Jonathan Kuminga can be Warriors X-FACTOR playing with Steph Curry & Jimmy Butler | Draymond & Baron

J.K. was great last night, but we have to continue to work him. He played 19 minutes, uh, had great energy getting downhill. I think if he can carbon copy what he did last night, and ultimately knowing that every night ain't gonna be the same, but carbon copy what he did last night, get downhill when your opportunities are there. I still think he passed up a few shots at the rim that he could have finished, but who's complaining about him making the next pass? But I think getting downhill when you're there, running in transition, getting buckets, finding the cuts when the cuts are there to get them lobs and drop-off passes for them dunks. I think if J.K. can play that way, which I know he's more than capable of and will, it's gonna be so great for this team because with him playing that way, I don't think we ran a set for him last night. So him playing that way, getting 18 points off, and it won't go that way every night, right? Sometimes the ball finds you when you playing a role like that. Sometimes it don't. The games that it's not going that way, obviously we have sets that we can run for him, right? Like you have sets that can get him downhill. You have sets that can get him post touches. So then you're calling the plays. But when he just getting it out the mud like that and you don't need to call a set.

That's when he's at his best. Exactly.

Anytime you can get guys scoring and you don't need to call a set from them, man, that opens because now a team can't game plan for that. You know what I'm saying? You can't game plan for a guy getting 18 points with not a set called for him. And so if he can do that, and as he gets in better shape, Steve will call more sets for him, man, that takes this team to a whole nother level. So I just think we gotta keep doing that, man. Turnovers, stay locked in on the defensive side of the ball. I think everybody trying to be a star in their roles, which is important, and the chemistry is great. You know what I'm saying? Everybody wanna win.

Mm-hmm.

So we just gotta keep building on that.

He's a player that you don't need to run sets for. And I wanted to reference back when I was at the game when you didn't play during the Christmas holidays against the Clippers, right?

Mm-hmm.

That game, I watched him be aggressive. There was no one else. There was no Steph, there was no Dray. So it was his show to run.

Yep.

And I saw a lot of that last night.

Right. Mm-hmm.

So when you at JK and now you're the, the additional piece, they're not thinking about you, right? You're also, if he focus on rebounding, being that compliment, help defender, shot blocker that you and Jimmy need, right? Then y'all scrappiness take over and then he winds up with a mismatch. So him going to the basket, right, creating those problems, getting in the lane. He can jump over people. You know, he don't need sets. He just needs to be aggressive when he get the ball, 'cause he's another person in addition to Jimmy now that's getting to the line, getting fouled. And I think that's where I see him going forward, really helping on the offensive end. But on the defensive end, if he can adopt that, hey, I can go play kamikaze defense and fly around and get steals and get blocks and get deflections. Mm-hmm. And, you know, almost make himself that guy, right? Based on the two anchors that he has, he gonna take y'all to a whole nother level. 'Cause that's the missing— that's the missing ingredient. You know, watching the game is rebounding, right? The turnovers, but also the ability for y'all to get out in transition, which now creates all kind of mismatch problems and easy buckets for everybody, right?

So— Yeah.

That's where I think J.K. going forward, that he can really help, you know, turn it up a level, right? As you guys go for that quest. 'Cause I think you have the tools and the talent and the, and the, and the talent in the team to do it.

Mm-hmm. I agree 100%, bro. I think, you know, for J.K. and then also like for him to understand like, hey, you've missed 31 straight games.

Right.

So build back. To where you were and still keep your idea in your mind of like, yo, I wanna be a star in this league. Like you don't lose that. You know what I'm saying? Like, and I want people to be sure that like that no one's asking him to lose that. Like still keep that belief, but understand where you are, understand where the team is, understand what's at stake and be the best you can be to get to that thing. Because if you be the best you can be to get to that thing, everything else will take care of itself.

You gonna get all the hype, you gonna get all the love. People love somebody who play hard, who dunk, who a beast, you know, who can go and get it out the mud and young. So you got the next 8, 10 years to go ride it out.

Exactly. And by the way, you gonna get all the money also.

Bingo. Man, y'all 13 and 1 with Jimmy in the lineup. Y'all done won 6 in a row. The next 3 games, 4 days, you got the Knicks, Nuggets, and Bucks. All tough games. 3 different styles of play. As one of the best defenders in the league, can you give us an inside look on basically how you prepare for, you know, 3 games in 4 nights? And you talking about the Knicks, the Nuggets, and then the Bucks.

I think the Knicks, you know, with Jalen Brunson out, they're doing it more by committee, you know? So the ball's moving around a lot more. They're using each other a lot more because you still need to create those shots, but you don't necessarily have Jalen Brunson. At the point to break the defense down and get that first domino to fall. So I think they're doing that with a lot more ball movement, player movement. Tough team to guard, especially with KAT shooting the ball the way he shoots the ball. I think he's shooting like 57% on catch and shoot threes.

That's crazy.

That's insane, right?

Yeah, I watched the Portland game. He was burning them up.

Yeah, nah, he's shooting 57% on catch and shoot threes. That's unheard of. I don't know if there's many guards in this league shooting 47%.

Right.

If any, on catch and shoot threes, you almost have to approach him like you used to approach Klay Thompson. Like it's hard to take your body off of him because he get a out and his trigger's quick. He catch the ball here, it's up.

It's like— It's up fast. Yeah.

And so he get the ball with space and he's 7 feet.

Right. It's tough.

You know what I'm saying? So, and then they're playing great defense. They've been a lot better defensively since Jalen Brunson Jalen Brunson been out, which makes sense. You add in, you know, a better defender. And then also not only adding a better—

Mitchell Robinson.

No, no, Mitchell Robinson. But not only adding a better defender because Jalen Brunson is not a bad defender, but bigger as a team, you know, we have to defend better because we don't got that guy to cover slack for us if we're not defending well, you know?

Yeah.

And so I think it's even more so that than necessarily Jalen Brunson being a bad defender because I don't think Jalen Brunson is a bad defender. But that's a tough game. You know, they, they're playing, they're playing good basketball. I think if we go out and play our game, take care of the ball, play the way we've been playing, I like our chances in that. And you got Denver coming in. Denver's always a tough team to beat with the Joker at the helm running everything. Russ is, I know people are shocked by this. I'm not.

Russ is— He's playing phenomenal.

Not only he's playing phenomenal, but he's shooting the lights out the ball.

Yeah.

And that changes things for this team. You know, at the beginning of the season they were struggling a little bit. Everybody was talking about their bench unit and they were talking about their 3-point shooting. Well, that's changed and that team is playing really well. Ja'Marr Murray seems to have found himself again.

Oh yeah.

After being in a slump. Michael Porter Jr. is playing well. So that team is playing really well, you know? So that's tough game. Joker is one of the best scorers in this league. Obviously one of the best passers, one of the best rebounders. One of the best players in this league. You know, he always creates a lot of problems.

He's a defensive player.

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, you can make that argument any day. I don't think you could get somebody to argue with you, but you can't get nobody to tell you crazy.

Right, right.

And so, you know, that's always a tough matchup. And then Bucks, everything starts and stops with Giannis and Dame. They go as those two guys go. And you know, they both playing really good basketball at a high level. I think Giannis is averaging something close to 30, 12, and 6 or something of that nature.

Yeah, yeah.

They're playing really good basketball and their role players have stepped up. Torian Prince is playing well. Gary Trent's playing well.

They find the lane.

Kuz is coming there. You know, Kuz coming there has helped that team out a lot. So, you know, that team's playing really well. They do miss Bobby Portis. So I know they're looking forward to getting him back for the playoffs. But they're playing really good basketball. You know, we gotta be locked in and then it's a back-to-back also. So that makes the game even tougher. But nonetheless, 3 tough games. Usually in a situation like that, you say if we can get 2 of 'em, you happy about it. We hope to get all 3 of 'em and that's our plan and that's what we going for.

I've been watching the Knicks and Nuggets a lot and you know, it's rebound and big man play, right? The Knicks, they looking to push the ball more. With Jalen Brunson out so they can get easy buckets. But the Nuggets, like you said, everybody is shooting the ball well, shooting the ball with confidence. So I'm excited to see that game, especially, you know, from a matchup standpoint. And you know, I have to give a shout out to the Bucks cuz they turned it around from when we was getting on 'em, when I was getting on 'em early in the season. Right. And my reason for that was let Giannis and Dame plug in and let, everybody else, you know, plug into their sockets, right? And you starting to see that the two most important and most potent players on their team is really leading the charge. So 3 games, 4 nights, you know, all tough games, uh, 6 in a row. And I think for you guys, it's just a one game at a time approach. And each game is kind of like, you know, every team is balling right now. Talk about a little bit about that, because you ain't about to be watching no bad basketball because everybody fighting for something. And so talk about that mentality too as you get down the stretch of the last bit of season, how all these games just matter and how you can't put one game before the other.

Nah, you gotta be locked in. 'Cause like you said, everybody's playing for something. If someone isn't playing for something, then you, it's still dangerous.

But they dangerous too because the young dudes. Exactly.

You get young guys coming out like, yo, this my chance to prove something.

Yeah.

And so, Those games are even dangerous. But I think for us, you know, we've known that like this is playoff time for us since coming outta this All-Star break and we need to win all the games we can to give ourselves the best possible seeding. You wanna not be in the play-in so you can get that week of rest. You know, we're a little older so that week of rest can go a long ways instead of fighting in that play-in. Play-in haven't been nice to us. So I think we're all—

At all.

I think we're all—

It's too much. It's too many games.

It's way too much.

Like way too much. And then you gotta get right into the mix with, you know, the hungry wolves waiting for you.

Absolutely. So, you know, for us it's been about winning every game and down the stretch, you know, that's our focus. But then also building the right habits, you know what I'm saying? And I think for us as a team, we know that if we build the right habits, we have the pieces. And so that's kind of how we've been approaching every game, man. We don't have any room for error. Got two teams, the Clippers, they right there, you know what I'm saying?

They right there.

Minnesota's right there.

Right.

You know what I'm saying? We've been on a win streak, but so have they, you know? So we gotta stay locked in. And I, you know, I have no doubt in my mind that we will, but we definitely gotta stay locked in.