Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga reacts after making a 3-pointer during Game 3 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 10, 2025, in San Francisco.
While it’s a big deal for Jonathan Kuminga that the Golden State Warriors have once again begun to trust him as a genuine on-court option, it’s almost as big of a deal for one NBA media member who’s been banging the drum on the young Dubs wing for some time: the Ringer’s Zach Lowe.
Lowe continued his full-throated support of Kuminga on an episode of his eponymous podcast published Monday. While analyzing the Warriors’ Game 3 loss to Minnesota, which included a 30-point performance from Kuminga, the Ringer podcast host delivered yet another sarcastic message directed at the Warriors’ coaching staff.
“Hey, is maybe Jonathan Kuminga not horrible?” Lowe said. “Should maybe you have tried to nurture — I know he’s not a Warriors kind of player. He’s not a beautiful game kind of player. He’s not the most intuitive read-and-react guy. But now you need him, and he’s coming through for you. Maybe you should have not crapped on him for months and years.”
The longtime NBA writer and analyst has only recently returned as a full-time member of basketball media, but his pro-Kuminga stance has been strong throughout that period. It certainly helps that his return lined up with the end of the regular season, and the start of the playoffs, where this Kuminga situation has come to a head for Golden State.
When Dubs coach Steve Kerr benched the 22-year-old for the regular-season finale against the Clippers, Lowe called it an “all-time like ‘Whoa’ moment” and shared that he has disagreed “heartily” with how Kerr “has handled Kuminga for years now.” In the episode prior to the one released Monday, he had another sarcastic remark toward the Warriors’ approach to Kuminga, and that was even before the young player’s breakout Game 2 performance.
“It’s almost like he’s not a dope, and maybe you shouldn’t have ruined his confidence for an entire half-season,” Lowe said about the 2022 NBA Draft pick last Thursday.
Kuminga is back in the good graces of this coaching staff for this second-round series against Minnesota, but that’s not because of a sudden Kerr epiphany. He struggled in the Rockets series but started seeing more playing time against the Wolves because of Steph Curry’s hamstring injury.
When Lowe finds himself as one of the few people who believe in a player, he turns that support into a metaphor where he’s a lonely resident on a land mass named after that player. Longtime listeners and readers can recall bits like “Waiters Island,” named after his support of former guard Dion Waiters, and even on the Monday pod, he talked about his previously solitary life on “Julius Randle Hill.” For Kuminga, it’s the Kuminga Keys, and he joked that “a couple of fro-yo stores just opened up” on the fictitious island chain, signaling it was growing.
But not everyone has bought into the Kuminga Keys the way that Lowe has, no matter the proximity to him. Lowe’s guest, Ringer senior staff writer Rob Mahoney, said he thought the frozen yogurt growth was apt because of his own perspective of Kuminga.
“I’m a little bit more of a Kuminga skeptic,” Mahoney said. “I think fro-yo is a good call because I think Kuminga Island is good for tourism but not necessarily for living there, so him popping up for an occasional 30-point game feels like a good way to have a good time. Him being an instructive, structural part of your offense may not be where you want to live every day of the year. All due credit to him for performing in the way that he did. Do I expect it to happen again? I don’t necessarily …”
At that point, Lowe jokingly declared, “I’m expecting 40 — let’s go!”
If the 22-year-old hits that mark, expect the Kuminga Keys population to explode.