2024 JK Thread

[floppymoose]

Starting it a little early. I continue to see growth from him. Hoping it continues. It would be great for GS to have a forward who was both effective and athletic.

[HiRez]

He's looked pretty good recently, more under control and less volatile. I mean not "stable", I think he's always going to be a more volatile type of player, but some can thrive amid chaos. Recently I see him getting better looks at the rim, either dunks or passing it back out, instead of running head-first into congestion and turning it over, or pulling up for low-% contested midrange shots. And his 3 ball is finally coming around, which helps his whole offensive game as long as he doesn't fall too in love with it.

On the defensive side, he still has issues, but he's biting on fewer fakes, and looking to go get rebounds a bit more. Turning the ball over less. Still fouling too much, but his job is generally aggressively hounding the best players in the league (SGA, Kawhi, Booker, etc.) so that comes with the territory to some extent. He has terrible shot blocking instincts (which is sort of shocking with his size, athleticism, and quickness), and I actually think he's much better off when not trying to block shots but concentrating on staying in front of his defender.

Last 6 games:

23.2 min
57.4 FG%, 50.0 3P%, 57.9 FT%, 65.6 TS%
15.2 pts, 5.3 reb, 0.8 ast, 0.2 blk, 0.8 stl, 1.2 to, 2.7 pf

Generally better, but still not great. And probably not good enough to make a meaningful difference to this team in the short term. On the other hand, he is I think no longer obviously a major problem that's weighing the team down. Biggest question is can he maintain this and continue to build incrementally on it from game to game instead of regressing?

[whatisacenter]

This thread probably guarantees he gets traded!

[floppymoose]

Asking him to build on this "game to game" is way too tough a standard. A half season is the granularity I am evaluating him on. He is very young and does not have a lot of basketball experience.

[CDM_Stats]

He's playing to his strengths more.. ideally the weaknesses would be shored up but its not looking likely at this point. He's going to be a problematic player off-ball, just doesnt have that feel. But his on-ball defense bounced back last game (though it should be noted that LAC is iso heavy, which is much easier), he's got a total of 5 TOs in the past 4 games (including just 1 TO in each of the past 2 while shooting 11/20).. its reduced his assist numbers but dont think we should be extremely concerned with Kuminga being a creator. And the 3 ball has rebounded in a big way,

They need to lean into what he is, and what he does well, and hope the off-ball understanding stuff comes up over time. But as noted in the other thread, continue to hold him accountable. One half game of benching and he's been a lot more focused. Next step is him learning to do split-action screens, reading the timing and when to break out/where to go. I think that's the best way to get him involved in helping teammates.. the risk/reward there seems better than any of the alternatives

[HiRez]

Asking him to build on this "game to game" is way too tough a standard. A half season is the granularity I am evaluating him on. He is very young and does not have a lot of basketball experience.

Sure, not everyone can have a good game every game, problem for him though is if he's bad for 2, 3, 4 games, Kerr is going to bench his ass and he's not going to play at all. That won't happen to Steph or Klay or Draymond, but it will happen to him. He's got to be more consistent and while it may not be fair for someone so young, it's also a problem of his own making to some extent because he loses focus and forgets to do the simple things at times, like boxing out, going after rebounds instead of watching the ball from a distance, losing track of his man or playing off him too far he has to sprint at him to contest, fouling a 15% 3-point shooter behind the line, etc.

So yes, I think consistency is a key for him. Maybe game to game taken literally is a bit too much, but close to it. And actually, he needs better consistency even quarter to quarter. He's been better at it lately, but he's shown a propensity to look very bad in the first half, and sort of get it together in the second half if he gets the rope. It's nice he can correct, but those awful first halves leave a bad taste in the mouth, including probably for Steph and Kerr.

The Warriors can't afford even bad quarters from anyone right now, the margin for error isn't there. Again, Kuminga has recently been far from the biggest problem on the team and kudos to him for that. I'm a fan of the kid, I'm rooting for him to get it together. And maybe he is but I think he needs to show out sooner rather than later in order to be seen as a key piece of the team's future. Otherwise he'll be dumped like Wiseman and Poole as a low-value trade throw-in. Of course if they blow it all up and get rid of Kerr then the calculus changes, but I don't expect any of that.

EDIT: I've been really hard on Kerr and I think the way he handled Kuminga and Moody last year was awful, but I should give him a little credit. He is giving both of them some more opportunities this year, as well as Podz and occasionally TJD. Not enough on any of them for my liking (not to even mention Garuba) but he is finally giving the kids some chances to play in real (non-garbage) situations, including closing games, so there's a slight thawing of his legendary inflexibility on display and it's nice to see.

[wco81]

If he was able to shoot over 36% from 3 on at least 4.5 3PAs, a lot of the JK criticism would be muted.

His defense wouldn't necessarily be better but he'd score probably closer to 20 PPG and it's basically a make or miss league.

How likely is it that he improves his shooting and overall offense? Probably not very likely. He's still very young but he's still only playing about 20-21 MPG, though his FGAs are trending higher without him able to sustain at least his best efficiency season.

I know they chose JK when Wagner was still on the board. Supposedly because of higher ceiling. Well Wagner is only 10 months older and he's now averaging over 20 PPG, though his efficiency is down this year.

https://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/4566434/franz-wagner

Interesting though, JK is getting 3.7 FTAs while playing about 60% of the MPG of Wagner and getting about 60% of the FGAs while Wagner is at 3.6 FTAs.

But JK is under 70% FT% while Franz has been over 80%.


Fire the whole scouting department.

[Onus]

He played fine in the last game.

Think he needs to get out in transition more so he can attack a retreating defender more often.

He hasn't been breaking the offense as often to go iso early in the shot clock, so that's been good. His 3s have been falling a bit more even while defenders are closing out so that's good. He seems to be adjusting offensively so that's a good sign.

Defensively he was fine, but he's still really only an on ball defender and was able to hold his own.

[floppymoose]

en fuego!

[floppymoose]

I know they chose JK when Wagner was still on the board. Supposedly because of higher ceiling. Well Wagner is only 10 months older and he's now averaging over 20 PPG, though his efficiency is down this year.

Fire the whole scouting department.

GSW with JK ON vs OFF: +7.5
ORL with Wagner ON vs OFF: -3.0

[Jester_]

The frustration I sometimes feel when watching Kumbuckets reminds me of how I used to feel watching Anthony Randolph

He's shown better consistency lately so there's reason for some hope. He just needs to focus on playing within himself and his teammates, and not try to be Michael Jordan all the time.

[Nvnervous45]

What kuminga has over anthony randolph is more aggressiveness. Bad comparison

[Warriors Analyst]

The frustration I sometimes feel when watching Kumbuckets reminds me of how I used to feel watching Anthony Randolph

He's shown better consistency lately so there's reason for some hope. He just needs to focus on playing within himself and his teammates, and not try to be Michael Jordan all the time.

Corey Maggette is an interesting comp for Kuminga. Similar playstyle, but because Kuminga was nurtured in this environment, there's still some hope long-term that he can take the positive parts of the Maggette experience -- bruising physicality and explosiveness towards the rim -- and use them for Morally Sound Basketball.

[Nvnervous45]

Maybe magette with better hops and finishing ability due to his greater size and athletic ability.
A magette ++ maybe.

[floppymoose]

JK was a better passer the first time he ever touched a basketball than Maggette ever was.

Watch on YouTube

[whatisacenter]

What is with the negativity over Kuminga after these last few games. Dude played pretty well tonight. He was active on the glass keeping balls alive when he wasn't rebounding them and had the biggest stop of the night on Tatum. I much prefer watching this team with him replacing Draymond in the starting lineup.

[Nvnervous45]

Me too. Draymond with looney was unbearable. Two guys who couldn't shoot and with wiggins off, just unwatchable.

[CDM_Stats]

JK and Draymond don’t play the same position, and less Draymond = more CP3

[Nvnervous45]

Another thing I think that's underrated in basketball is creativity. Podz has it. Tjd has it. But draymond was getting stale in his mindset. There are only so many times he can bring the ball up and dump it off to curry before other teams are on to you. Dray is too close to the flame. He needs some time to unwind and get back to having fun out there.

[Nvnervous45]

The 1st team did just fine with podz, curry, and thompson playing off each other. All three can shoot and podz and curry can pass.