GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 13, 2023

Jonathan Kuminga

Media Conference

Q. Donte was talking about the role changes, and how it got harder when everybody came back and you were one of the guys that when Wiggs was out, you got a lot of minutes. What was that like for you when players come back and you guys are going into a postseason stretch to have your minutes change, and what did you learn from that experience?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I mean, I had to get adapted to it. You know, it was just my second year in the league, and I feel like the people that came back, I've established more, especially here. It's nothing I that really could do to change that. I just have to get used to it and that's it.

Q. Do you feel you got enough run time to grow your game more this season?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: Definitely. Definitely.

Q. How did you grow?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I mean, just a lot of people being out gave me chances to go out there and play a lot of minutes and kind of learn the game and being around the team more, and just playing more. I feel like that really helped me, and knowing what I really need to work on coming back next season.

Q. Just where is your head at heading into this off-season, and I guess this is a double-barrel question, but is it hard to practice patience when you want to have a bigger role and you're playing behind some guys?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: It's not hard to practice patience. It's not. It just depends on people. You've just got to -- you've just got to be patient. I don't know how else I could say it. But you've got to know where you're at at some point, and you've got to know what the other people have established that's ahead of you. And as much as you're patient, a lot of things to change. A lot of things could come your way.

So I feel like throughout the middle of the season, I was patient and things are changing and things are happening and I felt that helped me to go out there and perform because I was patient and my patience helped me to grind every day, to get better every day.

Q. I know you're somebody that wants to be able to do everything on the court, but do you have a top priority for one part of your game you're really trying to grow this off-season?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: Basically everything. But focusing more on rebounding. I think that's the biggest thing that I've got to go back and watch all the clips and learn how to rebound more and hopefully come back and start like Loon, hopefully one day.

I just feel like getting better at everything. Just being a complete player.

Q. Everyone needs a rest or a reset when does your off-season work start for you?

JONATHAN KUMINGA:

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I have no idea.

Q. What's it like on a personal level to have somebody like IG here with you? You guys are always chopping it up. I think you guys live together; right? How much has he helped you translate as a pro, just having somebody like that in your corner?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: It's nice, as a pro, I feel like just having him around just helps mental-wise. We are human at the end of the day. There are days that your day don't go the way you want it, and you've got people like him around you that don't matter how mad or how frustrated or whatever mood you're in, he's always going to stand up for himself and speak, and it don't matter if you like it or not. That's the type of person that IG is, and I love having him around, because it's like he stands up and he push me to anything.

Q. Are you guys going to go to Africa? He said that you guys might go back to Africa this summer. Is that something you're planning on doing?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: We both are coming from -- we both came from Africa. So it will be cool if we both go back out there. I think that's the plan. We working on it. But the schedule haven't came out because we didn't know we were going to lose yesterday.

Q. But you want to go back to Goma? Is that the plan? You want to go back home.

JONATHAN KUMINGA: Yeah, that's definitely where I came from. I haven't been out there in years. I would love to go out there and just see how everything changed and hopefully get to help a lot of people.

Q. Have you had your exit interview meeting with the organization at this point?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I just had it a couple minutes ago.

Q. What message did the organization have for you in that meeting?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: They just happy with the way I have grew. Pretty much they want me to keep adding on what I did this year, keep learning the game and just growing more, figuring out how I can impact even more on winning. And I think that's what's been my goal to just figure it out how I can impact on winning.

Q. You guys won a championship last year obviously, but you're done this year. To you what was the biggest difference from this team last year versus this year?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I would say the difference was just having those many injuries that we had in the middle of the season this year, people coming, people leaving in and out. I felt like the chemistry did not really click until the end of the season, and that's really how we even got better when we got to the playoffs.

Last year I felt like most of the time, there wasn't too many injuries, and everybody was here.

Q. It's probably the end of Andre Iguodala's career, how much has he helped you these first couple years, and just being a mentor, someone you can go to for voice?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I would say Andre is even more than a mentor. He's like a big brother to me. I have learned so much from him, the same way he learned so much from me. Hopefully get to come back next year.

But it don't matter, whatever he decide to do, I feel like our relation won't stop because of basketball. It's always going to be there no matter what.