As the Golden State Warriors end a hard-fought season, a story is brewing behind the scenes regarding young swingman Jonathan Kuminga. According to the latest intel out of San Francisco, head coach Steve Kerr and Kuminga are at odds over his habit of overlooking Stephen Curry (and other Warriors teammates) in favor of creating his own shot.
“Despite his talent, Kuminga’s propensity to look for his shot at the expense of the flow of Golden State’s offense has irked the coaching staff. During a late-season game against the Blazers, team sources say Kerr was incensed after several instances in which Kuminga looked off Curry to create his own offense,” wrote The Ringer’s Logan Murdock. “Kuminga subsequently received DNPs in the Warriors’ regular-season finale against the Clippers and then again in their play-in matchup against the Grizzlies. By the start of the playoffs, many within the organization wondered whether Kuminga, who is eligible for an extension, had played his last game as a Warrior.”
As the seventh overall pick in the 2021 Draft, Jonathan Kuminga came in with big expectations, and he’s been struggling to meet them. This season, his fourth in the league, he saw a dip in his scoring and minutes with averages of 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game on 45.4% shooting.
Throughout his career, Kuminga has been in and out of the Warriors’ rotation, but things hit a new low in this postseason when he allegedly started overlooking the Warriors’ best player in franchise history. In response to Kuminga’s mistakes, Kerr pulled him from the rotation for multiple playoff games, starting with Game 4 against the Rockets.
Kuminga Looks Ahead To Uncertain Future With The Warriors
Since Stephen Curry went down against Minnesota, the Warriors have had to fall back on Kuminga, and he’s come through for them. Over the previous three games without Curry, the young forward averaged 23.7 points on 60.0% shooting. According to Kuminga, his newfound success is long overdue, but he knows that his journey has only just begun.
“I don’t know how the future will look, but I just try to cancel out the noise and focus on getting better. If it’s going to be there, it’s going to be there. If it’s not going to be there, somebody at least, it’s going to be there for somebody else,” said Kuminga. “That’s not my main focus. My main focus is to just keep looking up. There’s always going to be ups and downs in life. The more you keep getting better every day, just starting again, anything is possible.”
With his contract set to expire at the end of this season, it’s possible that the Kuminga experiment could be over in Golden State, marking the end of a short-lived young core with him and former lottery pick James Wiseman. As Steve Kerr has made clear, the Warriors are Stephen Curry’s team, and anyone who is unwilling to defer will be cast out.
In the case of Jonathan Kuminga, the Warriors would rather not give up on one of their own, but letting him go could end up being the best path to improvement in the West. Jimmy Butler’s arrival has made Kuminga more expendable than ever, and unless he pulls off something special in this postseason, the Warriors will almost surely look the other way when it’s time to negotiate a new contract.
