After sitting out the final 18 minutes of Thursday night's loss to the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga has lost confidence in coach Steve Kerr, and the 2021 lottery pick no longer believes Kerr will allow him to reach his full potential, sources close to Kuminga tell. The athleteWhich adds another layer of turmoil to the Warriors' already complicated season.
One source said: “(Thursday night) was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Kuminga had another solid performance on Thursday night with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting, four rebounds and four assists and a team-high plus-six in just 19 minutes of play — a trend that continues for the 6-foot-7 wing whose athleticism and increased shooting are key. An incentive for a Warriors team desperate for the pressure and youth it provides.
He converted an end-and-1 with six minutes left in the third quarter, and Kerr replaced him out of the game 12 seconds later, along with Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney. While Thompson returned to start the fourth period and Looney returned with less than eight minutes remaining, Kuminga did not.
“He was playing great,” Kerr said of Kuminga after the match. “The normal time for him to come back was about five or six minutes (of the fourth). (Andrew Wiggins) was playing great, we were going up, 18, 19, whatever it was. So we just stayed with him. Then at that (later) point, we didn't “I feel like this is the right thing to do. It had been sitting around for a while. So I stayed with the group that was there, and obviously we couldn't finish it.”
The Warriors were down 85-84 when he took Kuminga out of the game. To close the third quarter, a group that included Wiggins and did not include Kuminga helped build a 13-point lead that grew to 18 points with six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Kerr never returned to Kuminga and the Warriors continued to blow that lead, marking the fourth time this season they've let at least 18 points turn into a loss.
Kuminga and Wiggins are the Warriors' top two wings — and their theoretical best opportunity to shore up a leaky perimeter defense that has dropped the 16-18 Warriors to 20th in defensive rating.
But they didn't work together. In 131 minutes together, Kuminga and Wiggins totaled -66. Kuminga replaced Wiggins in the starting lineup 11 games ago, but Wiggins' consistent involvement in the rotation still led to some less-than-expected nights for Kuminga, even while performing well.
“Honestly, their numbers are not good together,” Kerr said late last month. “They're very redundant. So the tape and the numbers haven't been great. But we also know that we have a level that we need to get to to really compete at the highest level. And if those two guys can coexist on the floor, it gives us high athleticism and high potential. But we have to We find the right combination of people around these two people.
This issue dates back to last postseason. Kuminga has been an important part of the Warriors' rise to the No. 6 seed the last two months while Wiggins has been away from the team minding a personal matter. But when Wiggins returned for Game 1 of the playoffs, Kuminga faded from the rotation.
This is no longer the case. Kuminga has worked his way into a bigger part of the picture – he has played in every game he has been active in this season – but he still finds himself watching from the sidelines during some pivotal moments of the season. That included Christmas when he sat on the bench for the final three minutes of a loss in Denver and showed some confusion at Marcus Thompson's postgame.
“Sometimes, I come out of the game without knowing what I did,” Kuminga said. “And it messes with my head. It's like, 'What do they want me to do?' I can pass and I can make different movements.”
Now, it has become clear the erosion of trust between player and coach, and the deterioration of the partnership between two men, Kuminga and Kerr, whom Golden State needs to coexist for the future.
Kuminga, 21, who was selected No. 7 in the 2021 NBA Draft, has begun to blossom this season with increased opportunities. Kerr made Kuminga a full-time starter on December 14 against the Los Angeles Clippers after Draymond Green was suspended indefinitely. In those 11 starts, Kuminga averaged 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 56.6 percent from the field in 25.5 minutes per game. Additionally, he has scored double-digit points in his last 14 games.
The frontcourt rotation mix will get more crowded and complex when Green returns from suspension at some point relatively soon. The February 8 trade deadline is one month away, and the struggling Warriors must decide how to deal with an expensive roster that isn't currently getting it done.
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