Anthony Slater of ESPN, who has covered the Warriors for several years, gave his opinion on the Atlanta Hawks' trade for Jonathan Kuminga.
"I think it was a really good buy-low opportunity for the Hawks, and I think they're already starting to see the dividends of that."
Kuminga had a season-high 27 points in 24 minutes in his Hawks debut, coming off the bench midway through the first quarter for Jalen Johnson, who didn't return with a hip flexor injury. The 23-year-old was all over the place, scoring in transition, moving the ball, and knocking down his looks. He shot 9-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 from three.
The forward's value was already low entering the season, and it dipped even lower when Steve Kerr delegated him to the bench after the first couple of weeks. Golden State hoped to move Kuminga in a deal before the deadline for a valuable rotation player, maybe even using him to get Giannis Antetokounmpo (lol), but it had to "settle" for the trade with Atlanta.
All the Hawks had to give up for Kuminga and Buddy Hield was Kristaps Porziņġis, who played in only 17 games during the first half of the season.
Hawks' trade for Jonathan Kuminga looks even better
When Atlanta acquired Porziņġis over the summer, the excitement was through the roof about pairing him with Trae Young. So much for that partnership, as both missed significant time and were gone by the deadline.
Pivoting to Kuminga should've been a relatively easy decision for the Hawks, considering the asking price. Porziņġis hadn't played in a couple of weeks leading up to the deadline due to Achilles tendinitis, and especially with Young gone, it made sense to move on, rather than let the center walk in unrestricted free agency.
They got an unproven young player in return, one who has already won over Hawks fans. It doesn't matter all that much that it was just in a game against the Wizards. Kuminga made the most of the moment, which is all you could've asked from him. He'll have the chance to follow it up with another big outing on Thursday, with Washington still in town and Johnson out.
Atlanta will have to decide on Kuminga's $24.3 million option this summer, a decision that will be made far easier if he continues to look as he did in his debut. And to be honest, even if the Hawks didn't want to keep him around (there is no indication they believe that), odds are they will still get more from him than they did from Porziņģis, which is why it was a low-risk move.