Jonathan Kuminga’s return to the Golden State Warriors ended with a loss, but it also came with one of the night’s sharper edges.
The Timberwolves forward was in the middle of his best outing of the season Wednesday, pouring in a season-high 20 points to go with five assists, three rebounds and two steals in Minnesota’s 119-114 defeat. Somewhere along the way, the back-and-forth with Golden State’s bench got heated. But Kuminga said the real exchange wasn’t with former teammates.
It was with Warriors assistant coach Anthony Vereen, who used to be Kuminga’s performance development coach.
“I was just going back and forth with him because he used to be my PD coach,” he said. “He was one of my brothers. It goes way beyond basketball.”
The matchup had extra bite because Kuminga was facing the organization that once viewed him as part of its future, even if the most intense moments came off the floor rather than from the players across from him. He was in the mix all night, especially in a physical game that also featured Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg. Stephen Curry carried Golden State with 44 points and six threes, while Lendeborg added 26 points and nine rebounds.
Kuminga’s path to Minnesota has already been a winding one. After fighting for minutes with the Warriors last season, he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks ahead of last season’s deadline. He later signed with the Timberwolves in the offseason, joining a team that was helped in part by Anthony Edwards recruiting him.
Now Edwards is expected to miss the next two months with a knee injury, and that opens the door for Kuminga to keep building his profile in Minnesota. Through this season, he’s averaging 13.2 points while shooting 46% overall and 47.6% from 3-point range, along with 5.2 rebounds and 2.0 steals.
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