Jonathan Kuminga is walking into a new setup with a built-in chance to fix one of the biggest holes in his game: the 3-point shot.
Minnesota’s move to bring him in settles one of the team’s biggest questions before opening night, with Kuminga set to start at power forward. But the reason he was available for so long on the free-agent market - and why he didn’t land the deal he wanted - is easy to spot. The outside jumper has been stubbornly inconsistent.
That’s where LaMelo Ball enters the picture.
Ball’s former team, the Charlotte Hornets, made life easier for shooters last season. They ranked third in 3-point percentage at 37.8 percent and took the second-most threes in the league at 43.3 per game. The hope is that Ball can help manufacture cleaner looks for Kuminga, especially with Rudy Gobert also in the starting lineup as a non-shooter who can tighten spacing if defenses don’t respect Kuminga from deep.
The opportunity is there. The question is whether it will actually move the needle.
Kuminga’s numbers on open looks have been underwhelming. In his first five seasons, he has hit 33.2 percent of his 3s, basically matching the 33.3 percent he shot last season with the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks. He turns 24 on October 6, and throughout his career he has never been a high-volume 3-point shooter.
Even when defenders have given him room, the results haven’t changed much. Last season, he made 34.8 percent of his attempts when the closest defender was four to six feet away. When nobody was within six feet, he dropped to 30.9 percent.
That’s been the pattern for most of his NBA run. Kuminga hasn’t really shown a reliable hot spot, either - not from the left corner, the right corner, or above the break.
He has already spent plenty of time playing next to Steph Curry, a magnet for defensive attention who created open shots for him. Ball should give him more of the same kind of chances now. The issue is that Kuminga has to start making those chances count.
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The next step is less about philosophy than application, because Finchs challenge is to make the most of the talent already in front of him and to get the right pieces working together in the right roles. The discussion around Minnesota has increasingly turned to how he can maximize players with high-end skill and unusual usage demands, and whether a more direct approach from the coach can finally unlock the ceiling that has been hinted at but not fully reached. [Read more 🡒]