Jonathan Kuminga’s five-year run with the Warriors came to an end in February. Golden State traded Kuminga and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for Kristaps Porzingis. His time in Atlanta was short-lived, too. Kuminga entered free agency and eventually signed a two-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, despite receiving an offer from the Lakers.

Olden Polynice doesn’t believe Los Angeles missed out by not getting him.

The former NBA player was asked what Kuminga would have brought to the Lakers that the team didn’t already have. His answer was blunt.: Nothing. Wait a minute.” Polynice didn’t need the pause. “Nothing. He becomes another human cone,” he said, dismissing the idea of Kuminga fitting into a Lakers rotation.

A Defensive Problem Polynice Says Golden State Never Fixed

Polynice’s criticism of Kuminga isn’t about talent. It’s about focus. “Very athletic. I get it. And see, again, it ain’t about black and white. I just call it as it is. If you’re not a great defender, you’re not a good defender,” he said, framing his criticism as a basketball evaluation rather than anything personal.

From there, he got specific about what he means when he questions Kuminga’s defense. “We used to say this a long time ago. He gets a lot of brain farts as a player, meaning he loses focus. He doesn’t know what’s going on within the deep corners of his skin. Yeah, he gets lost,” Polynice said. It’s a pointed description not a lack of effort or athleticism, but repeated lapses in awareness that show up at the worst moments defensively.

Polynice doesn’t let Golden State off the hook for it, either. “And the Warriors knew that, but that’s still on you guys to teach him. And they didn’t. So I didn’t think it was going to be a great situation for him,” he said. That’s a notable distinction: Polynice isn’t arguing Kuminga is undevelopable, he’s arguing the Warriors identified the issue and failed to coach it out of him during his time in Golden State’s rotation.

That failure, in Polynice’s view, is exactly why a move to the Lakers specifically wouldn’t have worked. “We talked about this before. This Laker thing is a different animal. It’s a different beast. You got to be right here mentally to play here. You got to be a certain type of person, certain type of play,” he said. The implication is that the Lakers’ environment the pressure, the expectations, the spotlight requires a level of mental sharpness that compounds a player’s existing focus issues rather than fixing them.

Polynice closed with the same conclusion he opened with. “And I just didn’t believe that he was going to add to this team. Okay, the Lakers don’t need more offense,” Polynice isn’t saying Kuminga can’t score or that he lacks athletic ability. His issue is what happens when the Lakers need him on defense. With Doncic and James already handling much of the team’s offense, Polynice believes the Lakers needed a player they could rely on defensively more than another scoring option. In his view, Kuminga’s lapses in focus would have made that difficult.

The Lakers ultimately didn’t land Kuminga. After considering multiple options in free agency, he chose Minnesota on a two-year deal and is now set to join Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves. ESPN reported that the Lakers were among the teams to make him an offer, making the Lakers connection more than simply an old trade rumor.

Polynice’s assessment remains theoretical, but the timing gives his comments a clear “what if” angle. Kuminga will now get a fresh opportunity in Minnesota, while the Lakers will move forward without the athletic forward Polynice believes would have added little to their roster.