Jonathan Kuminga’s Agent Claims He Was Hawks’ Best Player, But Prefers Current Deal Over $24.3 Million Option
· Yahoo Sports
After playing for the Atlanta Hawks for only four months, the team decided not to pick up Jonathan Kuminga’s $24.3 million team option, making him an unrestricted free agent.
And still, Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, seems to believe that his client was the Hawks’ best player during the short stint he had with them since the trade in February. Turner recently sat down with Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports and discussed his client, Jonathan Kuminga’s time with the Hawks, and why it came to an end.
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“Also, JK got shipped to Atlanta. And there’s a lot of talk about Jonathan Kuminga and his impact on winning and the players. He was their best player from the moment he showed up in terms of winning impact,” Turner said.
“He had the best on-off net rating in the regular season and in the playoffs in their two wins against the Knicks. Who had the best net rating? These are facts. These aren’t opinions. Who had the best net rating? Jonathan Kuminga. You know, him and CJ really, really, both in game two and game three, really, really stepped up and willed the team to those two wins.”
“Now, could JK have stayed in Atlanta this year? And where would that lead him in an expiring deal? Yeah, I mean, there, if he wanted to be the eighth player there or come off the bench, that could have possibly been something that, yes, he could have done that.
“Talking back and forth with the Hawks, they’ve committed to Dyson, they’ve committed to Jaylen long term; there’s nothing wrong with that. Those guys are very good players,” said Aaron Turner as he understood the Hawks’ decision on some level not to pick up the $24.3 million team option.
“But the reality is, where was the upward growth for JK? And then you’re sitting in an expiring deal, not being able to put your best foot forward. You may get traded out to some place you don’t know. So the reality is Jonathan Kuminga being in this situation is actually, to me, more productive than being in the $24 million expiring.”
“Now some people could say, well, he’s got to keep his Bird rights. Your Bird rights and the team you’re on only matter if the incumbent team wants to keep you. If not, you’ll be in the same spot.”
“I’d rather not have my Bird rights. Play good basketball. Show the world what I can do, be part of a winning group, than say Oh well, I have my Bird rights, but I can’t play to the ability of my capability maybe because that’s the roster, maybe that’s because of whatever the fit is, how you want to play.”
“So no, I don’t think anything, if you really look at the moment, has been fumbled. If JK really wanted to be there and that would make sense for both sides, we could have come back and said that, but the reality is he needs to be in a situation where he can control the basketball and put himself in the best position,” Aaron Turner explained.
“And that’s why I think the reality from all this noise is let’s let Jonathan Kuminga go play basketball for the first time in his career where he wants to be, where he’s chosen. And then I think we’ll all get to sit back and see the answers. You don’t have to debate continuously.”
“He’s going to show the world, you know, as long as Jonathan Kuminga is healthy this year, which, you know, I, for any player, I hope that they get that opportunity to put that on the floor. If he’s healthy, we’ll see. We’re going to see where Jonathan Kuminga is, and he’s going to get to show everybody,” Turner concluded.
Several former players and media analysts had criticized Turner for turning down multiple major paydays for teams like the Warriors and the Lakers. He reportedly turned down a three-year, $75.2 million offer from the Warriors last summer and a three-year, $36 million offer from the Lakers this year.
But Turner has now gone so far as to say he prefers his client to have taken a $6.1 million deal in Minnesota over staying in Atlanta on a $24.3 million expiring contract. Which is certainly fascinating, since if Kuminga was, in fact, the Hawks’ best player (meaning he outperformed Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels), he could have earned a similar role with the team over time.
If this upcoming season is just about showing what Jonathan Kuminga can do, and his fit on the Hawks was working so well that he was willing the team to wins, as Turner claims, then another whole season like that would have only been good for his client while earning almost four times the amount that he eventually ended up taking.
So it seems a bit contradictory to say that while his client was playing like the best player, he preferred to leave the Hawks rather than to stay and accept a more team-friendly deal if one were on the table. If his client was really the best player on the court every night for the Hawks, teams around the league would be flooding Kuminga wth offers next summer.
But let’s take an objective look at Kuminga’s statistical performance during his time with the Hawks to see if that is true. In the 22 games that he played for the Hawks (including the playoffs), Kuminga averaged 12.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists while shooting 47.8% from the field.
And while Turner mentioned the net ratings of Game 2 (+10) and Game 3 (+3) as an example, Kuminga also recorded a team-worst -44 net rating in Game 6, when the season was on the line.
Signaling that his client doesn’t want to stay in that situation may have triggered their move for Lu Dort, which eventually closed the door to Atlanta for Kuminga. So I still believe his agent may have blundered by burning bridges that could have helped him stay with the Hawks.