Inside the Warriors’ decision to draft Kuminga

Jonathan Kuminga strode into a downtown Miami restaurant and sat at a table with several of the Warriors’ top executives. On this night in late July fresh off a pre-draft workout, Kuminga folded his 6-foot-8 frame into a chair of a white-clothed table with a river view. Working out in Miami the past two summers, he had wanted to get a table at Il’ Gabbiano before but it was too busy.

This time, owner Joe Lacob, general manager Bob Myers and the rest of Golden State’s traveling executives easily secured a reservation. It was then that Kuminga felt his life was about to change.

“I didn’t know they were going to pick me until they came down [to Miami] to see me,” Kuminga said. “They didn’t tell me, but I had a feeling that if I fell past five that they were going to take me. I’m not going to go past seven.”

In front of the Warriors’ decision-makers, the 18-year-old Kuminga talked about basketball, his excitement to see his parents visiting from the Congo for the first time in five years and how he learned to speak four languages.

“The whole package was nice,” Myers said.

A few nights later, the Oklahoma City Thunder picking sixth passed on Kuminga, opting instead to select Australian guard Josh Giddey, leaving Kuminga for the Warriors at No. 7.

Other options were on the board including Michigan’s Franz Wagner, Uconn’s James Bouknight and Baylor’s Davion Mitchell. But Golden State zeroed in on Kuminga, the subject of an intensive scouting effort that started as far back as his freshman year at Huntington Prep School in West Virginia.

After growing up in Goma — a war-torn city located in the eastern part of the Congo near the Rwanda border — he moved to the United States to play high school basketball. By the time he was a sophomore he was ranked No. 1 in his class by scouting services and landed on the radar of the Warriors and many NBA teams. Golden State sent a scout to West Virginia to watch him in person.

After high school, rather than play collegiately Kuminga opted to play for the G League Ignite program in Walnut Creek, about 25 miles East of San Francisco’s Chase Center. There, Kuminga didn’t have any interaction with Golden State because scouts had to travel to Orlando to watch him in the G League bubble. Santa Cruz Warriors coach Kris Weems gameplanned against him when Kuminga had 19 points on 50% shooting, four assists and two rebounds.

“I talked to a few of the front-office people after the G League bubble and told them this dude is a special player, you should definitely take a look at him,” Weems said.

For most of the lead-up to the draft, the prospect of Kuminga falling to No. 7 was a long shot. Along with Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs, Kuminga had long been considered a consensus top-five player. But questions about his focus and concerns about his raw skillset opened the door for the Warriors, who started hearing that Florida State’s Scottie Barnes could leap into the top five and that Oklahoma City may surprise people at No. 6.

They started calling people who knew Kuminga — his brother, cousins, former coaches — to get a sense of his personality. They organized a last-minute trip to Miami to work him out and see for themselves. Newly hired assistant coach Kenny Atkinson joined the coterie of scouts and GMS and led a 6 p.m. workout and put Kuminga through a battery of high-intensity drills. Two hours later, they sat down for a fine Italian dinner.

“That’s when I had a lot of respect for Golden State,” Kuminga said. “Because no team is going to fly six, seven hours just to come see me. That’s when I was like, ‘I have a chance to go to Golden State.’”

Six nights later, July 29, was the NBA Draft. Kuminga arrived to the Barclays Center for the event in a creamsicle-colored suit that takes confidence to wear, but he was still unsure where he’d end up. Golden State wasn’t the only team doing its homework.

The Thunder had twice seen Kuminga in person, once early on in the predraft process and again the day after the Warriors made their visit. Kuminga and his representation knew Oklahoma City was trying to trade up but if they couldn’t, Kuminga and his camp thought he’d be the pick.

“But that didn’t happen,” Kuminga said, referencing Giddey going at No. 6 — one of the biggest surprises of draft night. “I didn’t regret that because, even if I fell past five, I knew if I went to Golden State I’m in a better situation than a lot of other people.”

Kuminga took a flight to San Francisco after the draft to meet some of his new teammates, do some press and tour Chase Center. Coming from the Congo, where he mostly played in battered shoes on outdoor courts, he was surprised by the size and scope of the billion-dollar arena — the practice floor, gym, offices, luxury suites.

“Just so many things,” Kuminga said. “We didn’t have that back home, and I don’t think we’re ever going to have that. But it’s a blessing to be there.”

“I didn’t know they were going to pick me until they came down [to Miami] to see me. They didn’t tell me, but I had a feeling that if I fell past five that they were going to take me. I’m not going to go past seven.” — Jonathan Kuminga