Draymond Green doesn’t often censor himself, let alone on his own podcast. In his latest dispatch from Cabo San Lucas, Green reviewed the performances of the Warriors’ two young bigs, James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga.
Kuminga’s opening performance was dreadful. He had 4 points (2-of-10, 0-of-4 from 3-pt), 3 assists and a couple of boards, while turning it over fives times.
He called it the worst performance of his career. Green seemed to agree.
“I’m going to say this publicly because I said it to his face,” Green said. “I thought Jonathan Kuminga was so, so, so bad in the game that I went to when they were playing the New York Knicks. I thought he was very, very bad. He didn’t look engaged… I was disappointed.”
Green was upset with the fact that, in addition to playing poorly, it was with Green in attendance, showing up to support him.
“When my OGs came to see me in Summer League, I’m bouncing off the wall,” Green said. “Your OGs are there. You want to destroy whoever’s in front of you because your OGs are there. It just didn’t feel like he had the pop. Because if you’ve got the pop, there is no one in Summer League that can touch you.”
Kuminga responded with 28 points, then 29 points in the following two games.
Green wasn’t surprised with the response, saying he’s looking forward to watching his development.
“Sure enough, he bounced back the next game and showed that,” Green said. “Like, yeah, I’ve got the pop. There’s nobody in Summer League that can guard me.”
As for James Wiseman, Green has been impressed despite his two-rebound debut.
“I know there was a lot of talk around the first game, ‘Oh, he had two rebounds.’ Don’t get me wrong, that was the first thing I looked at too,” Green said. “Wise, you can’t have two rebounds.”
But Green pointed out that Wiseman hasn’t had a full season since 2018. He played three college games and 40 games his rookie year, but missed plenty of time that year with injuries, and hasn’t played since.
The lack of rebound numbers initially makes sense, because it’s about timing, Green said.
“Rebounding is a timing thing,” Green said. “Rebounding is not just I’m tall, I’m long, I can jump, I’m athletic. Rebounding is timing. And for someone that hasn’t played basketball since 2018 … your timing is probably messed up because that’s four years and change of not consistently played basketball. … I would never excuse James Wiseman having two rebounds, nor do I think James Wiseman would excuse it.”
He bounced back with 6 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks the following game.
“I thought his showing out there on the court has been solid,” Green said. “Are there some things you’d want to correct? Absolutely. There are things I’d want to correct about myself on the basketball court.”
Watch the full clip from Green’s podcast above.
