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Anthony Slater: Kristaps Porzingis is out tonight in Atlanta with lower back tightness. Jonathan Kuminga is off the injury report and cleared to face the Warriors. Questionable: Draymond Green, De’Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II, Quinten Post.
The partnership reached its end with a trade demand, which led to the Warriors sending Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks just before last month’s trade deadline in exchange for Kristaps Porziņģis. When asked about what goes through his mind the most in advance of Saturday’s reunion game against Kuminga in Atlanta, Kerr answered through the lens of a coach trying to navigate his own team through a losing skid at the end of a long season. “To be honest,” Kerr told The Athletic with a chuckle, “I haven’t given it much thought because we’re trying to win a damn game. But I can tell you that everybody likes JK. Everybody on our team wants the best for him. I want the best for him.”
“I think the trade was a good one,” Kerr said. “Both guys are very talented. I think everything in the NBA is circumstantial. I think players need the right set of circumstances to thrive. And the trade made sense because these were not the right circumstances for JK. And you can see right away that Kristaps has a very clear role on this team, something we’ve needed for years. And we’re looking forward to getting him out there with Steph. And so in the end, hopefully it’s a trade that works for both guys and both teams.”
Then there's the side of Kuminga that craved a change of scenery. He couldn't help but feel the rush when Saleh told him over the phone, soon after the trade was agreed, that the Hawks were chasing wins — now — and eager to get him to Atlanta and unlock his natural game. “His mindset … JK's just like a dog ready to be unleashed,” Hawks All-Star forward Jalen Johnson told me. “You can tell, just how he's working out, how he's approaching his days. He’s ready to go. He's ready to do what it takes to win. And show the rest of the world that.”
Kuminga is also still managing that knee injury sustained in Dallas in late January, but he's accepted a bench role here. He's been making a good impression since his very first day as a Hawk, when Kuminga entered the front office area of the team's practice facility upon arrival to town and shook every hand he saw to introduce himself. “I want to be a winner as much as I can, as bad as I can,” Kuminga told me. “I want to compete. Certain things, it's life. You're gonna get thrown a lot of things. You gotta believe.”
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There is mutual interest, league sources say, for the Hawks to potentially decline their 2026-27 team option on Kuminga valued at $24.3 million in order for the sides to hash out a longer-term agreement. “That's the goal,” Kuminga said of helping the Hawks build a lasting playoff contender. “That's what we're trying to do here, what we're trying to stamp here as a group. We talk about it every day. It starts now. We're not waiting until next year.”
Brad Rowland: Update: Jonathan Kuminga is available to play tonight.
Brad Rowland: Jonathan Kuminga is available to play.
Brad Rowland: Jonathan Kuminga (left knee injury management) is questionable for Monday's game against Orlando. The rest of the Hawks injury report is clean.
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Brad Rowland: Jonathan Kuminga (left knee injury management) is OUT for Saturday afternoon against Milwaukee. Dyson Daniels is not listed on the injury report.
Lauren L. Williams: Hawks' injury report for tomorrow against the Nets Dyson Daniels (left great toe sprain) is questionable. Jonathan Kuminga (left knee bone bruise) is questionable.
Fred VanVleet: “But there’s no more free there’s no there’s no opportunity. You can’t move. You can’t keep a player. There’s no free agency anymore. Free agency is the trade deadline. Now you you have a situation like JK where it’s like we don’t want to play you, we’re not going to pay you and we’re not going to trade you. So like I feel like that part of of the CBA is where the the real harm is done at and the Second Apron is the excuse for the teams to say, ‘Oh, we can’t do anything because of Second Apron.’ So obviously I feel like everybody is going to go to the table with like an idea that we need to change that somehow.”
Brad Rowland: Update: Jonathan Kuminga is OUT tonight for the Hawks. 2nd straight absence.
