Kuminga and moody extensions

[bicycle]

Easily the best game he's played this season.

Yup, Steve finally put him into the right position to succeed.

What a total cop out, real talent just needs to be on the court to make a positive impact.

If he can’t affect winning basketball unless he’s surrounded by specific players then we shouldn’t be paying him much on his contract extension.

Y'all gotta stop reading any positive comment as if it said "Max Him!!!"

[DonaldSanders]

lol, it’s 2024 and people are talking about whether a player is a 4…

I guess I could have said "They had Kuminga playing and defending closer to the basket more" and with more space near the basket on offense.

Bingo. By the way some folks make it out to sound, Kerr is supposed to be out on the court, holding the player's hand, directing him what to do.

Nobody said anything like that, good lord.

Y'all gotta stop reading any positive comment as if it said "Max Him!!!"

Yeah some silly overreactions to my pretty simple comment.

[CDM_Stats]

Easily the best game he's played this season.

Yup, Steve finally put him into the right position to succeed.

What a total cop out, real talent just needs to be on the court to make a positive impact.

If he can’t affect winning basketball unless he’s surrounded by specific players then we shouldn’t be paying him much on his contract extension.

I disagree.. you can put a talented player in a bad lineup for their talents and they might not succeed at all

But in JK's case, he's a lousy perimeter player, cant drive up the middle consistently without getting stripped, and is obviously a bad shooter. Defense-wise, he's always better around the paint than around the arc. When the team plays him to his strengths, he'll be better

That said, I do agree that paying him a lot of money will likely be a mistake, unless both he and the team accept that he's a 4 and needs to play there to be most effective, or maybe at all effective

[whatisacenter]

lol, it’s 2024 and people are talking about whether a player is a 4…

I guess I could have said "They had Kuminga playing and defending closer to the basket more" and with more space near the basket on offense.

Did they?

I seem to remember him bringing the ball down the court, playing on the perimeter and guarding BI. It's not like he is an old school power forward that you put on the block.

[DonaldSanders]

Did they?

I seem to remember him bringing the ball down the court, playing on the perimeter and guarding BI. It's not like he is an old school power forward that you put on the block.

JK had a nice stretch in the 1st when he subbed with a lineup of


Loon
JK
Kyle
Podz
Buddy

Kuminga might start a play on the perimeter, but the point perhaps more is that he is not being played with guys who need to hang around near the basket. Kyle Anderson hung out at the 3P line, something say TJD can't do. Looney did some Draymond-ish screen/pass stuff. When JK went to the hoop, there was more space. Then on defense yes he was covering BI a lot, but he was typically the 2nd biggest player the Pelicans had on the floor, and JK used his body to prevent him from driving. He also spent a bunch of time on Zion.

So yes the Warrior system isn't cookie cutter like some teams or older eras, but I think you get what I'm saying. He plays better guarding bigger players on defense and on offense not having a player that needs to park near the basket. The contrast to me was a lineup like that vs. the starting lineup that opened the year that featured both him and TJD. I don't like that lineup.

[CDM_Stats]

Its not some coincidence that JK had more successful drives, just like the prior 2 years, when he was a 4. Like there are less people in front of him to slow him down because they have to stay on the perimeter, and that since JK is a good downhill passer it opens up the avenues for him to be really effective on offense. JK consistently does better when he plays the 4. The team consistently does better when he plays the 4. The team consistently does worse when he plays the 3

There's literally no argument here, other than JK wants to be a 3. Unless Draymond's opinion carries a ton of weight

[marthafokker]

Hope Greek Freak has enough to involve JK in the trade.

[watch1958]

Hope Greek Freak has enough to involve JK in the trade.

Kerr doesn’t want GA. He wants to trade young guys for Dame. For spacing.

[marthafokker]

Hope Greek Freak has enough to involve JK in the trade.

Kerr doesn’t want GA. He wants to trade young guys for Dame. For spacing.

I forgot. Dame is a center in Kerr's system.

[Scoots1994]

Since chances are JK isn't going anywhere during this season, I wonder if he's going to finally put some consistent play together.

[michaelm]

Yup, Steve finally put him into the right position to succeed.

What a total cop out, real talent just needs to be on the court to make a positive impact.

If he can’t affect winning basketball unless he’s surrounded by specific players then we shouldn’t be paying him much on his contract extension.

I disagree.. you can put a talented player in a bad lineup for their talents and they might not succeed at all

But in JK's case, he's a lousy perimeter player, cant drive up the middle consistently without getting stripped, and is obviously a bad shooter. Defense-wise, he's always better around the paint than around the arc. When the team plays him to his strengths, he'll be better

That said, I do agree that paying him a lot of money will likely be a mistake, unless both he and the team accept that he's a 4 and needs to play there to be most effective, or maybe at all effective

I don't think he is a foundation stone player you can build a team around, so if he wants 50 million a year he should look for it elsewhere, and I doubt it will be forthcoming.

There are very few players who can thrive anywhere regardless of role and fit with team mates, and Kuminga is not among them. This doesn't make him a terrible player or not valuable in the right role. Even the likes of Curry was better/more valuable being played off ball to a greater extent under Kerr/Curry ball rather than playing as a pure PG under a Mark Jackson schema, and Draymond was hardly an elite 3 himself, but great in his heyday as a point center/PF and defensive maven.

[Crazy-Canuck]

What a total cop out, real talent just needs to be on the court to make a positive impact.

If he can’t affect winning basketball unless he’s surrounded by specific players then we shouldn’t be paying him much on his contract extension.

I disagree.. you can put a talented player in a bad lineup for their talents and they might not succeed at all

But in JK's case, he's a lousy perimeter player, cant drive up the middle consistently without getting stripped, and is obviously a bad shooter. Defense-wise, he's always better around the paint than around the arc. When the team plays him to his strengths, he'll be better

That said, I do agree that paying him a lot of money will likely be a mistake, unless both he and the team accept that he's a 4 and needs to play there to be most effective, or maybe at all effective

I don't think he is a foundation stone player you can build a team around, so if he wants 50 million a year he should look for it elsewhere. i

Jk at 5/120 and drays eventual replacement at the 4? I can get behind that. 5/224 to play SF? I'd move him.

[DB23]

I disagree.. you can put a talented player in a bad lineup for their talents and they might not succeed at all

But in JK's case, he's a lousy perimeter player, cant drive up the middle consistently without getting stripped, and is obviously a bad shooter. Defense-wise, he's always better around the paint than around the arc. When the team plays him to his strengths, he'll be better

That said, I do agree that paying him a lot of money will likely be a mistake, unless both he and the team accept that he's a 4 and needs to play there to be most effective, or maybe at all effective

I don't think he is a foundation stone player you can build a team around, so if he wants 50 million a year he should look for it elsewhere. i

Jk at 5/120 and drays eventual replacement at the 4? I can get behind that. 5/224 to play SF? I'd move him.

That we agree on.

I just think the Kerr criticism is off base. Kerr said he should be like Shawn Marion, it was kuminga who said he’s more like Kobe.

Then there is the obvious problem at 4 of how do you start him and dray.

[EvanZ]

I don’t understand why people find it so hard to get the logic here. We know Dray doesn’t want to play the 5 full time. So the only way to get JK on the court is at the 3. This is fundamental construction issue and why I said the team is building around JK. Well, I admit they’re actually choosing (correctly) to build around Dray still but the politics dictate JK starting at the 3. In the playoffs I believe we’ll start Dray at the 5 and move JK to the 4. But in the rs it looks like they just want to make everyone happy. For now.

[Scoots1994]

The 12 man rotation is because the team has good enough depth to do it, but also because they need that big a rotation to get minutes spread around for the players who are best at clogged positions. Dray, JK, Slo-mo included.

I think we need something like 20 games before we can come to conclusions about what this team is capable of. What Wiggins, JK, TJD, Do-Something, Waters, GP2, and Podz can consistently do night in and out are going to determine how far this team can go. If all of them play to what they CAN do the team can scare some people. Realistically half of them won't.

[CDM_Stats]

I don’t understand why people find it so hard to get the logic here. We know Dray doesn’t want to play the 5 full time. So the only way to get JK on the court is at the 3. This is fundamental construction issue and why I said the team is building around JK. Well, I admit they’re actually choosing (correctly) to build around Dray still but the politics dictate JK starting at the 3. In the playoffs I believe we’ll start Dray at the 5 and move JK to the 4. But in the rs it looks like they just want to make everyone happy. For now.

There have been a lot of moves that seemed obvious to do when the game was important, and Kerr always (at least as far as I can remember) goes with what he's been doing all season. 2 meritocracy games, without Curry, aren't enough to make me believe Kerr will have the stones to make a call like that when the games matter most

[michaelm]

I don’t understand why people find it so hard to get the logic here. We know Dray doesn’t want to play the 5 full time. So the only way to get JK on the court is at the 3. This is fundamental construction issue and why I said the team is building around JK. Well, I admit they’re actually choosing (correctly) to build around Dray still but the politics dictate JK starting at the 3. In the playoffs I believe we’ll start Dray at the 5 and move JK to the 4. But in the rs it looks like they just want to make everyone happy. For now.

There have been a lot of moves that seemed obvious to do when the game was important, and Kerr always (at least as far as I can remember) goes with what he's been doing all season. 2 meritocracy games, without Curry, aren't enough to make me believe Kerr will have the stones to make a call like that when the games matter most

I am almost entirely in agreement with you on this matter, but it did all come together in the play-offs in 2022 when he consistently made fairly good choices after being criticised in the regular season, mostly for his rotations particularly of Curry. I consider he was helped by even Klay himself not expecting to immediately return to his former role after two and half years out, and as I recall Klay played a valuable role particularly in the finals, as he may be able to do with the Mavs if he accepts being a role player.

In the most recent previous 2 seasons the only defence I can see for him is that they didn’t have the roster to win anyway. However he wasn’t even in development mode given he played veterans even if they were two way or G league players ahead of young players, and I literally have no idea what he was trying to do other than perhaps maintain what he likely expects to be a life long friendship with Klay, to whom he likely remains grateful as I do for contributing so much to a dynasty. Using the micro unit with 2 crocked/cooked players who were pretty much gassed by the end of games in the crunch remains inexplicable to me.

[KevinMcreynolds]

I don’t understand why people find it so hard to get the logic here. We know Dray doesn’t want to play the 5 full time. So the only way to get JK on the court is at the 3. This is fundamental construction issue and why I said the team is building around JK. Well, I admit they’re actually choosing (correctly) to build around Dray still but the politics dictate JK starting at the 3. In the playoffs I believe we’ll start Dray at the 5 and move JK to the 4. But in the rs it looks like they just want to make everyone happy. For now.

I think Manleavy's trading JK before the deadline and we won't have to worry about it anymore.

[Scoots1994]

I don’t understand why people find it so hard to get the logic here. We know Dray doesn’t want to play the 5 full time. So the only way to get JK on the court is at the 3. This is fundamental construction issue and why I said the team is building around JK. Well, I admit they’re actually choosing (correctly) to build around Dray still but the politics dictate JK starting at the 3. In the playoffs I believe we’ll start Dray at the 5 and move JK to the 4. But in the rs it looks like they just want to make everyone happy. For now.

There have been a lot of moves that seemed obvious to do when the game was important, and Kerr always (at least as far as I can remember) goes with what he's been doing all season. 2 meritocracy games, without Curry, aren't enough to make me believe Kerr will have the stones to make a call like that when the games matter most

I agree, but Kerr has Stotts making those calls like he used to let Brown do, so it's more about making Steve comfortable with him at the helm of rotations and so far so good.

[Onus]

I don’t understand why people find it so hard to get the logic here. We know Dray doesn’t want to play the 5 full time. So the only way to get JK on the court is at the 3. This is fundamental construction issue and why I said the team is building around JK. Well, I admit they’re actually choosing (correctly) to build around Dray still but the politics dictate JK starting at the 3. In the playoffs I believe we’ll start Dray at the 5 and move JK to the 4. But in the rs it looks like they just want to make everyone happy. For now.

There have been a lot of moves that seemed obvious to do when the game was important, and Kerr always (at least as far as I can remember) goes with what he's been doing all season. 2 meritocracy games, without Curry, aren't enough to make me believe Kerr will have the stones to make a call like that when the games matter most

I agree, but Kerr has Stotts making those calls like he used to let Brown do, so it's more about making Steve comfortable with him at the helm of rotations and so far so good.

Scary that we're attributing so much to Stotts and he's the betting favorite to take over for Milwaukee.