Although Jonathan Kuminga showed promise in an increased role during his second NBA season, the young forward wasn’t part of the Warriors’ playoff rotation, receiving three DNP-CDs in the postseason and playing more than 10 minutes in just one game. As Anthony Slater of The Athletic relays, head coach Steve Kerr explained the thinking behind that decision in his end-of-season media session earlier this week.
“The biggest thing was with (Andrew Wiggins) and Gary (Payton II) in place again, it lessened the need for what JK’s strength is right now, which is on-ball defense,” Kerr said. “The best way for Jonathan — and I told him this — the best way for him to get more playing time is to become a more versatile player.
“… The more things you can do, the more easy it is to fit into a five-man lineup. Rebounding is a huge thing for JK. If he’s going to be a great player in this league, he’s got to rebound. A four-man with that kind of size and athleticism, that’s the next step, and continuing to work on all the things that he’s working on already, the shooting and the ball handling and the court vision, understanding what’s happening on the floor. It’s all going to get better because he’s so young and because he’s willing to work.”
A report last week indicated that Kuminga’s representatives would talk to the Warriors about the 20-year-old’s role going forward and may prefer a change of scenery for their client if his minutes continue to be inconsistent. However, Kerr’s comments suggested that he’s looking forward to incorporating the former lottery pick into his rotation in 2023/24 — he expressed confidence in Kuminga’s potential to break out in his third NBA season.
“If you look at Jonathan’s regular season, he did some great things,” Kerr said, per Slater. “I tell him all the time, he’s got 15 years ahead of him. He’s got such a long career ahead. He’s got a lot of ability and he’s just in the process of learning the NBA game.”
Here’s more out of Golden State:
- After Marc J. Spears of Andscape reported that Mike Dunleavy Jr. represented the Warriors at this week’s general manager meetings in Chicago, Slater cautioned (via Twitter) that it wasn’t necessarily a hint at Bob Myers‘ plans for his future, since Dunleavy has stood in for Myers in other capacities in the past. Slater points out that Dunleavy’s role as Golden State’s “backup” GM is one reason why he’s widely viewed as Myers’ eventual successor.
- If Myers does decide to remain in his president/GM position with the Warriors, the expectation is that his annual salary will surpass $10MM, says Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. A report this week stated that the two sides hadn’t engaged in real negotiations in months and remain far apart.
- Tim Kawakami and Danny Leroux of The Athletic take a closer look at how the Warriors will be affected by the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, with Leroux noting that many of the more punitive restrictions for teams above the new second tax apron won’t go into effect right away. However, Leroux believes that teams over the second apron – including Golden State – will be prohibited from using the taxpayer mid-level exception and signing buyout players in 2023/24.
Kuminga getting traded will all depend on Green getting resigned. I would let Green go and give Kuminga the starting job. Green is showing way too much loyalty to LeBron over Warriors. Time to get team chemistry right again and let Green walk.
2 timelines have backfired. Not only Warriors had a bad yr, but they failed to develop their young players. :(
its nice that a 2nd round playoff exit is considered a bad year. says a lot about their dynasty.
Glad you think that’s nice, because you’re going to be seeing a lot of it from now on.
@Larry Brown’s crank
Now you are starting to understand the constant moving of the goalposts by the weak minded haters when it comes to talking about the Warriors greatness.
lot of hatorade in here. I get it though. 29 other teams are tired of seeing the Warriors win every other year. I got tired of seeing Tom Brady win all the time too. dynasties don’t last forever, and so be it. im loyal since ’76, so I’ve been in the mud for decades. 4 trophies will do me just fine for a while.
Stop holding on to the past and move forward is what they need. Like many teams that had success they think throwing out the same old guys will mean championship. What will be a big turning point is Thompson. He needs to take a huge pay cut next year.
“Holding onto the past” yeah, and “the past” in this case should mean “thinking Steve Kerr is a competent HC in the NBA” because this season proved that is factually untrue.
and why did it backfire? Because the HC is incapable of doing this. Instead of getting rid of an incompetent HC who refuses to develop players, GSW decided to let the incompetent HC decide the future of the team – not good.
The problem is Meyers and Kerr’s timelines are different and they are not on the same wave length. They need to draft players they want now to win instead of drafting raw players on a different time line.
2 different opinions within the organization. Bottom line the experiment failed miserably. Instead of making a tough decision to either win now, or full rebuild, they chose the weak option of 2 timelines. Now, they cant choose 1 without a risk of failure. It’s a mess. :(
They didnt even stick to the 2 timelines, Kerr singlehandedly ran Wiseman out of town, like a coward who refused to do his job.
Why cant you read this situation correctly? Kerr straight up got handed the 2 timelines and actively refused to do his job, playing 2way scrubs all year over the second timeline, which is straight up malpractice.
Kerr had no business doing what he did to Wiseman, Baldwin, Kuminga and Moody all year. All 4 should have seen every single minute Lamb+Jerome got. Instead Kerr stuck to the failed 3 guard lineups for 75% of the game dumb gameplan.
Steph is going to want Draymond back. He quietly makes his preferences known and often gets what he wants (e.g. Wiseman not on the floor with him). So, my money would be on Draymond getting extended and if possible Poole being traded along with Kuminga for an established player(s).
Warriors had a choice to bring in another star, but chose to have 2 timelines. Instead of doing well in one, they did so so in both. In fact, they did terribly developing their youngs. Their young players value have plummeted. :(
That is not true. There was no chance to bring in another star given their cap situation. They were fortunate that KD agreed to do a sign and trade which allowed them to get DLo and flip him for Wiggins. Other than that they were stuck with drafting guys, the MLE, and veteran min contracts. The mistake was drafting two guys in Wiseman and Kuminga who were the least ready to contribute and in Wiseman’s case didn’t fit with a style of play that was built around Steph.
Loyalty to LBJ? Green is the absolute last player I would ever accuse of letting off-court relations interfere with him playing 110% tough physical ball.
You would know if you watched him for the past 10 yrs. It was weird as heck, and he pretended to be tough with AD. Whatever it was, it wasnt the usual Draymond.
Green who played at Michigan State. I’m sure would love to end his career in Detroit. He can help the kids grow up. I mean he really is needed there. Plus the fan base would welcome him back.
Warriors can undo a wrong. A be get Wiseman back. I think it works for both teams. Go big with a front line of Wiseman and Looney.
Wiseman (C), Looney ( PF), Wiggins (SF), Klay (SG), Curry (PG). Kuminga, Payton, Moody, Poole ……. What’s wrong with this.
Just because he grew up in Michigan doesn’t mean he wants to play for the Pistons. KD grew up in DC yet wants nothing to do with the Wizards. Curry grew up near Charlotte and wants nothing to do with the Hornets. Dray wants to computer and that’s not happening in Detroit. I assume his kids live in the Bay Area not Michigan.
Wiseman, Kuminga, Moody will not be happy. They dont want to waste another yr expecially with extensions coming up.
somebody want to tell michol?
Ok, I know salary caps and/or luxury tax levels have been in sports for quite a while now, but I’m still not a fan of it. Why shouldn’t a team be allowed to spend what they feel comfortable spending. I’m not a Warriors fan at all, but they built most of this dynasty through drafting a player development. Wiggins’ career was not great before he got to the Warriors, but he learned how to play defence and shoot. Now he’s a valuable piece.
I can understand why caps were needed 25-30 years ago, but now things such as TV deals are so much better, there is no team that should really be losing money. If they are, it’s that they’re in a city that doesn’t support them such as the Tampa Rays or Arizona Coyotes. When that’s the case, allow them to move.
The Warriors not being able to use their taxpayer mid-level is BS. They’re over the cap because they drafted, developed and re-signed their own. I guess we should punish teams for that!
Without salary caps, you get crap like the Yankees and Dodgers in baseball. The Yankees haven’t had a season below .500 in 28 years, and show no signs of slowing down. The Dodgers have cornered the market on scouting and player development because they’ve put endless amounts of money into it, on top of baseball’s most expensive roster, on top of not dropping below .500 in over a decade. The only reason they haven’t been even more ridiculous is because baseball has a soft cap in the form of the luxury tax. They haven’t won that many World Series solely because the playoffs in MLB are more random chance than in any other sport, but that hasn’t stopped them from utterly dominating elsewhere.
That said, the restrictions placed on over-the-cap teams in the new NBA CBA are bullcrap. That’s abjectly unfair, I agree with that. But as a MLB fan, I desperately wish there was a salary cap.
If you have a salary cap you need to have a minimum cap too. See Oakland A’s where a owner can sell off stars for profit.
Yeah, don’t like that either. But the NBA has that, too. So I’m fine with the way it is, not the way it will be when the new CBA kicks in.
“I tell him all the time, he’s got 15 years ahead of him. He’s got such a long career ahead.”
Ah yes, the NBA, where players constantly get better and more healthy as they age. Kerr is a lunatic for saying moronic comments like these. Kuminga is ready, if he was in the rotation GSW likely beats the Lakers, Kerr is the dumbest person in the NBA, period. Fire Steve Kerr and GSW will chip every year after.
You seem angry. It’s bizarre.
Why is it bizarre? I am a Warriors fan, and we just lost in the playoffs to a team we are way better than, and we lost due to one reason: a HC who doesnt have a clue what to do.
Why are you so emotional about Curry? It’s embarrassing. How are they going to win when they can’t make it out of the second round? Against THAT Lakers team? Please.
cope more – GSW had the best roster all year and you know it
Players do get better as they age though… Curry is better now than he was when he got to the league. Giannis got way better. Embiid was an MVP this year after a rough start. Do you need more examples? There are a lot.
This is a case where you are absolutely caught flat-footed with your pants down. Sorry to embarass you in front of everyone.
GSW has to get off of the “he’s so young” stuff as their lead point in discussing their recent lottery picks. Everyone knows his age. More importantly, they also know he is going into the 3rd year of a RSC, a wasting asset. I’m not sure what value another team might place on that contract, but if its greater than the value GSW places on it (which doesn’t seem like a high bar right now), then moving it should be strongly considered.
Ideally if they could kick the can down the road and get a Draft pick from a lottery team in the 10 to 18 range for Kuminga and/or Moody that would be great.
Kerr thinks Kuminga’s biggest asset is his “on ball defense”? That delusion Warriors fan might have been right lol
He has to pick something and it’s not his shooting, ball handling, rebounding, or ability to get a bucket in general. So yes his on the ball defense is fantastic lol.
Every single thing Steve Kerr said is 1000% accurate, and is an example of why he is one of the top 3 coaches in the league for so long, and why they keep winning. I’ve said all of those things for years…
That being said, without Iguodala, he should have played in that matchup. Obviously, that’s also why losing Porter hurt so much, b/c they didnt have a 4/3 that could shoot and also defend slightly more than adequately, and be interchangeable, or play off of each other. Regardless though, I thought they could have used him in the matchup, instead of some of the multiguard lineups they went to, or even Jamychal at the 5 instead, as they did.
It is what it is though; it happens to all of them, and they still easily could have won that series if they did certain things better/made more shots
Every single thing Kerr said sounded like the dumbest, most insane thing of all-time and it says a lot about you as a person if you agree with any of that gibberish. Kerr gets rings run around him by every other coach in the league who has a halfway decent team. Ty Lue clears Kerr easily.
“That being said” you clearly made this post to personally troll me, thats obvious – enough of that, stick to the topic on hand.
GSW wins in 4 if the refs dont hand the Lakers game 1 and Kuminga plays 30+ MPG. Kerr put him in the doghouse because he was hellbent on winning with majority 3-guard lineups, which is idiotic. Kerr admits he loves losing though, so this is clearly on him and not Steph.
You definitely put a lot of stock into thinking I even know what you are referring to, in reference to yourself…
4 rings
Just to ram it home here:
The best single on-court 5 of any team in this season was Looney-Dray-Wiggins-Klay-Steph by a long, long way. Look up the stats. If you have that, and cant get out of the 2nd round, you are bad at coaching in the NBA. You just have to play that unit for like 25 minutes together and you win. Kerr found ways to not do that. That is the sign of an awful HC.
Yeah, and how were those stats on the road? And how is Kerr supposed to keep Draymond on the floor when he is doing everything in his power to foul out of games? Or when Klay goes ice cold for quarters at a time? How do you coach that?
I’ll wait…
I would remind everyone that San Francisco Warriors had Nate Thurmond and Wilt Chamberlain in the starting line up, and never won a Championship.They moved to Oakland. Changed their name to Golden State to save money. They were to move to Sacramento or Anaheim. They traded Nate Thurmond for Clifford Ray, and cash, so that the franchise cold stay afoat. They won a ring.
Face facts. Larry Riley did all the dirty work.
@8rings Hard to break the realiy news to you. Awful Head Coaches don’t win games. Why don’t you understand this basic concept.