Warriors Governor Joe Lacob Gives True Feelings on Jonathan Kuminga Pick

Warriors governor Joe Lacob went on the TK Show for an interview with Tim Kawakami on Wednesday, and in it he addressed whether he thinks the Dubs made a mistake drafting Jonathan Kuminga.

"I do not view Jonathan Kuminga as a mistake," Lacob said. "I think we may have made some mistakes in how would we handled it and how he handled it, maybe he made some mistakes, and obviously that's well documented and we had to move on. But he's an NBA player and played in the playoffs and did really well. It's not a mistake at the seventh pick. There were seventh picks that are out of the league."

The Warriors took Kuminga with the seventh pick of the 2021 draft, passing on Franz Wagner, who went eighth.

Kuminga spent 4.5 seasons with the Warriors with up-and-down results. After Kuminga demanded a trade, the Dubs dealt him and Buddy Hield to the Hawks for Kristaps Porzingis at the 2026 trade deadline.

Kuminga was in Atlanta's playoff rotation, but the fact that he's still a free agent suggests there isn't much leaguewide interest in him.

Why the Kuminga Pick Was a Mistake

Where Lacob has a point is that Kuminga has been a decent player, so he's not a true bust like James Wiseman.

But it's hard to understand why Lacob doesn't think it's a mistake.

Wagner is a better all-around player than Kuminga, and the fact that there were rumors that the Warriors liked him makes passing on him sting more.

But in fairness to Lacob's point, you can take almost any player in any draft, find a better player drafted after him and say "See! This team made a mistake."

So there has to be other ways to evaluate the pick.

I'd argue Kuminga has been slightly below average for what you'd expect from a seventh pick. But it's a bit worse considering the Warriors' context.

An immediate contributor with low-end starter upside would have made a big difference for the Warriors in 2022-23, but Kuminga was so raw coming out that he couldn't give them that for his first two seasons.

Instead of trading Kuminga for a star wing who might have made the Warriors title front-runners in 2023 and 2024 and possibly beyond, the Dubs held on to Kuminga, only to end up trading him down the road anyway. Their insistence on waiting for his star turn was as arguably as costly as taking him over better players in the draft.

It's not out of pocket to say the Warriors would have won another title had they taken Wagner.

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