3 reasons the Warriors could come to regret Jonathan Kuminga lottery pick
The Golden State Warriors selected Jonathan Kuminga with the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. At the time, it made perfect sense. Kuminga was installed as a pillar of the Warriors' two-timeline approach; he was a talented young project who could develop slowly while Stephen Curry and Golden State's dynastic core remained in championship contention.
It worked, to a certain extent. The Warriors won the 2022 NBA championship, giving Kuminga his first ring. At 20 years old, Kuminga is already a rotation player for a perennial winner. The Warriors have barely scratched the surface of his ceiling and there's reason to believe Kuminga has another sizable leap in production in his future.
That said, it's almost guaranteed that the Golden State front office secretly wishes it had a mulligan. Kuminga doesn't necessarily qualify as a bad pick, but he certainly wasn't the best possible outcome for a Warriors team with the rare luxury of making three consecutive lottery picks with their title-contending window still wide open.
Across two NBA seasons, Kuminga has averaged 9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 18.8 minutes on .519/.353/.671 splits. He has appeared in 137 games with 28 starts. Here are three reasons why the Warriors — and, frankly, Kuminga — would have been better off in an alternate timeline.
Reason Warriors regret Jonathan Kuminga pick: Chemistry issues
The Warriors' two-timeline approach is largely considered a failed experiment despite the 2022 championship. The Curry-led core can still contend at full strength, but the Warriors made it more difficult — especially last season — by relying on young, inexperienced players instead of the seasoned veteran role players who defined the Warriors' three title runs between 2015 and 2018.
Draymond Green's relationship, or lack thereof, with younger members of the Golden State locker room has been a hot-button topic. The now-infamous Jordan Poole punch fractured the locker room and sent last season into a downward spiral, but Green was too important not to re-sign. The Warriors handed him a $100 million contract and sent Poole packing, a vote of confidence in Draymond as a player and as a leader.
Poole isn't the only young player Green has struggled to maintain a relationship, though. On a podcast appearance earlier this summer, NBC Sports' Monte Poole (no relation to Jordan) illuminated the stunted relationship between Green and Kuminga.
"It’s a problem and it can only be fixed by Draymond, who has to commit himself to doing that. Honestly, at this point, we’re not sure that he’s ready to do that. They’ve signed him to a new contract, which implies that they believe he can and will."
This is mostly a Draymond problem, but as the Warriors' free agent dealings proved, Green is too essential to discard. Golden State has to cater to Green's competitive aspirations and cagey leadership presence, which could mean Kuminga is simply never going to feel at home in the Warriors' locker room.