One of the reasons many are picking the Golden State Warriors to repeat as NBA champions next season is because they have several young-and-coming players.
Perhaps the most impressive of that cadre is Jonathan Kuminga, a 6-foot-8 forward who showed flashes of brilliance this past season as a rookie.
He averaged 9.3 points in 16.9 minutes while shooting 51.3 percent from the field, and more is expected from him in 2023.
Kuminga is participating in the NBA Summer League this offseason, and on Tuesday when the Warriors took on the Boston Celtics, he looked mighty impressive.
The seventh overall pick in last year’s NBA draft had 29 points on 11-of-22 shooting, and although Golden State lost, 103-92, he gave fans plenty to look forward to once the regular season starts.
Kuminga Was A Giant Offensively
The soon-to-be second-year man had a number of exciting highlight plays in Tuesday’s contest.
Early in the third quarter, he slashed to the hoop and converted an athletic layup while being covered rather well.
Jonathan Kuminga with the strong acrobatic finish on ESPN 💪 pic.twitter.com/MFxtvTrsSf
— NBA (@NBA) July 13, 2022
Later, he took a pass from Moses Moody, who was also a lottery pick in 2021, on a cut to the rim and delivered a fancy jam.
Double-clutch dunks x Jonathan Kuminga
Live on ESPN pic.twitter.com/sMiVJzd4lt
— NBA (@NBA) July 13, 2022
In the first quarter, Kuminga moved well without the ball and was the recipient of a nice pass from James Wiseman, which led to another dunk.
James Wiseman nice find to Jonathan Kuminga who jump stops and dunks it for the Warriors. pic.twitter.com/pc0aZzyuiX
— Aram Cannuscio (@AC__Hoops) July 13, 2022
A couple of days ago, he had another gem versus the San Antonio Spurs, putting up 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Jonathan Kuminga in a 86-85 win vs. the Spurs : 28 points (10-22 shooting, 1-7 from 3 & 7-18 from the FT line), 7 rebounds & 4 assists in 26 minutes pic.twitter.com/vfpfp2shzu
— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) July 11, 2022
One ability Kuminga has shown in Summer League play is the ability to draw fouls.
He shot eight free throws against the Celtics and a whopping 18 in the prior game versus San Antonio.
Kuminga hasn’t been effective from the charity stripe, as he shot just 12-of-26 in the two games combined, but once he improves in that department, he can really hurt teams simply by being a free throw magnet.
This past season, he made 68.4 percent of his foul shots on 2.7 attempts per game.
The Big Area Of Improvement The Warriors Need From Kuminga
As everyone knows, the Warriors are dynamite when it comes to outside shooting, and that is currently Kuminga’s big weakness.
From three feet and in, he made an impressive 77.1 percent of his shot attempts, but that value dropped to 43.3 percent from 3-10 feet, 40.0 percent from 10-16 feet and 28.6 percent from 16 feet to the 3-point line.
He doesn’t necessarily need to become a great 3-point shooter, but he at least needs to get to 35-36 percent, which is about the league average, so that opposing teams can cheat off him and help on his teammates or cut off his driving lanes to the basket.
But one thing is for sure – Kuminga is a force in the paint and as a strong finisher.
He had 74 dunks in 2022 despite not playing heavy minutes, and as he develops, he can continue to be one of the newest weapons in the Warriors’ vaunted transition attack.
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