Jonathan Kuminga TRADE To Boston Celtics?
The Celtics could do worse than shoving Jonathan Kuminga into the Grant Williams TPE, it’s difficult to conceive.
Jonathan Kuminga of the Golden State Warriors has reportedly “lost faith” in Steve Kerr and feels his head coach is preventing him from realising his full potential, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
According to one source who spoke with Charania, missing the last eighteen minutes of the Warriors’ home-court fourth-quarter meltdown, in which Nikola Jokic finished off the Denver Nuggets’ comeback with a buzzer-beater from 35 feet, was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
This season, Kuminga has averaged 12.8 points and 4.1 rebounds in 22.1 minutes of playing time. With a wingspan of six feet eleven inches and a height of six feet eight, he possesses the length and agility to be a defensive Swiss army knife who can excel in a scheme that emphasises switches.
A low-volume three-point shooter, he went from making 37 percent of his 2.2 long-range attempts in the 2022–2023 season to 28 percent of his 2.5 attempts from beyond the arc in 33 games this season. He is currently ranked seventh overall in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Though most of his efforts are made around the hoop, his 58.8 percent shooting % within the arc indicates that he is a dependable finisher. Nevertheless, he is an explosive athlete who is becoming more and more effective at getting to the rim.
This season, the former Seminole from Florida State is making just over $6 million, and Golden State has exercised his $7.6 million club option for 2024–2025. The Boston Celtics will find the potential of signing him even more alluring if he fits under the $6.2 million Grant Williams traded player exception (TPE) and signs a team-friendly contract for the upcoming season.
Even though Kuminga and the Warriors are probably going to part ways before the trade deadline on February 8th, it would be surprising if Boston made a compelling enough offer to sign the 21-year-old.
The Celtics have no interest in shaking up their top six; Payton Pritchard plus picks that project to be late in the first round wouldn’t prove satisfactory, and neither would Sam Hauser. The latter is also an ideal fit in Joe Mazzulla’s three-point-heavy offense.
So, while it’s hard to imagine Boston doing better than fitting Kuminga into the Grant Williams TPE, it’s an improbable landing spot for a young player who would cost a lot to acquire and is looking for far more of a role than he’d have with the Celtics.
