Kawakami: Jonathan Kuminga’s Jaylen Brown comp and other playoff points for the Warriors
Interesting perspective. Saying he’s kinda like PJ Washington now. Maybe, just maybe can grow in the direction of Jaylen Brown. Needs to work on being more than a one dimensional scorer and team defense.
If jk is closer to pj Washington then this franchise is fucked. Even if he’s brown it’s not exactly promising.
paranoidmoonduck
I understand that TK is just trying to compare Kuminga to guys who are still in the playoffs, but the PJ comp is bad. Washington is a small stretch big who’s offensive diet is majority assisted catch & shoot 3 pointers.
Kuminga just had his best offensive season by cutting down on his shots outside of 10ft and had a lot of weak-side rim attacks.
That doesn’t make him much like Jaylen Brown either, honestly. Even young Jaylen Brown was a better and more varied offensive creator than JK has been.
Aaron Gordon or Shawn Marion are almost certainly better comps for Kuminga’s game and where it needs to go. No accident that those are both guys who delivered a lot of defensive value, which is something he needs to do. He’s almost certainly not a #1 offensive creator, probably not a #2, but a good #3 rim pressure guy who needs to be better at playmaking out of his drives for his skills to really benefit the team fully.
bobbyvee
Can someone copy and paste the article? There seems to be a paywall.
Brown has been an important player for a long time, in other words. He won the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals victory over [Indiana](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/team/pacers/) with a 29.8 scoring average, 51.7 percent shooting, that game-saving 3-pointer in Game 1 and great defense, but again, it shouldn’t have been too shocking. Brown is a really good player. He was Boston’s most dangerous threat to the Warriors in the 2022 finals, for instance. He’s even better now.
But this was not a quick journey. Brown was a good defensive player and explosive presence pretty much from the outset in Boston, but he had dribbling, decision-making and consistency issues for much of the early part of his career, when he was plopped onto a playoff-ready roster that soon added [Jayson Tatum](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/player/jayson-tatum-3O7MInr4zV5KKhZ5/), which only ramped up the expectations. Brown had an obvious pathway to stardom, but it wasn’t always clear whether he was going to take it.
Hmm, does that remind you of anybody? When I watch Brown these days and try to think of a younger player who could turn into a similar kind of 1B top-line performer — somebody who can guard just about anybody and take a lesser offensive role to complement a superstar but also have dynamic takeover periods on his own — how can I not think of Kuminga?
Brown is listed at 6-foot-6, 220 pounds and was the third pick out of Cal in 2016.
Kuminga is listed at 6-7, 225 pounds and was the seventh pick from the G League in 2021.
Yep, this is getting more and more interesting. So let’s take a look at both players’ third-season statistical lines; that’s Brown in 2018-19 when he was 22 and Kuminga this season at 21.
• In 2018-19, Brown started 25 of the 74 regular-season games he played, averaged 25.9 minutes, 13.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and shot 46.5 percent overall, 34.4 percent from 3-point distance. He had a 13.6 PER and produced 2.9 win shares.
• In 2023-24, Kuminga started 46 of 74 regular-season games he played, averaged 26.3 minutes, 16.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and shot 52.9 percent overall, 32.1 percent from 3-point distance. He had a 17.0 PER and produced 4.6 win shares.
Obviously, there’s no guarantee that Kuminga will take anything close to the same fourth-year jump that happened for Brown, when he zoomed to 33.9 minutes, 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists per game and shot 48.1 percent overall and 38.2 percent from 3-point distance. Then the following season, his fifth in the NBA, made his first All-Star team.
But again, I can’t think of too many other 21-to-23-year-olds who *might* be able to do this. Just among wings, I’ll put Wagner, Barnes, Murphy III, McDaniels, Green, Braun, Murray, Sharpe, Thompsom twins, Coulibaly, Jaquez into the category with Kuminga — some placed here much more generously than others. Still, that’s a pretty short list, and there’s no way half of these 12 players will ever be as good as Brown is now. (Edwards, Banchero, Williams are 23-or-under young wings already at that level or above.)
So if I’m the Warriors, I’m very, very reluctant to even think of trading Kuminga. Two-way wings are gold in the NBA. Even 1.5-way wings are very valuable. You just don’t find many players who have a few decent seasons under their belt and yet haven’t come close to touching their potential NBA ceiling. Kuminga might never get there. He can be frustrating to watch. It’s frustrating for him, too, because he wants to play 35 minutes a game right now. But the frustration isn’t because Kuminga can’t become just as valuable as Brown is right now. It’s because, among about only 10 or 11 other guys in the league, he still can. And if Kuminga doesn’t ever quite get there, he can still be a better version of P.J. Washington right now. After his third season, Jonathan Kuminga is on an intriguing trajectory for the Warriors.
4 Comments
If jk is closer to pj Washington then this franchise is fucked. Even if he’s brown it’s not exactly promising.
I understand that TK is just trying to compare Kuminga to guys who are still in the playoffs, but the PJ comp is bad. Washington is a small stretch big who’s offensive diet is majority assisted catch & shoot 3 pointers.
Kuminga just had his best offensive season by cutting down on his shots outside of 10ft and had a lot of weak-side rim attacks.
That doesn’t make him much like Jaylen Brown either, honestly. Even young Jaylen Brown was a better and more varied offensive creator than JK has been.
Aaron Gordon or Shawn Marion are almost certainly better comps for Kuminga’s game and where it needs to go. No accident that those are both guys who delivered a lot of defensive value, which is something he needs to do. He’s almost certainly not a #1 offensive creator, probably not a #2, but a good #3 rim pressure guy who needs to be better at playmaking out of his drives for his skills to really benefit the team fully.
Can someone copy and paste the article? There seems to be a paywall.
**Can** [**Jonathan Kuminga**](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/player/jonathan-kuminga-6xXExjD2A4eIrB46/) **turn into some version of** [**Jaylen Brown**](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/player/jaylen-brown-EAiBkBxmqCrObLg7/)**?**
It’s hard to believe that this is Brown’s eighth pro season and he’s about to start his 22nd playoff series. He’s still only 27 and he’s already played 119 postseason games, which is 12th among players who were on an [NBA](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/) roster this season. Every single [player above him on this list](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nba-active-players-with-most-playoff-games-played) is at least 32.
Brown has been an important player for a long time, in other words. He won the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals victory over [Indiana](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/team/pacers/) with a 29.8 scoring average, 51.7 percent shooting, that game-saving 3-pointer in Game 1 and great defense, but again, it shouldn’t have been too shocking. Brown is a really good player. He was Boston’s most dangerous threat to the Warriors in the 2022 finals, for instance. He’s even better now.
But this was not a quick journey. Brown was a good defensive player and explosive presence pretty much from the outset in Boston, but he had dribbling, decision-making and consistency issues for much of the early part of his career, when he was plopped onto a playoff-ready roster that soon added [Jayson Tatum](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/player/jayson-tatum-3O7MInr4zV5KKhZ5/), which only ramped up the expectations. Brown had an obvious pathway to stardom, but it wasn’t always clear whether he was going to take it.
Hmm, does that remind you of anybody? When I watch Brown these days and try to think of a younger player who could turn into a similar kind of 1B top-line performer — somebody who can guard just about anybody and take a lesser offensive role to complement a superstar but also have dynamic takeover periods on his own — how can I not think of Kuminga?
Brown is listed at 6-foot-6, 220 pounds and was the third pick out of Cal in 2016.
Kuminga is listed at 6-7, 225 pounds and was the seventh pick from the G League in 2021.
Yep, this is getting more and more interesting. So let’s take a look at both players’ third-season statistical lines; that’s Brown in 2018-19 when he was 22 and Kuminga this season at 21.
• In 2018-19, Brown started 25 of the 74 regular-season games he played, averaged 25.9 minutes, 13.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and shot 46.5 percent overall, 34.4 percent from 3-point distance. He had a 13.6 PER and produced 2.9 win shares.
• In 2023-24, Kuminga started 46 of 74 regular-season games he played, averaged 26.3 minutes, 16.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and shot 52.9 percent overall, 32.1 percent from 3-point distance. He had a 17.0 PER and produced 4.6 win shares.
Obviously, there’s no guarantee that Kuminga will take anything close to the same fourth-year jump that happened for Brown, when he zoomed to 33.9 minutes, 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists per game and shot 48.1 percent overall and 38.2 percent from 3-point distance. Then the following season, his fifth in the NBA, made his first All-Star team.
But again, I can’t think of too many other 21-to-23-year-olds who *might* be able to do this. Just among wings, I’ll put Wagner, Barnes, Murphy III, McDaniels, Green, Braun, Murray, Sharpe, Thompsom twins, Coulibaly, Jaquez into the category with Kuminga — some placed here much more generously than others. Still, that’s a pretty short list, and there’s no way half of these 12 players will ever be as good as Brown is now. (Edwards, Banchero, Williams are 23-or-under young wings already at that level or above.)
So if I’m the Warriors, I’m very, very reluctant to even think of trading Kuminga. Two-way wings are gold in the NBA. Even 1.5-way wings are very valuable. You just don’t find many players who have a few decent seasons under their belt and yet haven’t come close to touching their potential NBA ceiling. Kuminga might never get there. He can be frustrating to watch. It’s frustrating for him, too, because he wants to play 35 minutes a game right now. But the frustration isn’t because Kuminga can’t become just as valuable as Brown is right now. It’s because, among about only 10 or 11 other guys in the league, he still can. And if Kuminga doesn’t ever quite get there, he can still be a better version of P.J. Washington right now. After his third season, Jonathan Kuminga is on an intriguing trajectory for the Warriors.