If you’ve been catching any of the past few livestreams dating back to the first of two OKC games at Chase Center, you know I’ve been saying two huge areas of team improvement — other than simply the return of Draymond Green — are turnovers (of course, but also the timing of them and them coming in bunches) and the roller-coaster ride that is Jonathan Kuminga, who sometimes seems to have killer instinct and sometimes doesn’t.
Btw if you’re wondering, this sentiment of mine goes back exactly to the moment in the second half of the OKC game when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had four fouls, Kuminga got the ball in the post against him, and JK inexplicably threw the ball back outside.
In the process of doing an Xs and Os video for the loss to the Suns and in advance of tonight’s Spurs game, I concluded that there wasn’t as much to learn after when Chris Paul got ejected, as there was with the six turnovers in the span of two minutes and 11 seconds right before the ejection. Yep, you heard that right: SIX turnovers in almost two minutes! That’s unheard of, but then again, it’s who we’ve been for a while.
But the other underlying theme that could have a direct impact on wins and losses is Kuminga’s up-and-down performances. Obviously, there are a million other things one can nitpick, but if I listed out the Top Two things to improve heading into the Spurs game tonight, for me it’s the turnovers and JK. Btw here’s the link for tonight’s live chat:
So thinking about JK as the topic for the next breakdown video, I went back to the previous game against the Spurs, which was the last preseason game. What did I find? A tremendous showing for Jonathan, obviously, if you remember.
And so it got me thinking, this could be the game that gets Kuminga going, hopefully for the rest of the season. The other thing that’s going on that no one is talking about is that the Warriors have had an odd, far-from-diverse, very difficult schedule so far (2nd-most difficult, according to a commenter on our live chats, although I’ve yet to confirm that by finding out where they saw that posted). But that is for another post coming up, maybe — we have three straight days of no Warriors games coming up after the Spurs, which incidentally is perfect timing for Draymond’s return; so I think we’ll be clicking in Sacramento that night.
Back to Jonathan, along those lines, my guess is that the schedule hasn’t been that great for JK, let alone the whole team. You’re facing bigger lineups and certain matchups that just aren’t as physically or, more importantly, mentally advantageous for you as a youngster.
I think back to when I played a bevy of Asian-American leagues and tournaments in my 20s. There were just some teams that I hated playing against, whether they were more veteran, taller, more athletic (not really a concern for JK, obviously), or had more bruisers. If I had a string of those opponents, I might go through a slump. By the same token, if we played a few younger teams or ones that had less chemistry for a stretch of games, look out.
Also, if the game wasn’t as high stakes, such as a league game (compared to, say, a tournament semifinal game) then I might have better production. I wasn’t an “elite” player at all at the most prestigious tournaments, unfortunately. Sometimes I wilted under the pressure of the bright lights or more talented opponents. And so if we played squads that had no reputation yet, or ones that even just looked like they weren’t as good as us, I probably ended up having a better game, having more confidence, more killer instinct.
As such, let me drop this: having killer instinct is all relative. You hope it translates to the highest planetary level a la Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but I understand if it doesn’t. Been there, done that. So the key is to keep translating that at the next level. Think Luke Skywalker when he told Wedge Antilles, “I used to bull’s-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They’re not much bigger than two meters,” at the Death Star attack strategy meeting.
Maybe Kuminga looks at the Spurs and, whether he knows it or not, his brain tells him, “Oh, I got these guys.”
Here are all of my notes on him from the previous game against San Antonio (I have to do this work anyways for the forthcoming Xs and Os video, as it will focus less on the previous game and more on JK). Underneath that is the live chat itself. I’ve been falling way behind on the transcripts, so I apologize for that, most times (especially after wins) I’ll post a lot of that type of stuff in the interview Description and Comments with timestamps, so you can find some of those transcripts there. Wish me luck on finishing this video for this whole article, on what Kuminga did against the Spurs last time, what he did poorly versus the Suns (plus the six turnovers by the Dubs in Phoenix) in a new Xs and Os video before the Spurs game tonight [UPDATE: unlikely to happen, as I was dealing with some issues with Thai food I ate on Thanksgiving 😩 — which also caused delays in posting this article]:
2m44 Q1 JK first step right side by Sochan
2m15 Q1 JK to GP2 corner 3
1m50 Q1 JK uses GP2 to turn corner
0m22 Q1 JK corner 3 very little dip
12m00 Q2 JK immediate post up, feed by CP
9m45 Q2 JK oreb assist to CP corner
8m35 Q2 JK fake and hi arc over Wemby
7m50 Q2 JK screens out CP’s man, CP says thank you and pats JK’s head
7m44 Q2 JK stays in with starters minus CP
6m50 Q2 JK skies for dreb over Sochan
6m00 Q2 Klay nice base vs Zach post
5m45 Q2 JK nice screen for Steph who gets swatted by Wemby
4m45 Q2 JK blocks Keldon, tips the oreb that Loon got
8m15 Q3 JK good foul on reb vs Wemby
7m16 Q3 JK should’ve shot that over Zach (only mistake so far)
6m52 Q3 McGruder nice oreb tip
6m45 Q3 JK bad lead pass to Rodney only mistake
5m22 Q3 JK good D on Sochan leads to fastbreak
5m10 Q3 JK nice poke (CoJo couldn’t get it)
1m37 Q3 JK finds CoJo after getting stopped
1m17 Q3 GP2 acrobatics to JK, only in preseason! 13-5-4 and 4/6 very Kawhi-like
0m07 Q3 JK behind-the-back on Osman on the break — HOW DOES A THIRD YEAR KID DO THAT NOT NAMED JORDAN POOLE (oops Wemby can, Bruce says Paolo and Franz Wagner)
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