"Jonathan Kuminga’s play has been improving over the past few months'--Rafi ponet 6th grade.
Jonathan Kuminga’s play has been improving over the past few months. The young Warriors’ forward was picked with the 7th pick in the first round of last year's draft.
According to The Warriors Talk, Kuminga grew up in the Congo and started playing basketball at a very early age. He grew up around basketball and has two cousins who play professionally, Emaniel Mudiay of the Utah Jazz and Omari Gudal who plays in Romania. Even Kuminga’s older brother, Joel Ntambwe played for Texas Tech.
“When I started playing, we used to walk far away to find [a court]. There aren’t gyms all over like you see here,” Kuminga said in the same article. “[Here], you walk down two blocks and you find a gym, a park. You gotta walk like 45 minutes to get to wherever you gotta go to play [back home]. And then after that, you gotta make sure you get back home on time because [there’s] so much stuff out there. You might even find some people that are just going to see you on the road and stab you, try to kill you. It’s kind of dangerous.”
Kuminga moved to the US in 2016 to play high school ball. His freshman season was played at Huntington Prep School. He then transferred to Our Savior New American School where he would average 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game. Kuminga continued to play well in high school, and would graduate as the 4th best recruit of 2020, according to ESPN.
Following his high school career, Kuminga played for the G-league Ignite, a newly established G-league team made for young prospects and some veterans. Kuminga and Rockets guard Jalen Green were the highest touted prospects on the 2021 Ignite roster.
Kuminga was labeled a project and NBADRAFT.net compared him to Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics. Brown was also seen as a raw project player coming out of Cal in 2016. They both are athletic and lanky, and prefer the defensive end, but seeing as Brown is a career 37.2 percent three point shooting compared to Kuminga’s 32.7% on less volume, the comparison is not exact.
The Golden State Warriors came off a disappointing season with surprisingly high hopes. They were going to get five time All Star guard Klay Thompson back, sometime in January which propelled them to Championship levels. The Warriors had gotten the Minnesota Timberwolves pick (top three protected, which means) from a trade that sent Andrew Wiggins to the Warriors andD'Angelo Russell to the T-wolves. The pick landed at seven which meant it belonged to Golden State, who selected Kuminga.
On October 30th, 2021 Kuminga would make his NBA debut. Scoring three points and snatching one steal in only six minutes of action. Kuminga would not play much until December 18th, during his first career start against the Toronto Raptors, where Kuminga would put up 26 points in a 100 to 119 loss. During November, Kuminga averaged 3.0 points per game. Since then he has averaged 11.1 points per game. During the month of February Kuminga is putting up 15.3 points per game which would be the third highest average of all rookies this season only trailing Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, and Franz Wangner of the Orlando Magic.
Kuminga’s play has been impressive and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr acknowledged it after Kuminga and the Warriors played the Los Angeles Lakers on February 12th, saying, “He definitely rose to the moment. He’s handling it beyond anything I could’ve expected even a couple of weeks ago. His rise this last month has just been brilliant.”
Kuminga scored double figures in nine straight games, which is an impressive feat for many NBA players, let alone a rookie. This shows that he is becoming consistent, which many rookies have trouble with. Consistency is a very good sign for Kuminga’s future, and it shows he’s really putting it all together, having good games regularly instead of random ones here and there.
During All Star weekend, he participated in the Rising Stars game for team Payton. The Rising Stars event is for the best young up and coming stars. Kuminga originally was not a part of the event, but because of Indiana Pacers guard Chris Duarte injury, Kuminga was invited to join as a replacement.
Kuminga has affected the game beyond what the box score shows. He has been a great defender, and has stayed with the best of them. As he has gotten some of the toughest assignments defensively, including Lebron James. Earlier in the season, Kuminga was put into the game to get a defensive stop, now he is a rotation player and has averaged 12.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in seven games started this season.
As mentioned previously, in Kuminga’s first career start, he had 26 points against the Toronto Raptors. Kuminga would end that game with only one rebound, which is unacceptable, seeing as Kuminga is one of the most athletic players in the NBA, is six foot eight, and played 36 minutes. Coach Kerr also pointed it out. “He's got to get more than one rebound you know in 36 minutes, especially with that kind athletic ability and frame,” Kerr said on NBC Sports Bay Area after the game.
Since then it seems as if Kuminga has made a point of getting more rebounds, not “stat-padding” (as some analysts accuse Russel Westbrook of doing), but more so making an extra effort to box out, and be the first one to the ball. His rebounds have gone up to 4.3 per game in the last two months.
Although Kuminga’s play has been excellent, he always remembers where he is from. He said in a NBC Sports interview that ,“It's really big, especially for everybody back home. From what I know, a lot of people back home, not just home but in Africa, whenever we play, a lot of people don't go to sleep. They are always trying to stay up and watch the game. Even if I got Steph on the team, most of them want to watch [me] Jonathan. So, it's one of the best feelings [to have] an entire continent cheering for you.”
Kuminga’s ability to listen to what the coaches tell him and learn from it is unique. He has gone from a benchwarmer to a part-time starter in only a couple months. Kuminga hasn’t raised his ceiling so much this season… but he’s certainly just raised his floor.
According to The Warriors Talk, Kuminga grew up in the Congo and started playing basketball at a very early age. He grew up around basketball and has two cousins who play professionally, Emaniel Mudiay of the Utah Jazz and Omari Gudal who plays in Romania. Even Kuminga’s older brother, Joel Ntambwe played for Texas Tech.
“When I started playing, we used to walk far away to find [a court]. There aren’t gyms all over like you see here,” Kuminga said in the same article. “[Here], you walk down two blocks and you find a gym, a park. You gotta walk like 45 minutes to get to wherever you gotta go to play [back home]. And then after that, you gotta make sure you get back home on time because [there’s] so much stuff out there. You might even find some people that are just going to see you on the road and stab you, try to kill you. It’s kind of dangerous.”
Kuminga moved to the US in 2016 to play high school ball. His freshman season was played at Huntington Prep School. He then transferred to Our Savior New American School where he would average 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game. Kuminga continued to play well in high school, and would graduate as the 4th best recruit of 2020, according to ESPN.
Following his high school career, Kuminga played for the G-league Ignite, a newly established G-league team made for young prospects and some veterans. Kuminga and Rockets guard Jalen Green were the highest touted prospects on the 2021 Ignite roster.
Kuminga was labeled a project and NBADRAFT.net compared him to Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics. Brown was also seen as a raw project player coming out of Cal in 2016. They both are athletic and lanky, and prefer the defensive end, but seeing as Brown is a career 37.2 percent three point shooting compared to Kuminga’s 32.7% on less volume, the comparison is not exact.
The Golden State Warriors came off a disappointing season with surprisingly high hopes. They were going to get five time All Star guard Klay Thompson back, sometime in January which propelled them to Championship levels. The Warriors had gotten the Minnesota Timberwolves pick (top three protected, which means) from a trade that sent Andrew Wiggins to the Warriors and
On October 30th, 2021 Kuminga would make his NBA debut. Scoring three points and snatching one steal in only six minutes of action. Kuminga would not play much until December 18th, during his first career start against the Toronto Raptors, where Kuminga would put up 26 points in a 100 to 119 loss. During November, Kuminga averaged 3.0 points per game. Since then he has averaged 11.1 points per game. During the month of February Kuminga is putting up 15.3 points per game which would be the third highest average of all rookies this season only trailing Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, and Franz Wangner of the Orlando Magic.
Kuminga’s play has been impressive and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr acknowledged it after Kuminga and the Warriors played the Los Angeles Lakers on February 12th, saying, “He definitely rose to the moment. He’s handling it beyond anything I could’ve expected even a couple of weeks ago. His rise this last month has just been brilliant.”
Kuminga scored double figures in nine straight games, which is an impressive feat for many NBA players, let alone a rookie. This shows that he is becoming consistent, which many rookies have trouble with. Consistency is a very good sign for Kuminga’s future, and it shows he’s really putting it all together, having good games regularly instead of random ones here and there.
During All Star weekend, he participated in the Rising Stars game for team Payton. The Rising Stars event is for the best young up and coming stars. Kuminga originally was not a part of the event, but because of Indiana Pacers guard Chris Duarte injury, Kuminga was invited to join as a replacement.
Kuminga has affected the game beyond what the box score shows. He has been a great defender, and has stayed with the best of them. As he has gotten some of the toughest assignments defensively, including Lebron James. Earlier in the season, Kuminga was put into the game to get a defensive stop, now he is a rotation player and has averaged 12.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in seven games started this season.
As mentioned previously, in Kuminga’s first career start, he had 26 points against the Toronto Raptors. Kuminga would end that game with only one rebound, which is unacceptable, seeing as Kuminga is one of the most athletic players in the NBA, is six foot eight, and played 36 minutes. Coach Kerr also pointed it out. “He's got to get more than one rebound you know in 36 minutes, especially with that kind athletic ability and frame,” Kerr said on NBC Sports Bay Area after the game.
Since then it seems as if Kuminga has made a point of getting more rebounds, not “stat-padding” (as some analysts accuse Russel Westbrook of doing), but more so making an extra effort to box out, and be the first one to the ball. His rebounds have gone up to 4.3 per game in the last two months.
Although Kuminga’s play has been excellent, he always remembers where he is from. He said in a NBC Sports interview that ,“It's really big, especially for everybody back home. From what I know, a lot of people back home, not just home but in Africa, whenever we play, a lot of people don't go to sleep. They are always trying to stay up and watch the game. Even if I got Steph on the team, most of them want to watch [me] Jonathan. So, it's one of the best feelings [to have] an entire continent cheering for you.”
Kuminga’s ability to listen to what the coaches tell him and learn from it is unique. He has gone from a benchwarmer to a part-time starter in only a couple months. Kuminga hasn’t raised his ceiling so much this season… but he’s certainly just raised his floor.