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The Golden State Warriors are running out of time for silver linings. Sunday's collapse of a loss to Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets tied them for 10th-place with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West, on verge of not just missing the playoffs but falling out of the play-in tournament if 2022-23 suddenly came to an end.
As tightly packed as the conference is above the defending champions, burnishing their hopes for a second-half push up the standings, the Dubs are also at serious risk of falling further down them. The Los Angeles Lakers, soon welcoming back Anthony Davis, and Portland Trail Blazers are within a game-and-a-half of surpassing Golden State.
One way for the Warriors to avoid the embarrassing fate of missing out on postseason activities altogether? If Jonathan Kuminga keeps playing like he did on Sunday, when the sophomore forward was arguably his team's best player en route to 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting while making life harder on Kyrie Irving defensively than any Warriors defender absent Andrew Wiggins.
Despite Jonathan Kuminga's big game, the Warriors fell apart again. (via @armstrongwinter)https://t.co/oOxl3qL52U
— Warriors Nation (@WarriorNationCP) January 23, 2023
After the game, Kuminga expressed newfound comfort in his pivotal role as a two-way sparkplug off the bench, realizing that the position-less nature of his game is a major boon for Golden State.
“I'm like one of those guys on this team that plays every position. You've got to know what's going on, be aware of everything going on — from watching Steph to Loon,” he told Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. “It's a little bit tougher, but I didn't choose to be that way or trying to play that way. It's just natural. It's just something that requires knowing where to be and knowing what I need to do to help the team win.”
Most of Kuminga's scores against Brooklyn came within natural flow of the offense—via split cuts, catching on rolls to to the rim, filling the lane in transition and attacking short close-outs. Being a finisher in those respects is how he can most help the Warriors offensively, at least until his skills catch up to his physical tools down the line.
But Jonathan Kuminga also had multiple isolation buckets from the post, taking advantage of being guarded by Irving or another size mismatch down low.
Kuminga wasn't always prepared to exploit smaller defenders in that capacity. Some encouragement from longtime Warriors powerbrokers, though, has turned his post game into a weapon Golden State can go to in even the biggest moments—like it did midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday, drawing a shooting foul on Irving.
“I used to have a problem where I'd have small guards and not want to do anything and keep up with the motion of the game. I gained my confidence from Andre [Iguodala], and actually Steve himself. Coach Steve was like, ‘You have a small guy, that's your advantage,'” Kuminga said in the locker room, per NBC Sports Bay Area. “And just getting my trust from Steph and Klay and the rest of the guys that were like, ‘Whenever you get a small guy out there, that's your mismatch. Use that to your advantage.' Andre was the person that's been more focused on me where anytime I get a small person on me, it's like, you got to go to work. You gotta find a way.”
He found many more ways than that one to make his presence felt against Brooklyn. Now, it's incumbent on Jonathan Kuminga to continue doing so, and all the Warriors to follow suit.
