{"id":465841,"date":"2026-02-08T05:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465841\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:47:09","slug":"why-jonathan-kuminga-acquisition-excites-hawks-gm-onsi-saleh-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465841\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jonathan Kuminga acquisition excites Hawks GM Onsi Saleh \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh knows Jonathan Kuminga quite well, and he couldn’t be happier to have the former Warriors forward on his team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following Atlanta’s acquisition of Kuminga<\/a> and guard Buddy Hield from Golden State in exchange for big man Kristaps Porzingis, Saleh spoke to reporters Saturday and shared what the Hawks like about Kuminga.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, I know JK really well,” said Saleh, who rose through the Warriors’ front-office ranks across three seasons as Basketball Strategy\/Assistant Team Counsel (2021-22), Director of Basketball Strategy & Team Counsel (2022-23) and then Vice President, Basketball Strategy & Team Counsel (2023-24) before he was hired by the Hawks, first as assistant GM, before the 2024-25 NBA season.<\/p>\n

“I was there for, I think, [Kuminga’s] first three years,” Saleh continued. “For us, [the trade] made sense given our timeline and what we’re trying to do. I think a 23-year-old with a ton of potential — I think the things that he helps us with are his rim pressure that he puts on. He’s a phenomenal athlete. He’s a good rebounder. I think in transition, he could be absolutely phenomenal, and he adds size at the wing position if we ever need to add another defender to guard one of these bigger wings in the league.<\/p>\n

“So, I’m really excited about Jonathan.”<\/p>\n

Saleh also praised Hield, telling reporters his “hilarious” presence will be good for the Hawks’ locker room.<\/p>\n

As for Kuminga, the traits listed by Saleh are all of the things the Warriors loved about the youngster after selecting him No. 7 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft. But filled on a team with superstars and NBA championship aspirations, Kuminga never got the chance<\/a> to develop into the player he could have been with Golden State<\/a> like a first-round pick would have on a younger team.<\/p>\n

With the Hawks, however, the 23-year-old finally might have that opportunity. And it’s clear Saleh, along with the rest of Atlanta’s front office, feel that way, too. <\/p>\n

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh knows Jonathan Kuminga quite well, and he couldn’t be happier to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,7227,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-465841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-jonathan-kuminga","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}