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https://theathletic.com/3071699/2022/01/15/steve-kerr-related-jonathan-kuminga-to-shawn-marion-the-warriors-want-him-to-play-similarly/Steve Kerr related Jonathan Kuminga to Shawn Marion. The Warriors want him to play similarlyBy Anthony Slater
Jan 14, 2022
CHICAGO — Jonathan Kuminga was born in 2002. He wasn’t alive during the Bulls’ dynasty run. But he has the internet. He’s seen Michael Jordan highlights. He’s been told that his first NBA coach, Steve Kerr, was part of those Jordan teams. So he came to Kerr with questions Friday morning.
“How many championships did you win?” Kuminga asked. “This was my first time playing in the building. Is it the same building?”
Kuminga moves like an adult on the basketball court, but within the NBA world, he’s a basketball infant, knowing little about the past, learning rudimentary lessons in the present as everyone dreams of his future.
There was another conversation between Kuminga and Kerr recently, days before he exploded for 25 points, three assists and three blocks in Chicago on Friday night, the eye-popping aspect of the Warriors’ 138-96 get-well blowout win over the Bulls.
Kerr brought film to this meeting. He wanted to show Kuminga several examples of the type of half-effort plays that still have him on the fringes of the Warriors’ every night rotation. Too many times this season, Kuminga’s focus and energy have been too spotty.
This late December fast break sequence against the Kings is one of a hundred examples. Kuminga is in the left corner when Sacramento gets the defensive rebound. His job is to sprint back in transition and get into the mix. He instead floats past half court, watches a pass sail over his head to Harrison Barnes and then wanders somewhere near the left block but not close enough to enter the rebounding mix.
What exactly would you say he is doing on this defensive play? He’s not rotating over to help hard on the Chimezie Metu drive, he isn’t banging with Tristan Thompson inside and he’s not even close enough to Buddy Hield to take away the corner 3. He’s just kind of watching the action in no man’s land.
Watch 100 Kuminga minutes from his rookie season and you’ll find several similar sequences. Watch the right 20 minutes and you’ll see shades of a potential two-way superstar. But the Warriors’ veterans will point out when it’s going well for Kuminga, it’s when he is flying around with an attentive ferocity, “using his gifts,” as Kerr said.
“You can kind of throw him out there with any lineup,” Steph Curry said. “It’s just effort and intensity at the end of the day for him. He’s so athletic and has unbelievable upside. But what he does well shines when he plays hard.”
Watch this fourth-quarter play from the Bulls game. Kuminga made 10 of his 12 shots, but this is one of the two misses. He bricks a 3 from the deep left corner. But instead of jogging back upcourt, despite an insurmountable lead, Kuminga doesn’t break stride, reads how the play is materializing and strides into the lane to wipe away a should-be layup.
Not many humans on this planet can get to that block, but the highlight is only made because of the hustle that came before it. Kuminga’s entire highlight package from Friday night in Chicago (click here) is worth viewing. He had three smart assists, a pair of confident 3s and four breathtaking dunks.
But look at one of the simpler of his 10 buckets. It comes in the second quarter during the Warriors’ breakaway run. Jordan Poole scoops up a steal. Kuminga is out in front as the lead Warrior on a 3-on-2 break. He runs the floor hard, finds his way to the left block and eventually gets fed for an up-and-under layup.
The grandest vision of a 2026 version of Kuminga might look something like Pascal Siakam or, if the stroke and handle improve, a Paul George. He seems to have superstar wing ability, if everything develops well. But his game is still unrefined and, on a title contender, the Warriors want him to focus on a simpler template and build out.
What’s a past player comparison? Kerr has one — Shawn Marion.
“The only thing we’ve been emphasizing is running the floor hard,” Kerr said. “Using his gifts, both ways. Every time, sprint the floor hard. When I was in Phoenix as a GM, we had Shawn Marion. One of the best athletes in the league. Every night, he’d just run the floor hard. He wasn’t the greatest 3-point shooter, wasn’t the greatest passer, wasn’t the greatest ballhandler. But he was an All-Star because he just played hard. By running the floor, all kinds of good stuff would happen.
“That’s the first step for JK. To understand his gifts are so unique athletically. They jump out even in an NBA game. Taking advantage of those gifts now allows him to build a foundation, then from there, his shooting will improve, understanding of the game will improve, overall skill level will improve. But what I liked about the last two nights is it’s the hardest I’ve seen him run the floor on consecutive nights.”
Curry had an interesting quote late in his press conference Friday night in Chicago. He was asked about the grander plan of developing this young core under him and the idea that it might elongate his career. In his always diplomatic way, he kind of brushed it off as anything that he — in the middle of a title chase — needs to worry about right now.
“Who knows what the next year, two years, three years looks like,” Curry said. “The organization’s trying to do a good job of balancing all that. But us as players? It doesn’t really come up.”
Translation: It isn’t Curry’s job to worry about how best to make Kuminga become an All-NBA wing in the 2026 season. He is only comfortable with Kuminga being on the floor right now, chasing this title, if he embraces those Marion traits and plays with a relentless style.
“It’s on him to maintain focus on what’s going to make him better,” Curry said. “Whether he’s playing 25 minutes, whether he’s in the G League, whether he’s coming in for spot minutes, that effort that he showed tonight was amazing. He needs to do that every time he has an opportunity to play because every rep he gets is important.”
