By Ernesto Cova,Yardbarker
Copyright yardbarker
At this point, it’s become painfully evident that Jonathan Kuminga doesn’t want to play for the Golden State Warriors.
He’s lost trust in the organization, and he feels he deserves a bigger role, even though he has repeatedly failed to make the most of his opportunities in the Bay Area. Warriors owner Joe Lacob has always been protective of him, which is perhaps the only reason they never traded him. However, even though Steve Kerr doesn’t seem to be fond of him as a player, the Warriors still hold hopes that he might become a star.
Why have Golden State Warriors held onto Jonathan Kuminga?
Ironically, that’s the reason they don’t want to send him to a divisional rival. According to NBA insider Sam Amick of The Athletic, they just don’t want him to blossom with the Sacramento Kings.
“There is a sense from some people involved that there’s a real reluctance not only to finally ‘quit him,’ if you will, but also to see him go up the road to another Northern California NBA team,” Amick said. “It’s run by a guy in Vivek Ranadive, who used to be with the Warriors. And what if Kuminga blows up and becomes a total star?”
Again, Amick reports that Lacob believes Kuminga can still turn out to be the two-way superstar the Warriors hoped he’d be.
“From a personal ownership dynamic level, there are some folks that feel like that could be playing a small part. Again, that’s not really relevant, because these other things are the real obstacles. But I mean, Joe—like a lot of owners—is very involved, too,” he added.
Essentially, the Warriors don’t trust him enough to give him a long leash and let him grow through his mistakes there. However, they don’t want him to do well somewhere else, either.
Golden State Warriors need to cut Jonathan Kuminga loose
Kuminga has been very difficult to deal with since he arrived in the Bay Area. But, to be fair, it’s hard to feel differently about this organization when it seems to be actively trying to sabotage his development somewhere else.
The Warriors and Kuminga are at a stalemate, and someone will have to blink first to reach an amicable solution to this saga. He doesn’t want to be there, and the Warriors could use the cap space to find players they’d actually want to play.
