Jonathan Kuminga poured in a career-high performance against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night. The Golden State Warriors, however, lost that game, 119-100, as they opted to rest their stars on the second night of a back-to-back.
Kuminga flashed the potential that enticed the Warriors to select him with their high lottery pick, tallying 26 points from the inside, the 3-point arc, and the free-throw line. But despite that, Steve Kerr emphasized that while Kuminga could shine like that more often in another situation, learning the ropes within a winning organization is much more valuable for his growth.
Via Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle:
“I told him: ‘If we were a lousy team, you’d be doing this every night,’” the Warriors coach said Monday. “‘You’d be on the all-rookie team and scoring a bunch of points, and everybody would be saying how great Kuminga is. But you wouldn’t be learning how to win.’
“We’re trying to keep that in perspective for him. The value of learning from Draymond (Green) and Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) and Andre (Iguodala) is actually worth a lot more than rolling the ball out and playing on a bad team. So even though it’s undoubtedly frustrating for him at times, he has a good perspective and we try to remind him he’s learning from winners.”
The Warriors have the luxury of bringing in their young prospects slowly. Patience will be key as Jonathan Kuminga slowly gets integrated into the rotation in the future.
But for now, he'll have to learn from the sidelines more often than not as the Dubs go for yet another title in the Stephen Curry era.
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