He’s still out there as a free agent, still unsigned — an athletic forward who has the ability to do a bit of everything, and the NBA is waiting for him to decide which team he will end up signing with this summer.
No, we’re not talking about LeBron James, although he does fit that description. We’re talking about Jonathan Kuminga.
It has been reported that the Los Angeles Lakers continue to pursue Kuminga. If the Lakers are to land him, it would have to be through a sign-and-trade deal, and the question is what the Atlanta Hawks, Kuminga’s last team, will ask for and how much money Kuminga and his agent will demand on a new contract.
But of course, with Kuminga, the question has always been about his intangibles. Per Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports, one NBA assistant coach warned that if Los Angeles acquires Kuminga, it may not be gaining much.
“He is athletic, he has talent and he is still only 23,” the coach said. “But we saw him a lot before he came in and early in his career. And now, if you watch him, it is hard to find one thing that he has really gotten better at. Rebounding, maybe, he is a little better as as rebounder. But shooting? No. Defense? No. Ballhandling, play-making, any of that, you just never saw an area where it was like, ‘Oh, he added that to his game.’
“They wanted him to find a role and get great at it, and it just did not happen. You just hope somewhere along the line, that gets through to him because the talent is there.”
Kuminga came into the NBA as the No. 7 pick in the 2021 draft. People have always seen All-Star-level potential in him and the ability to be a difference-making two-way wing, but he hasn’t made measurable strides towards getting there.
He has almost always been a subpar 3-point shooter, and while he has all the tools to become a great defender, his defense tends to come and go for whatever reason.
This past season, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who doesn’t exactly seem like the hardest coach for players to get along with, benched Kuminga. The Warriors later traded him to the Hawks, and while he had some flashes of fine play with the Hawks, they haven’t seemed very motivated to keep him.
The Lakers’ final roster need is an athletic starting two-way wing or forward. If Kuminga were to join him, perhaps he would change his ways and fill that need. But it doesn’t seem likely that it will happen.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: NBA assistant coach gives Lakers a warning about Jonathan Kuminga
