There are certainly times when a sapling tree with great potential is snuffed out by a vast canopy, where bigger trees prohibit growth. In these situations, the sapling can righteously throw up its little branches and blame the forest.
Warriors wing Jonathan Kuminga is not this pitiful sapling.
If you asked Warriors head coach Steve Kerr about Kuminga, he would agree. Over the last two years, Kuminga has slipped from the honeymoon phase that begins every NBA career — when potential is more important than the present — into the young adulthood of his career, where the organization makes its hard value judgement on a young player. And what the Warriors deem is likely the truth: Kuminga is a mediocre player at present. Though his potential remains, his lapses and weaknesses amount to something unignorable. His defensive effort and IQ are inconsistent, he hasn’t figured out his jump shot and so on.
But the most important problem is that he feels entitled to a role on the team that he hasn’t earned and thus doesn’t understand how to maximize the great talents of his teammates. As a coach, what are you supposed to do with somebody like Kuminga?
This dynamic is the backdrop for what has transpired over the last five months: a miserable, prolonged stalemate of contract negotiations. Kuminga remains a restricted free agent — unsigned, having rejected a contract that would have guaranteed him $48 million over the next three seasons and audaciously demanding the flexibility of a player option. The Warriors, rightfully, are unwilling to oblige.
I relate to Kuminga’s position. I played varsity high school basketball, and for all I ‘could’ do (which I was sure made me indispensable), I lacked a key intangible: I couldn’t listen to what my coach was telling me. When he told me to stop making difficult passes when an easy one would do, I would say “I know,” not “Yes Coach,” and then proceed to make the same mistake again. My coach told me I was uncoachable, and it took that insult for me to begin to change. But becoming coachable didn’t happen while I played under him. The shift is ongoing and has arisen not solely on the hardwood but on the court of life.
A transformation is needed if Kuminga doesn’t want to blow up every situation he’s in. And it’s certainly required if he wants to have leverage in contract negotiations. He lacks self awareness. What he must do if he wants to survive in the NBA is understand that he is a role player — not a star — and that he must contribute to winning basketball. That all begins with an attention that may not come instinctually to him. It certainly didn’t for me. I imagine Kuminga’s relationship with Kerr has some similarity to mine with my coach — it’s certainly bad enough that Kuminga is losing the faith of those who once believed in him, (though it still remains enough for the team to offer him a contract at all).
But restoring the organization’s faith (and only then earning a larger contract) can only be achieved if Kuminga decides to be the player the team needs.
Whether he will ever see the necessity of this shift remains to be seen.
