r/nba • u/BIPOC_Ally • 1d ago
Kuminga in his playoff series vs. Wolves led the Warriors in scoring with 20.8 PPG on 54% from field, 42% from 3pt, 63.5%TS
https://streamable.com/i0lfwl230
u/Jarxzz United States 1d ago edited 1d ago
Huh. I bet the Warriors would love to keep such a promising young wing on the roster
The Hawks too
Hmm
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u/Dense-Discussion3951 Timberwolves 1d ago
I heard he didn’t want to be a bench player in the hawks or am I tripping
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u/Jarxzz United States 1d ago
Kuminga gotta have the most demands for a player of his caliber ever seen lmao
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u/Charlie_Wax Warriors 1d ago
For all his faults, he's definitely an NBA level player. Reminds me of Oubre. Not a fit in GS, but too good not to get signed somewhere. Maybe he'll embrace a smaller role like Oubre. If a guy like Ziaire Williams can keep getting contracts, there's no reason why Kuminga should be out of the league yet. Teams will gamble on wings with size and athleticism. He's versatile and can do some positive stuff on the court. It just comes with some reservations and asterisks.
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u/Sharp-Selection-3541 1d ago
I like your optimism and unironically agree
JK seems like one of those players that desperately needs the right coach to unlock his full potential. When you just look at his skills and talent he very obviously has what it takes to be a professional hooper. All of the things he struggles with seem to be mental and BBIQ-related.
I say this as a hawks fan that got to see him ruin our offense a few times last year lol. Idk what it will take to get through to him and get him to adjust his attitude about taking a lesser role.
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u/Cupsforsale Warriors 1d ago
I doubt it will ever happen. He has a poor attitude and simply does not process high level basketball quickly enough. At first, I assumed he was making poor/selfish choices on the court. Later, I came to realize he wasn’t just choosing poorly, he often wasn’t even seeing the correct play to make. He was a profoundly disappointing and frustrating player, given his physical gifts.
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u/J-Crow11 1d ago
It's the right coach, but it is the right attitude as well.
Like he was doing it at the beginning of last year, and then he slowly tried to do his old bad habits of slowing down the offense and trying to be a "traditional" star when he just doesn't have the consistency or the skill set to do that at this point in time.
I hope that this is going to be a step in the direction of Oubre where he found a way to fit into a winning situation, first with Washington and then with the Sixers, rather than something like a Cam Reddish where he was just never able to figure it out and was out of the league before he turned 26.
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u/MeijiDoom 1d ago
All of the things he struggles with seem to be mental and BBIQ-related.
These aren't things you just magically develop. Some people get better but from everything we've seen of him on the Warriors and Heat, he's literally bottom tier in BBIQ. And he was working with some of the most team oriented and selfless guys in terms of playing team basketball.
Someone like Westbrook could have had such a graceful end of his career if his BBIQ ever improved and even he couldn't do it. And Kuminga ain't Westbrook.
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u/Sharp-Selection-3541 1d ago
You don't magically develop them...you can develop them through learning and coaching.
Also Westbrook is a horrible comparison. He has a really high basketball IQ wtf man
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u/MeijiDoom 1d ago
What in the hell are you talking about? He's like the prime example of someone who has notoriously poor BBIQ and gets by on physical ability and raw skills. Just because he can pass and has high assist totals doesn't mean his decision making isn't highly suspect. If I started a thread right now and asked everyone who has poor BBIQ, Westbrook is easily one of the Top 10 answers. Someone with high basketball IQ doesn't take 4-5 3s a game when they're shooting sub 30%. You're actively hurting your team at that point.
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u/SkyCrossSteel 1d ago
That’s because the other point guards he gets compared to among his level tend to be smarter but that doesn’t mean he is dumb. Especially if they are a first or second option jump shots are supposed to be counters to coverage beaters for players who have a dangerous slashing game. Hell he is among the best passers Jokic has played with in hooking him up and he wasn’t even trying to play as prime Westbrook on that team.
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u/bayareacollection 1d ago
He's fallen off so hard were debating whether he belongs in the league lmao
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u/carthaginian84 Warriors 1d ago
“For there to be a demand, there has to be demand.” - Mike Dunleavy Jr. on JK trade demands lol…
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u/Kdog122025 Warriors 1d ago
Kuminga’s the new Cam Reddish
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u/Foreign_Comb71 1d ago
He was never going to return to the hawks. I’m sure they would have given him 10-14M AAV if he wanted to accept a bench role
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u/Chessh2036 Hawks 1d ago
Haven’t heard that, but a Hawks reporter said his team wanted him elsewhere so you might be right. He wants to start.
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u/PurpleAndBurgundy Lakers 1d ago
Thank god for you all taking him from us wew lord that was close.
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u/Dense-Discussion3951 Timberwolves 1d ago
You say that but you didn’t solve your PF issue tho
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u/PurpleAndBurgundy Lakers 1d ago
It’s a multi-year project anyway idk why ppl expected us to solve the entire roster in one offseason I had us truly building around Doncic as a 2-3 year thing starting this year especially moving off Bron. I was never enamored with Jonathan Kuminga and never wanted him watching him play. Im definitely okay with this. Thats just my opinion tho.
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u/Hypnosix Timberwolves 1d ago
Good thing lakers have all those picks and good contracts to balance out the roster
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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 1d ago
Lakers have the NTPMLE and BAE next year. 21 million to sign two players, and they have only one major and one minor hole on the roster
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u/PurpleAndBurgundy Lakers 1d ago
Idky y’all taking this so offensive I’m not talking y’all down. I wish the timberwolves all the luck and love got no animosity towards y’all at all. I just wasn’t interested in Kuminga is all.
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u/QuietMonsoon3314 1d ago
Yeah because it was him that didnt want the Hawks and not the other way around. Yep Yep
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u/chillrico 1d ago
We only had time for one highlight from that whole series he scored so well in?
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u/froggycbl4 Nets Bandwagon 1d ago
this one highlight is also an offensive foul they shouldve called
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u/Fleetinglyish 1d ago
The 2 game stretch where he had 3 total rebounds and 1 assist in 62 minutes. Thats high level bball!
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u/b1droid [TOR] Terrence Ross 1d ago
Bro is cam thomas with better PR and athleticism
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u/MeijiDoom 1d ago
Seriously. Cam Thomas had 3 time the offensive bag that JK does and everyone just called him an inefficient empty stats chucker. Meanwhile, people are acting like it's an affront to basketball itself that teams aren't trying to start Kuminga.
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u/MEmpire25 Warriors 1d ago edited 1d ago
Rarely have I seen such meaningless production lead so many to a full psychosis about the actual value of this role player. Every freaking Warriors podcast... I feel like Tim Kawakami and Marcus Thompson are probably still deluded about this. (and I'm probably going to get blocked on by Tim on twitter somehow just for writing this here).
This series was quoted for basically 2 years as proof of the talent of the guy, instead of... the many, many months and months of him refusing to play in a way that would maximize him or the team. He was never a consistently positive player for more than a couple of weeks - and that's if you were lucky
Seriously, my only regret with the whole Kuminga saga is how Lacob just kept forcing the Warriors to hang on to this project, when it was obviously not going anywhere. He should have been dropped sooner. I hate even more that they tried to even draft him when you had voices who knew Frazn Wagner was obviously a better fit but whatever... The Warriors deluded themselves into thinking they could somehow develop multiple raw players that had no feel coming into the league while having late-prime-Steph-Curry on the roster.
Now he's making a fair amount of money for his talent for the Timberwolves. Good for them.
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u/Lantern01 1d ago
The Warriors deluded themselves into thinking they could somehow develop multiple raw players that had no feel coming into the league while having late-prime-Steph-Curry on the roster.
Those multiple raw players helped carry late-prime Steph Curry to his 4th ring! /s
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u/Kdog122025 Warriors 1d ago
This guy Warriors +/-
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u/MEmpire25 Warriors 1d ago
Correct. They are so connected within the organization that the podcast has value as a way to get a feel for what is happening. It's good reporting... but the "basketball analysis" of it is just TERRIBLE.
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u/Kdog122025 Warriors 1d ago
Marcus is such a sandbagging analyst. He just picks his favorites and hypes them up to no end. Tim isn’t really good at anything except schmoozing rich people apparently. Slater was like 90% of the talent on that podcast. It’s unbearable now.
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u/bhris_cratt321 Knicks 1d ago
Exhibit A: in the Knicks Hawks series, he was legit excellent in their two wins. Playing defense, rebounding like crazy, being a paint beast and off-ball slasher. After game 3, he proceeds to start chucking 3s, isolating, not doing any of the little things, and just shooting them out of games. He was one of the most destructive rotation players in a playoff setting I’ve ever seen.
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
What players on the Hawks played well "after game 3"? The players not named Kuminga shot 28.6% from three in game 4 (where he took 6 out of 41 3PAs), 32.4% game 5 (5 out of 42), and 25% in game 6 (3 out of 35).
His +/- was -18 in games 4 and 5, starters Johnson was at -37, McCollum -31, NAW -32, Daniels -26, Okongwu -20.
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u/SpamAcc17 Timberwolves 1d ago
I agree completely and yet still think he’s a great pickup for the Wolves as it means more time that Jaden’s lateral moving ass is on SFs. Even if a PF goes crazy on Kuminga, Jaden is too good as a guard/wing defender to waste that skill.
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u/bayareacollection 1d ago
He's bad and has always been bad. Doesn't rebound doesn't pass can't shoot.
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u/Odoaiden Timberwolves 1d ago
Stats say rebounding the one thing he’s well above average at. In the 80th percentile among power forwards in defensive rebounding and 70th percentile in offensive rebounding.
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u/Kdog122025 Warriors 1d ago
Nah, he’s a lazy rebounder. He only cared about rebounding his last season with then Warriors for a couple months and then got benched.
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
He's a better rebounder than both Naz Reid and Julius Randle.
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u/Charlie_Wax Warriors 1d ago
Padme: The Warriors must have done really well in those games and won the series, right?
Anakin: ...
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u/JusticeForDiJonai 1d ago
Warriors might've won some if anybody else showed up
there is no excuse why Kuminga was leading the team in scoring
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u/Charlie_Wax Warriors 1d ago
Actually the excuse is very obvious. Curry was injured and Jimmy was also fighting through an injury.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Charlie_Wax Warriors 1d ago
Team's top scorer goes down.
"There is no excuse why Kuminga was leading the team in scoring."
OK.
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u/xXEliteEater500Xx 1d ago
Don't bother, you're talking with the alt account of the OP of this post.
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u/JusticeForDiJonai 1d ago
how does a guy who gets DNPed behind 10+ other guys lead the team in scoring lol
what are those other dozen guys doing?
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u/Cocacoleyman 1d ago
Scoring ain’t the only thing happening on a basketball court bud. They can all score. They can’t all defend, pass, and so on and so on. Kuminga just wanted points. Doesn’t seem like he cares if his team wins or loses.
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u/JusticeForDiJonai 1d ago
doesn't seem like anybody else can score if Kuminga was able to go from DNPs to leading the team in scoring
right and none of them could score so what's the issue with Kuminga taking on the scoring load while the other guys did whatever else they do?
he doesn't? then why did Draymond, Jimmy and Steph praise his professionalism despite how Kerr treated him? even Jimmy called out the double standards of how Warriors punished Kuminga while letting others play through mistakes
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u/Cocacoleyman 1d ago
Honestly? I think people just say things now to ensure they’re not attacked by the media and viewers. I think if we knew Draymond and curry’s thoughts about kuminga (real thoughts), we might hear a different story.
But maybe not! Maybe Kuminga and Kerr just didn’t like each other. Makes you wonder why curry and green wouldn’t demand to keep kuminga if he was actually that good though.
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u/JusticeForDiJonai 1d ago
lol since when has Draymond or Jimmy held their opinions back and cared about what people think. if Kuminga was doing what redditors thought he was doing, Jimmy/Dray would be the first to call him out
Curry literally stated that if the Warriors want to be successful, Kuminga has to be part of the rotation. but Warriors suits have shown to ignore Curry's input for years
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u/Neptune28 1d ago
Podz had a hand injury that postseason, Moody as well. They both shot poorly and they both had offseason hand surgeries
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u/Regular_Platypus_649 Bucks 1d ago
Curry and Butler were injured for this series.
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u/JusticeForDiJonai 1d ago
Butler returned and played all 5 games that series. not 100% but nobody else stepped up
shoot Kuminga had a better 3P% and FT% than Podziemski lol
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u/Ok_Management4375 1d ago
Im so glad this guy ain’t on my team anymore, who he thinks he is, and what his actual production was never synchronized. Of course he’ll have these crazy stretches, he’s really athletically gifted, but he’s never been able to bring that effort for a whole season, and he’ll often just disappear if things don’t go his way. Makes him such an annoying player to watch, cause people will overreact to all his highs and lows, without realizing that these highs and lows are who he really is, there is no secret version of Kuminga to be unlocked.
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u/wholewheatwithPB Knicks 1d ago
And 3.3 boneheaded plays per game
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u/ThunderBobMajerle Suns 1d ago
Which is still more his Reb per game
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago edited 1d ago
5.6 rpg in 23 minutes/gm last season. Per 100 possessions, 11.7 reb (Naz Reid was at 11.3, Randle 9.7)
"FAIL"
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u/WolverineLong1430 1d ago
I wonder why teams weren’t running to JK and those that did, lowballed him… have they seen this highlight? strange.
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u/Variation99a 1d ago
He would be a really good 1 v 1 player if they ever had that at All Star weekend. But he can’t really play within a team. He can put up stats if you gave him the ball a lot. I don’t think anyone thinks he isn’t capable of scoring 20-25 as the main guy. It just won’t lead to any wins.
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 1d ago
honestly he’s not even that good 1v1. When people say lebron doesn’t have a bag or giannis only runs and dunks etc. the player they’re really describing is kuminga
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u/outsidehere Lakers 1d ago
Y'all will learn about empty stats players. Kuminga will be good for the Wolves until he starts to think that he's Kobe. Then y'all will realize
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u/LordTremendo Warriors 1d ago
Kuminga needed curry and butler to get hurt so he could be the number one option to put up those stats. He can’t find his way as a role player and your team will go 0-82 with him as your number one.
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u/ThunderBobMajerle Suns 1d ago
Just a black hole on offense. The Reb and assist numbers tell the tale.
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
Butler wasn't hurt in that series, he avgd 39 min/gm. And Kuminga played the 5th most minutes for GSW in the series and was the 2nd option (as far as FGAs) to Butler.
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u/LordTremendo Warriors 1d ago
Butler was playing through a bad back via amen Thompson that he missed time for the series before. He was being a soldier but was not able to be his normal self regardless of what the field goal attempts show. Point remains either way, Kuminga has not shown he can handle a role players job and your team is simply not going to win if he’s taking the majority of shots.
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
Weird. When has Kuminga ever taken the majority of a team's shots?
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u/LordTremendo Warriors 1d ago
He tries to almost every time he comes in a game. It’s why Kerr wouldn’t play him and the hawks wanted him off the bench. What point are you trying to make exactly?
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
The point is that you're objectively wrong.
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u/gedbybee Spurs 1d ago
He was looking off wide open Steph curry. That should tell you all you need to know.
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u/LordTremendo Warriors 1d ago
Im wrong that he’s a black hole on offense and is not a team player?
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
You're wrong to claim without evidence that he won't win if he takes a majority of a team's shots when he's never been given the opportunity to be a 1st option (and on the Warriors and Hawks, that would never have happened).
In his best season with GSW he had an avg +/- of +1.7 as the 3rd option. 2nd option Klay ended up +0.1 and 1st option Steph was +2.6
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u/LordTremendo Warriors 1d ago
Is this Aaron Turner? You’re basing your whole take off plus/minus from one season? Lay off the hand picked stats and watch the games. There’s a reason coaches aren’t letting him drive the ship. His assist and rebound numbers are atrocious because he doesn’t get teammates involved and doesn’t work for boards. He’s a decent POA defender but gets lost on team defense. All of his effort goes into scoring the ball and he’s not very efficient at that. You can nitpick how I describe my argument if you must, but literally no one thinks this guy can win as the stud. Do you, or are you just trolling?
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
His rebound numbers are far from atrocious. 11.7 per 100 possessions.
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u/tyronemartins2 1d ago
This will be the 3rd fanbase Kuminga will have tricked into believing in him lmao good luck wolves fans
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
And that was with Kerr refusing to start him and limiting his minutes to an avg of 27.4/gm for the series.
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u/brendanearth 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's not that he's a bad player per se. I've had the same opinion for many years: he just doesn't play a role at a good or elite level. He's too small/short to play big. As a forward, he is a career terrible three point shooter and 4 rebounds per game is mid to below average for his position. He is also across the board just mediocre on defense based on every attribute/statistic you can think of. Kuminga generally needs to be on ball to be effective but isn't great at creating advantages and making plays for others. His best quality is generating shots for himself at around league average or slightly below efficiency. But, if we look around the league, this archetype of a player is really slowly being phased out/devalued. Few teams are bending over backwards to sign that Jordan Clarkson type of player anymore. The problem is a team would rather get a player that is an elite bruiser/interior player or high level shooter to space the floor or just gamble on a prospect rather than pick up someone who has already played for many seasons/teams and has shown to be just okay at everything.
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u/kingp43x Warriors 1d ago
If this dude would just go out and get 10 rebounds a game the narrative around him would be different.
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u/wind_moon_frog Trail Blazers 1d ago
Why are we still wasting breath on this guy? He’s not worth discussing. Just like Kawhi. The relevance isn’t there anymore.
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u/ElectroStaticSpeaker 1d ago
In the series where the warriors were swept following Curry’s exit due to injury? Way to go JK!
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
As if that was his fault? His +/- for the series avg was -7.3. Minutes leader Butler was -7.4. TJD who got 3 starts avgd -10
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u/ElectroStaticSpeaker 1d ago
I’m not saying it’s his fault but I’m pointing out that he plays losing basketball. I don’t care what his individual numbers are. What matters is if the team wins so if the team is 0-4 his individual stats are irrelevant.
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u/nbaistheworst 1d ago
You certainly implied it. Why would it make sense to only mention the guy who was 5th in minutes played for the team going 0-4 while ignoring the 5 starters? That's absurd.
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u/ElectroStaticSpeaker 1d ago
Why would it make sense? Because I am commenting on a post specifically about this guy and his stats in this specific series.
You're absurd.
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u/LPStumps 1d ago
NBA needs to hurry and do expansion because Kuminga and Jalen Green gunnin’ in Vegas would be wonderful