Much has been made of Jonathan Kuminga 's relationship with Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. He was constantly in and out of rotation and, ultimately, was ousted from the team that drafted him straight out of high school.
But after hearing several explanations for why Kerr put Kuminga at the end of the bench and the bottom of his rotation, former NBA Draft No. 1 pick Kenyon Martin offered an interesting theory.
"One thing that you took from it, like, people wonder Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga , why they was at the dog house, those are two guys that didn't defer to Steph ," he began . "They didn't. When Buddy touched the ball, you knew what he was doing with it."
"It was a kidding moment, but it was some truth in it a couple of years when Buddy first got there, and Steve Kerr's like: 'Buddy, meet Steph, the greatest shooter of all-time.' Like it was some joke, but there was some truth to it, right? So he never did. He never did defer to Steph, and we all know Jonathan Kuminga didn't as well. That's how they ended up at the end of the bench," explained Martin.
Hield was the sharpshooter whom the Warriors acquired in a sign-and-trade deal in 2024 to help fill the void left by Steph's Splash Brother, Klay Thompson , who left Golden State to sign with the Dallas Mavericks that summer.
Buddy began his Warriors career on fire, as he averaged 21.2 points per game in October and scored 20+ points in six out of his first seven games as a Warrior. But his numbers gradually decreased each month.
Then, in April last year, there was a game in which Hield missed a 3-point shot, got the ball back and instead of passing to a wide-open Curry, he took the shot again and made it. During a time out after that play, Kerr playfully reintroduced Hield to Curry while telling him that Steph is the greatest shooter of all time.
As Martin said, that was a joke, but Kerr was trying to send a message to Hield. Like Hield, Kuminga is a shoot-first player who prefers scoring himself rather than passing to his teammates. He is a great slasher with a good midrange game. But he rarely passed the ball, even to Curry.
This season, Hield averaged just 17.5 minutes per game with 6.8 field goal attempts per game. Meanwhile, Kuminga averaged 23.8 minutes per game, but he received 16 DNPs and did not play from mid-December to January.
JK later asked to be traded, but the Warriors waited for the trade deadline to deal him and Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for Kristaps Porzingis .
"I'm happy for Jonathan Kunminga to get and play in front of an up-and-coming…the Atlanta crowd is dope. They party in that joint, so the way he plays the game of basketball, they gonna embrace him. Don't know how much more three Buddy got, but I'm pretty sure he wanna go out there and continue his rise on the all-time 3-point list," Martin added.
At 23, Kuminga still has a long way to go in his NBA career. If he gets the chance to prove his worth in Atlanta, he could be a key piece for them moving forward. Meanwhile, Hield is 33 and has several productive years ahead if given the opportunity to play.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Feb 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
