As Dalton Knecht prepares for his second NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers must be willing to learn from a cautionary tale: Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors. Kuminga is currently embroiled in one of the most infamous periods in restricted free agency history, with his future undecided with October just over the horizon.
Knecht still has three seasons left on his contract, but if the Lakers don’t learn from where the Warriors went wrong, they could one day find themselves in a similar predicament.
Knecht turned heads during his rookie season, excelling in a similar area as Kuminga long has: As a scorer. Knecht averaged 9.1 points per game and 17.0 per 36 minutes on an efficient slash line of .461/.376/.762, peaking with 37 and 32-point performances, as well as seven with at least 20.
By comparison, Kuminga averaged 9.3 points per game and 19.8 per 36 minutes on .513/.336/.684 shooting during his rookie season, posting five 20-point outings of his own.
Kuminga continued to excel as a scorer over the span of his four seasons with the Warriors, averaging 15.8 points per game and 22.2 per 36 minutes between the past two campaigns. Knecht will look to excel in a similar capacity, refining his skill set and ideally continuing to provide more value as a floor-spacing wing.
The Warriors stifled Kuminga’s growth by prioritizing his weaknesses over his strengths in the pursuit of instant gratification, however, which is a path the Lakers can’t allow themselves to travel down.
Lakers must learn from how Warriors mishandled Jonathan Kuminga
Knecht has his flaws, with defensive inconsistency being the driving force behind his limited playing time. The hope is that he can improve as a defender and thus make it easier to justify his inclusion in JJ Redick’s rotation in 2025-26 and beyond.
The balance that must be struck, however, is one that permits Knecht to make mistakes without his minutes being cut before he can learn from his errors.
That’s the mistake Golden State made with Kuminga, whose own flaws seemed to overshadow his strengths. He played just 16.9 minutes per game as a rookie and 20.8 during his sophomore campaign despite shooting 37.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Kuminga’s jump shot admittedly hasn’t been the same, but he averaged 16.1 points per game on 52.9 percent shooting from the field in 2023-24—and yet he only played 26.3 minutes per contest.
The expectation entering 2024-25 was that Kuminga’s minutes would increase after his career year as a scorer in 2023-24. Unfortunately, he played fewer minutes and received a string of healthy scratches during the regular season and playoffs.
That’s inevitably added fuel to the fire of the current situation, as Kuminga understandably fears that signing a new contract with the Warriors would be tantamount to sacrificing more of his career.
The Lakers have time to avoid this issue, but the seeds of doubt were planted between Kuminga and the Warriors long before he entered free agency. As such, the path to ensuring a bright future can be coordinated with Knecht will rely heavily on maintaining a positive relationship over the full course of his current contract.
Moving forward, the Lakers must do what the Warriors failed to with Kuminga and provide Knecht with stability in his role and development—even when he’s struggling.