NBA analyst: Steve Kerr's mistakes with James Wiseman guided how he handled Jonathan Kuminga last season
Golden State's James Wiseman missed the entire 2021-22 season because of a major injury to his right knee. Wiseman showed promise in his rookie season in 2020-21, averaging 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21.4 minutes over 39 games (27 starts), but he had a hard time finding his place among a Warriors team that did not live up to expectations.
According to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr regrets the way he handled Wiseman’s rookie season, which influenced his approach with Jonathan Kuminga last season.
“Most coaches have a hard time pushing rookies,” Poole said on the “Dubs Talk” podcast on Wednesday. “I’ve got to think that Steve’s decisions with JK were influenced somewhat by his decisions with James Wiseman the previous year.”
Kuminga surprised many last season, earning a reserve role after displaying long-term potential. He even started three games in the second-round playoff series against the Grizzlies.
Kerr believed Kuminga’s length and athleticism would help at both ends of the court. He made the most of his opportunities. In the playoffs against Memphis, Kuminga dropped 18 points in 18 minutes in Game 3 and 17 points in 24 minutes in Game 5.
However, the Warriors kept him on the bench in Game 6, and he barely played in the Western Conference Finals against the Mavericks and in the NBA Finals against the Celtics.
Poole said the decision had a lot to do with how Kerr used Wiseman:
“Steve has admitted that he rushed things a little bit, that he sort of put James into the fire and maybe thought it wasn’t fair to James to put him out there at times when maybe he should have been learning instead of playing. I think if you’re Steve Kerr, you think, ‘Maybe I put Wiseman on the fast track before he was ready to be on that track. So, I got Kuminga now and I’m not going to do that with him. I’m going to be more deliberate, I am going to play him on a slower track, get him minutes when they’re right, get him on the floor with the right guys and not just put him out there.’”
Golden State’s core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole will be back. However, the Warriors lost key reserves Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr., Juan Toscano-Anderson and Nemanja Bjelica in free agency. They hope young players such as Wiseman, Kuminga and Moses Moody can play a much bigger role and emerge as weapons.
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