Warriors’ Draymond Green praises Jonathan Kuminga’s ‘elite’ early-season defense

If Warriors star forward Draymond Green is complimenting your defense, you’re doing something right.The 2017 Defensive Player of the Year praised teammate Jonathan Kuminga’s exponential growth in front of the ball on Thursday’s episode of “The Draymond Green Show” podcast.“What Jonathan Kuminga has been doing,” Green said. ”I want to talk about it. JK, the way he is defending. We told him at the beginning of the season, like, ‘If you want to do it differently, become All-Defense.’” Although the 2025-26 NBA season is young, the young wing Kuminga already is proving to be a difference on both sides of the ball for the Warriors. Through six games, Kuminga’s 7.5 rebounds per game are a team high. The 22-year-old, previously criticized for defensive lapses in earlier seasons, has silenced his detractors by delivering strong performances against some of the league’s top scorers.So much so that Green, arguably one of the best defenders of his generation, is acknowledging Kuminga’s impressive defensive performance.“And that man guarded the shit out of Ja Morant on Monday night and then...