Steve Kerr offers blunt explanation for Jonathan Kuminga’s limited role this season

Steve Kerr offers blunt explanation for Jonathan Kuminga’s limited role this season

The Golden State Warriors’ season came to an unfortunate close last week at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Stephen Curry was hurt for all but 13 minutes, Jimmy Butler didn’t look aggressive amid his pelvic injury and Golden State saw inconsistent outputs elsewhere from Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield and Moses Moody.

Though one player who stepped up to the plate when needed was Jonathan Kuminga, who saw extended run in Curry’s absence. Yet, his minutes–or lack thereof–have drawn confusion throughout the season after the 22-year-old’s breakout 2023-24 campaign.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr offered a blunt response about why Kuminga–who will be a restricted free agent this offseason–didn’t quite have the opportunity to blossom in a bigger role.

“It’s a tricky one because Jonathan obviously is gifted and wants to play a bigger role and wants to play more,” Kerr said, according to Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard. “And for me, I’ve been asked to win. And right now, he’s not a guy who I can say I’m going to play 38 minutes with the roster that we have—Steph and Jimmy and Draymond—and put the puzzle together that way and expect to win.

“All I do is I try to win. That doesn’t necessarily mean everybody’s going to be happy, whether it’s the fans, or the players, or management, whatever, it’s just I’ve gotta do what I think is best.”

After averaging a career-high 16.1 points on 59.8 percent true shooting in 74 games last year, Kuminga averaged 15.3 points on 53.5 percent true shooting, albeit in just 47 games. His efficiency and overall impact was down across the board, which didn’t help his cause fighting for a rotation spot.

Kerr addressed the elephant in the room: The role they were trying to carve for the former top-10 with the pieces they had didn’t quite mesh to the level it needed to.

“With his athleticism, running the floor, putting pressure on the rim, offensive rebounds, getting into the dunker (spot) … going up and dunking, guarding everybody at the other end,” he said. “To me, that’s what he’s really built for. And we’ve really pushed him in that direction. 

“And I think sometimes with young players, there’s a process. I think Aaron Gordon is a good example, he spent years in Orlando where he really wanted to be the scorer and the lead guy. And had some success, like JK has. And maybe didn’t really didn’t find his role and find himself ’til later. … I think right now he is a ball-dominant player, 92nd percentile in usage rate this year in the NBA. That’s really high. On a team with Steph and Jimmy, I mean, honestly, Steph’s gonna have the ball, Jimmy’s gonna have the ball, you know? And so the fit is tricky, there’s no question.”

The Golden State Warriors may be screwed

The Warriors aren’t in a great position to begin with this offseason with 90 percent of their cap allocated to Curry, Green and Butler. They will have to get creative if they want to add enough to compete in the West.

Plus, barring something unforeseen, Kuminga’s time in The Bay is likely over. It may be the best for both sides. Though I will be fascinated to see what his market looks like because he has plenty of untapped potential that will only be unlocked in the right situation.

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