Is Jonathan Kuminga’s recent Warriors resurgence real? “He’s turning the corner.”
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Is Jonathan Kuminga’s recent Warriors resurgence real? “He’s turning the corner.”

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

SAN FRANCISCO – Andrew Wiggins has a career free throw rate of 72.4 percent. This season he is at 78.6 percent. But early in his tenure with the Warriors, the veteran forward’s percentage dropped dramatically to below 60% in two consecutive seasons – a prolonged slump that he has now overcome.

Jonathan Kuminga noted that specifically, minutes after capping his second straight 34-point game with three massive free throws in the final 29 seconds of the Warriors’ 109-105 home win over the Suns on Saturday.

“I was a little nervous,” Kuminga said. “I won’t lie. I’ve never been in a situation where I go to the free throw line and everyone is quiet and I have to make those free throws.”

The 22-year-old Kuminga shot his free throws at a respectable rate for a power winger last season. He scored 223 out of 299 points and achieved 74.6 percent. He expected these trend lines to continue rising in his fourth year, but instead his efficiency deteriorated. Entering Saturday, Kuminga was shooting a career-low 63.2 percent from the line on 4.9 free throws per game. For a downhill aggressor who increasingly wants to live on the edge as he reaches his prime, that’s a worrying decline. So he went to see Wiggins.

“I shot well and threw free throws during all my practices,” Kuminga said. “But then – when I got to the game – something changed and I didn’t know what it was. Wiggs is one of the people who helped me. There was a year where Wiggs struggled to shoot free throws. Same situation as me… He just gave me a little tip.”

Wiggins told Kuminga to simplify his routine and avoid unnecessary movements. Since then, Kuminga has taken his free throws more frequently. Catch, dive, shoot. He has shot 6 of 9, 6 of 8, 11 of 14 and 8 of 12 from the charity stripe in his last four games. Overall, that’s 31 of 43 for a 72.1 percent margin, giving Kuminga more points and giving Steve Kerr’s coaching staff more confidence to put the ball in his hands at crucial moments.

“I just think he’s turning things around,” Kerr said.

Without the resting Steph Curry and Draymond Green, Kuminga scored a career-high 34 points on Friday night against the LA Clippers. Kerr beamed after the game and before Saturday’s clash at the way Kuminga revved his engine throughout the night – constantly cutting, hitting and moving with a power that only he possesses on this Warriors’ roster. On several occasions, they managed to isolate Kuminga in space against Ivica Zubac, and he darted past the Clippers’ starting center for several big layups.

“What I like is that he doesn’t settle for the 17-foot pull-up,” Kerr said. “He’s trying to get to the edge. If it’s not there, he throws it out. Then, late in the evening, he’s one of the few who can get a shot off. This is where the mid-range shot comes into play. The process is better.”

With Curry and Green back in the lineup against the Suns, Kuminga matched his career high, making 12 of his 20 shots, including two 3s and almost everything else right at the rim. The Warriors brought him off the bench but used him for much of the game and in key moments in the fourth quarter where he came through.

After the game, Kerr sounded like he was finally settling on a somewhat solidified rotation. He said he plans to still have Curry, Dennis Schröder, Wiggins, Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis in the starting lineup, bringing Kuminga off the bench but giving him “starter minutes.” Over the last two nights, Kuminga played 34 and 37 minutes as a reserve.

This once again feels like a breakthrough for Kuminga, who moves up to a more prominent role in his fourth season. But anyone who has even vaguely followed the Warriors over the last few seasons can remember a few other moments when it looked like Kuminga’s time had come, only to be belittled again. Is this instance different?

“This feels different to me,” Kerr said. “It really does. His game simply has a different power. Last night you saw him running the floor, running through the catch and attacking the rim. Nine rebounds tonight. The contemporary pieces he made. It just feels different. It feels like he’s figuring out how to influence the win, which is obviously the main thing.”

Kerr cited a certain Kuminga reading at the end of the fourth quarter as a sign of growth. The Warriors were up by one with 2:36 left. Kuminga had the best offensive night on the team. He had already hit two 3s. But when Curry drove and pushed it out to him in the corner, Kuminga didn’t take the quick open three-pointer, but instead swung it to Green on the wing, setting up the kind of pin-in screen for a shifting Curry that this Warriors had ‘The system has been working for a decade.

“(Curry) didn’t make it, but this is the game where you have to realize that Steph is your teammate, you see him cutting through the lane, you swing the ball and put a screen on him,” Kerr said. “Those are the plays he makes when he’s doing what he does, going downhill, getting fouled, getting to the rim… Well, the mix, the mix of Steph, Draymond, JK, now it starts “To become really powerful.” I’m just so impressed with JK.”

Here is the property:

We’ll see how long it lasts, but Kerr once again seems determined to use Kuminga in a busy role, meaning more minutes with Green under center than the 13-year undersized veteran would like. This is the only way the lineups can work. Kerr joined Curry, Schröder, Wiggins, Kuminga and Green, who would be considered Golden State’s best five-man unit.

“At the beginning of the season, to be honest, I didn’t want to play five too often,” Green said. “It is difficult. It worked. We were 12-3 or whatever. But if it doesn’t work, you have to see what works. If that’s me at the five, I don’t like it for full games at this point. But I love winning. If it looks like this, then it looks like this. I told the boys we have to win a few games or we’ll all be traded out of here.”

(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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