SAN FRANCISCO -- Jonathan Kuminga's rookie year with the Warriors has been a to-do list with boxes checked left and right. He was told to run the floor harder and did just that. He was challenged to be a better rebounder and continues to improve there. He has been tasked with defending some of the NBA's best scorers and his own 3-point shot looks smoother on a nightly basis.
All at 19 years old.
His latest development has been improving an area that looked like one of his biggest weaknesses going into the draft last year and early on this season. Kuminga now is one of the Warriors' most reliable free throw shooters, just as their All-Star wing continues to struggle from the charity stripe.
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As an 18-year-old with the G League Ignite, Kuminga made only 62.5 percent of his free throws, an issue that gave even more concern to his 28.6 percent clip from beyond the arc. It wasn't a secret that he was one of the best athletes in the draft with an extremely high upside. But would Kuminga ever become a reliable shooter?
Most evaluators look at a prospect's free throw percentage to help determine what kind of a shooter he'll become. Kuminga's downside from the line and from deep left little to be desired as a shooter. That trickled into the start of his NBA career, too.
Over 13 games in November, Kuminga shot 61.5 percent on free throws and went 1-for-11 on 3-pointers. In December, he made seven of the 17 3-pointers he attempted, but his free throw percentage dropped to 53.8. Once the calendar flipped to 2022, Kuminga only got better and better from the line, just as he saw an increase in minutes.
Kuminga made 71.4 percent of his free throws in January, 74.4 percent in February and after going 1-for-2 from the line in Sunday night's 110-108 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Kuminga now is shooting 79.2 percent from the free throw line in March. Since Feb. 1, he has averaged the same amount of points as Andrew Wiggins and has been a better free throw shooter by 30.2 percent.
"I'm comfortable in certain matchups," Steve Kerr said ahead of Sunday night's game of Kuminga playing more as a small-ball center. "You never know how things play out in the playoffs."
With James Wiseman's situation looking more grim, a handful of Warriors might have to be a small-ball center of sorts to help Kevon Looney, who continues to be Golden State's Iron Man with only 11 regular-season games to go. Draymond Green (6-foot-6) of course has assumed that role before in the past. Nemanja Bjelica (6-foot-10) was mentioned by Kerr and had perhaps his best game of the year, scoring nine points off the bench to go with nine rebounds and six assists. Otto Porter Jr. (6-foot-8) grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds in the loss and scored 16 points off the bench, his most since Jan. 29.
Golden State Warriors
But it was the 6-foot-8 and 210-pound Kuminga who served as the Warriors' small-ball center in the fourth quarter, until the final three seconds, with Green out after getting ejected.
"We got to bring him to screening school," Green told NBC Sports Bay Area in his postgame interview after the Warriors' win vs. the Washington Wizards one week ago. "He's still not quite there yet. He's figuring out the angles which is important because that's the toughest part. Now, we got to get him to start laying some wood. We got to start getting him body-to-body with guys. Because when he screens well, he's going to get dunks because nobody can stop him diving into the paint.
"So, we still got a little bit of teaching to do with JK in screening school before the playoffs. But we'll have him ready."
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Kuminga, according to Basketball-Reference, now has spent 27 percent of his time at center. He has played 59 percent as a power forward and 14 percent at small forward, per their estimate. Playing more as a small-five and becoming a better screener and rolling hard to the hoop should give Kuminga even more opportunities at the line.
For how exciting of a dunker he already is, Kuminga is far from a polished product as a finisher. He still misses bunnies and putbacks too often, and also gets swiped from leaving the ball low as he looks to get up. If those areas get cleaned up, along with an increase of what's mentioned above, that's an even better recipe for the rookie earning more free throws.
No pressure. It's not like he hasn't risen to it all season anyways.