State Warriors game since December 18, when he played less than 10 minutes in a loss to the Phoenix Suns. He was not listed on their latest injury report. You&#8217;ve suffered from some stiffness, but your lower back may wake up if you&#8217;ve been stuck to the bench, too.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t going to play either,&#8221; the Unknown Warrior told The Athletic of an early January game, when an injury was thought to keep Kuminga out of the lineup. &#8220;It is clear that the coach does not believe in him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t need someone from the Golden State to tell us this. It&#8217;s plainly obvious. The Warriors hold on to a winning record (23-19) and are out of the Western Conference playoff race. They&#8217;re a good team, but even head coach Steve Kerr realizes they&#8217;re not the perennial contender they once were.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are a dying dynasty,&#8221; Kerr said at Christmastime. &#8220;We know that. Everyone knows that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He later added, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want anyone to think we&#8217;re disappointed, and we&#8217;re thinking, &#8216;We&#8217;ve got to compete for titles every year with San Antonio and Oklahoma City for the next few years.&#8217; It&#8217;s not fair.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Do you know what Heroes can do? A 6-foot-7, 225-pound uber-athletic 23-year-old lottery pick. They could use Kuminga, who has averaged 20.2 points per 36 minutes on 50.2% shooting over a five-year career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[<\/strong><strong>Subscribe to Yahoo Sports NBA on YouTube<\/strong><strong>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are many reasons to play Kuminga, especially if they wanted to trade Kuminga&#8217;s $22.5 million salary, which they have for the rest of the season. Why doesn&#8217;t he showcase his talent for the league to see?<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Outside, Golden State doesn&#8217;t show. Which begs the question: Do you have talent?<\/p>\n<p>Obviously you do. We&#8217;ve seen Kuminga score as many as 34 points a game and average nearly 20 points a game. He has the size, length and athleticism to be a solid defender. Beyond that, he can&#8217;t score with great consistency, and he rarely does the little things necessary to help the Warriors win games, although he averaged more rebounds and assists this season than ever before.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\">\n<div style=\"max-height:none;overflow:visible\">\n<p>The Warriors&#8217; two-time approach didn&#8217;t work out as planned. (AP Photo\/Kelley L Cox)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"caption-credit\">    (TARGET NEWS)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With the Warriors leading 1-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round series last season, Golden State star Stephen Curry suffered a hamstring injury. Kerr turned to Kuminga, who had rarely played until that point in the playoffs. He answered the call, averaging 24.3 points on a 55\/39\/72 split for the remainder of the best-of-seven set. Unfortunately, the Warriors have lost four in a row.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Which raises another question: Is Kuminga a successful basketball player?<\/p>\n<p>That much we do not know. With Kuminga starting the game, the Warriors started 4-1, very similar to the striker who finished last season. In the next seven games, as they finished 2-5, returning to .500, Kuminga had a combined 56, and Kerr took him out of the starting lineup. He finished scoreless in 10 attempts off the bench in the next game and was completely removed from the rotation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[<\/strong><strong>Get more Warriors news: Golden State team feed<\/strong><strong>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Golden State is 9.2 points per 100 points better without Kuminga on the court this season, according to Cleaning the Glass. It was 3.5 points per 100 possessions better last season.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>What is clear: The Warriors no longer believe in Kuminga. They tried to sell him last season to no avail. They engaged in long-term contract talks over the summer, when they didn&#8217;t want to commit a long-term salary to their No. 7 pick in 2021. Instead, Kuminga signed a short-term deal, including a $24.3 million team option for next season, which should make him easier to trade.<\/p>\n<p>And here we are. On Thursday, Kuminga&#8217;s new contract became eligible for trade, so at the same time he wanted to be traded to the Warriors. It didn&#8217;t scare Golden State. This was always the plan.<\/p>\n<p>Having watched this drama unfold in front of them over the past year, the other 29 teams in the league have had to make a decision: If the Warriors don&#8217;t want him, why should we? And it&#8217;s a good question to ask.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>After all, which player, besides Kevin Durant, has been the most successful since leaving the Warriors? Even Durant couldn&#8217;t find the same level of success he enjoyed in Golden State.<\/p>\n<p>It should be easy to thrive in the Warriors&#8217; system. Curry&#8217;s gravitas has allowed a number of players to thrive, including Andrew Wiggins, a championship-winning role that Golden State would like Kuminga to fill.<\/p>\n<p>The Warriors gave up on Wiggins in the end, and look how that turned out for him.<\/p>\n<p>Which reminds us of Kelly Oubre Jr. He arrived in Golden State in the 2020-21 season with the same stats as Kuminga in his first five seasons. The Warriors had high hopes, started him for most of the year, but dropped him after one season. They were 11.7 points better per 100 possessions without Oubre in the lineup, so they let him go at the end of his rookie contract.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>No one would trade anything of value for Oubre at that point, just as no one would part with the all-important Kuminga. That&#8217;s not to say that Kuminga and Oubre aren&#8217;t good at basketball.<\/p>\n<p>When he left the Warriors, Oubre signed a two-year, $25 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets, and they failed to make the playoffs in either of those seasons. Since then he has inked a mini mid-level stint with the Philadelphia 76ers, carving out a role for himself as a minor leaguer against top contenders.<\/p>\n<p>And maybe that&#8217;s the end of Kuminga. That is for him to decide, not us.<\/p>\n<p>But&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><strong>Determination: True.<\/strong> Jonathan Kuminga is a <em>good<\/em> a basketball player, like all NBA players who change, and has value in the right situation. What that condition is, exactly, is another question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we&#8217;ll dive deep into some of the league&#8217;s biggest stories in an effort to determine whether the trends are based more on fact or fiction going forward. Last time: Jaylen Brown is the NBA&#8217;s best player in two ways Fact or Fiction: Jonathan Kuminga is a good basketball &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions\/2519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}