One surprising Warrior has helped spark Warriors turnaround

The Golden State Warriors seem to have turned their slow start around, and one surprising young player has helped spark that effort.

Through their first 10 games, the Golden State Warriors were 3-7, not how the defending NBA champions had hoped to start the year. Since then, they’re 8-3, a stark contrast to how the Warriors started the season off. Though there is still a gap to close, they have an 11-10 record and sit just outside of the Western Conference playoff picture.

Though the Warriors’ turnaround has been a team effort, certain players have stuck out. There are the obvious ones, of course. A shockingly bad start to the season for Klay Thompson in which he was averaging 15.0 points per game on 32.9 percent shooting from beyond the arc in the first 10 games has been juxtaposed with 20.1 points per game and 46.1 percent 3-point shooting in the Warriors’ 11 most recent games.

Similarly, Draymond Green has gotten back to his offensive ways, tallying four games with double-digit assists in the Warriors’ most recent 11 after no such games in the team’s first 10.

But one surprising player has helped the turnaround as well: Second-year forward Jonathan Kuminga.

Jonathan Kuminga’s impact on Warriors turnaround

A rookie last year, Kuminga was a part of a title-winning team from the jump and hasn’t had to face team-wide adversity just yet, so the resilience he’s displayed thus far and his ability to help the team tremendously through a needed early turnaround is impressive.

Green praised Kuminga for what he’s done this season:

As Green points out, Kuminga’s impact can’t quite be measured perfectly in the box score because some of it is the intangible energy factor.

But even looking at box scores, you can see he’s done well. Basketball-Reference posts a game score for every game and Kuminga’s rolling three-game average has been above 10 for five of the last six games.

Looking at his points+rebounds+assists per minute, over the last three games, Kuminga has been over 1.0, the only three games of the season thus far that he’s eclipsed that mark.

There’s work to be done for the Warriors, but part of the beauty in their system has been keeping young players in development on the roster alongside the dynasty centerpieces of Curry, Thompson, and Green.

Kuminga is clearly doing his part early.