With the Golden State Warriors trading Jonathan Kuminga to the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline, there is no denying how it has been an up-and-down road for the player and the franchise. As fans had been expecting the Warriors to trade Kuminga, owner Joe Lacob would break his silence to talk about the deal.
In the trade, Golden State also traded Buddy Hield and received Kristaps Porzingis in return, marking the team's big trade to hopefully boost them for a playoff push. Lacob would speak on the Kuminga experiment, as his perspective is interesting since he'd been known to be a huge proponent for the young player, saying that it was “not hard” to agree to deal the 23-year-old.
“Everyone assumes a lot about that,” Lacob said, according to The San Francisco Standard. “Look, I liked him as a player, I like him as a person. … And at times, he showed a lot of potential for us. Just never quite really worked entirely. And he got injured at inopportune times.”
“I think we all knew we had to do something. But we weren’t going to give him away, either,” Kuminga continued. “Because he is a talent, and a lot of people think that, too. It just worked out — we got something that we thought was worth doing. Otherwise, we would’ve kept him.”
Warriors' Joe Lacob on the Jonathan Kuminga experiment not working
While the Warriors had been in Giannis Antetokounmpo talks as well, the trade with Kuminga and Porzingis was their main deal of the deadline. Kuminga had been with Golden State for five seasons, as Lacob spoke about how the relationship “didn't work.”
“I did like him. I like all our players. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be acquiring them if we didn’t all like them. But you know, it just didn’t work. It looked like it was going to work. It was off and on a lot,” Lacob said.
The Warriors are looking to improve as they have a 29-27 record, putting them eighth in the West with their next game on Sunday against the Denver Nuggets.
