Kuminga Shines In Hawks Debut

It had been over a month since he played his last game. Following a trade, a knee injury, an All-Star break, and six missed games, Jonathan Kuminga finally suited up for the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night. While many expected some rust and hesitancy from so much time off and the turmoil he dealt with in Golden State,  Kuminga dropped a season-high 27 points (18 of which came in the third quarter) off the bench in Atlanta's 119-98 blowout of the Washington Wizards, looking like he was on a mission to prove others wrong. 

Kuminga went 9-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 from three, adding seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals in just 24 minutes.  While these numbers aren’t career highs, they are stats that the young forward is capable of producing frequently. Despite being selected with the 7th pick in the 2021 Draft as a piece of their future, Kuminga never truly got a fair shake in Golden State,  bouncing in and out of the rotation in ways that made little sense. 

A fresh start with the Hawks is exactly what Kuminga needed, and his role here as the team moves forward with a retooling is exciting. Alongside Jalen Johnson, who's been playing some of the best ball of his career this season, and Onyeka Okongwu, Kuminga gives the Hawks a trio of long, athletic forwards who can attack the paint, switch defensively, and make plays in transition. 

As the NBA heads into the last quarter of the season, Atlanta is in a battle for a play-in berth, currently holding down the 9th seed, 2.5 games back of the 8th-seeded Miami Heat and two games ahead of the 11th-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. The addition of Kuminga to the rotation provides the Hawks with another weapon on both ends of the floor, which, when you need all the help you can get, is a great option to have. 

Looking past this season, the Hawks hold a $24.3 million team option on Kuminga for next season, making the final twenty-two games of this season basically a low-risk audition. If he keeps playing like he did Tuesday, that decision becomes a very easy one. While one game doesn’t make or break a season, the versatile 23-year-old may very well be a valuable component to the Hawks' future