Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga hasn’t had the best of times lately. Kuminga lost his spot in the starting lineup in Wednesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs and also had to leave that contest early due to bilateral knee patellar tendonitis.
Despite Kuminga’s absence, the Warriors managed to beat the Spurs 125-120 at Frost Bank Center. It was an impressive road win, and they repeated the feat when the teams met again on Friday. With Kuminga out, the Warriors won the rematch 109-108, and that led to The San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami making some interesting statements on X postgame.
“I’ll be accused of being mean for this, but I’ll just say that these were the best two games of the Warriors’ season so far … and Kuminga played 12 minutes in the 1st one and none in this one. I’m NOT saying he’s a bad player or useless. I’m saying that this is worth noting.”
Kawakami’s remarks came to the attention of Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, and it’s safe to say he didn’t like them. Turner made it clear the Warriors’ success had more to do with Stephen Curry getting back to his best.
“I would more just accuse you of being stupid, if Steph averaged 48PPG on the road the Warriors would have started 8-1. The lakers and Nuggets wins weren’t great games? Steph was sick and now he’s not.”
Curry had missed three straight games earlier in October due to illness. The two-time MVP had just 11 points in his first game back against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but then exploded against the Spurs. Curry had 46 points in the first game and then 49 in the second.
While a player’s agent responding to a reporter might have surprised some, Kawakami stated he expected to hear from Turner.
“A-Rock chimes in! Figured he would. You represent JK. Fair agenda, but sorta… an agenda. I’m the worst. Or I’m stupid. Whichever you want.”
Kawakami didn’t seem all too interested to debate on the topic, but Turner stressed he was being incredibly unfair to his client.
“It’s fine to say JK can do this better or that better. But to even hint his absence is why they won, when Steph played amazing and hadn’t been playing well cause he wasn’t right in previous games, is totally unfair to JK.”
Kawakami, though, stated he can point to a larger sample size. He noted that the Warriors played their best last season when the Congolese forward wasn’t on the court.
“You represent him. I’m respecting that. But the Warriors playing their best games at the end of last season when Kuminga was hurt/benched was a real thing. Just happened again twice in San Antonio after the OKC loss. I didn’t blame JK for anything. I said it’s worth noting.”
Turner wasn’t interested in speaking about last season, however. He felt these two games would be worth noting only if Curry had played average or below average.
Ultimately, this comes down to the belief that Kawakami and many others have about Kuminga not being a perfect fit with the Warriors. It’s why the 23-year-old had an inconsistent role on the team in his first four seasons, but that appeared to change this time around.
Kuminga was given a spot in the starting lineup to begin the season and impressed to the point that head coach Steve Kerr declared he’d be a starter moving forward after four games. The Warriors were 3-1 at that stage, and things were going well. Unfortunately, they stumbled a bit afterward.
The Warriors had dropped to 6-6 when Kerr decided to have Kuminga come off the bench for rookie Will Richard. It will be very interesting to see how this situation unfolds in the coming months.
Kuminga, who is averaging 13.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.4 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in 2025-26, missed Sunday’s 124-106 win over the New Orleans Pelicans as well. The Warriors improved to 9-6 with the win and will take on the Orlando Magic next at the Kia Center on Tuesday at 7 PM ET.
