Why former NBA champ believes Kuminga can be next great Warriors star originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Jonathan Kuminga oozes talent. That much is clear to the Warriors and anyone who has watched the explosive 22-year-old play over his first four NBA seasons.
But can he put it all together and develop into the next homegrown star the Warriors needs him to be? His play over the last season-plus has been promising, but there still is room for the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft to grow.
However, three-time NBA champion B.J. Armstrong believes the Warriors’ developmental infrastructure is more than enough to help Kuminga further elevate his game.
“I can assure you this, that young man Kuminga is a very talented player,” Armstrong told 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” on Wednesday. “And I don’t know how long it will be before he becomes a professional, meaning he will be a 20-point scorer night in and night out. And he has an excellent example in Steph Curry. He doesn’t have to look far to see what a professional looks like. He doesn’t have to look far to see how that looks on the defensive end with a Draymond Green. He doesn’t have far to listen to someone like a Steve Kerr.”
Ultimately, it falls on Kuminga to choose which development path he wants to pursue. If he chooses correctly, in Armstrong’s eyes, the sky is the limit for the talented, young forward.
“But in the end, we have to have a system in place where the young person says ‘I can take the easy path, or I can choose the hard path,’” Armstrong explained. “Because the three people I just named, they chose hard and we see the results.
“If Kuminga chooses hard, if he just makes that one choice in life, he’ll be the next great Golden State Warrior to come through there in the line of great players and great talents. The Chris Mullins, the Tim Hardaways, etc. He will join those guys if he chooses hard. And right now, he’s a young player, and he can go right or he can go left, but this isn’t a talent issue from what I can see from afar.”
After a breakout campaign with the Warriors last year, Kuminga got off to a slow start this season before finding his groove in the weeks before suffering a “significant” right ankle sprain on Jan. 4 that is expected to sideline him at least two additional weeks.
In 32 games (10 starts) this season, Kuminga is averaging a career-high 16.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game on 45.9-percent shooting from the field and 34.5 percent from 3-point range in 26 minutes per contest.
With the floundering Warriors (19-20) in desperate need of a boost both now and in a post-Curry future, Kuminga could be the short- and long-term answer they have been looking for.
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