Without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green available on Thursday vs. Houston, Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga had his best game so far this fall — his 33 points, seven rebounds, and 33 minutes were all season highs, and as Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes, Kuminga played an important role in crunch time to help Golden State secure a hard-fought victory.
Kuminga’s role and playing time have been inconsistent this season, in part because the Warriors have such a deep rotation and head coach Steve Kerr has been adamant about starting a center next to Green. Kuminga, who has been in and out of the starting lineup, has been at his best when he’s played at power forward rather than at the three alongside Green and a center. Kuminga has been at the four in each of the Warriors’ past two games, starting next to Looney in the frontcourt with Green sidelined.
“The floor has been opened up a little bit the last couple games for JK,” Kerr said. “But can we get him out there more with Draymond, with Loon? But as a (power forward) like he’s been playing the last couple of nights. That’s really the key. We just have a lot of guys, so we have to sort through all this. But there’s no question we can do more of this.”
As Shams Charania said during a Friday appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today (Twitter video link), the Warriors continue to seek a star to complement Curry after missing out on Paul George and Lauri Markkanen over the offseason. The question, Charania says, is whether that star needs to be acquired externally or whether a current Warrior like Kuminga could still become that player.
“That relationship between Jonathan Kuminga and Steve Kerr is something that Warriors officials have been monitoring over the last year or so,” Charania said. “How he fits in when Stephen Curry and Draymond Green will be interesting to monitor.”
We have more from around the Pacific:
- The Warriors should get a chance on Friday to assess how to best use Kuminga with both Curry and Green available. According to Slater (Twitter link), both players are listed as probable to play vs. Minnesota. Curry was out on Thursday due to bilateral knee injury management, while Green missed back-to-back games with left calf tightness.
- After spending a few years as a secondary offensive option in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, James Harden has been back in a featured role as the Clippers‘ offensive engine this fall — his usage rate of 30.3% is his highest mark since his last full season in Houston in 2019/20. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (Insider link), Harden has been “almost universally” praised within the Clippers’ organization for his leadership and offensive impact, and sources close to the team have cited his bond with new assistant Jeff Van Gundy as an important factor in Harden’s day-to-day preparation. The Clippers guard is also dedicated to getting “the most sleep of his life” to stay sharp at age 35, Windhorst adds.
- Within that same ESPN Insider story, Windhorst and Bontemps spoke to rival NBA executives who questioned DeMar DeRozan‘s fit with the Kings, pointing out that the veteran forward operates in the same areas of the court as De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis and “hasn’t driven winning” in San Antonio, Chicago, and Sacramento. While the Kings are off to a disappointing 10-13 start this season, it’s unclear whether the fit of the DeRozan/Fox/Sabonis trio is the issue. As Bontemps observes, the club has a +6.5 net rating in the trio’s 420 minutes on the court together.
Kuminga should play SF. At 6’8 and 210 he’s the prototypical SF. He needs to improve his outside shooting if he wants to get closer to that max contract he wants. As of now he’s nowhere near
You look at his stats. 60% of his shots come from 0-10 feet. His shooting % beyond that is kinda atrocious. He becomes easy to defend. But, against Houston, he shot 3 for 6 from 3 point land. No wonder he had 33 points.
Davey J would recommend Moody getting Iverson like numbers for minutes per game. Around 45 minutes per game to see him score 30+ with the team likely losing by 50+ due to his non effort on defense.
Kuminga looks lost. He’s taken a step back. Stardom is not on the docket.
The shedule hasn’t even begun to bite the Warriors on the backside yet. Lakers stink. Yew pacific. We never get complaints on here win the Warriors win foe free throw count lol.
What are you whining about? I am having trouble making sense of what you wrote, “win foe free count lol”. What does that mean? What sort of complaints do you need to hear to be happy? Why care about games months from now?
Kuminga plays 24 mins. Got no respect to him.
He plays same position as Wiggins. Chooooooooooseeeee
Any reason why they can’t play multiple positions?
Al, you’re smart, but if you followed GSW you’d know that we learned last year that Wiggins and Kuminga are complementary. We finished 27-12 last year after we decided to start them together, and sit Klay.
Over the Warriors last 3000 possessions, Wiggins and Kuminga together are in 3 of our 4 best lineup combos (by point differential).
Wiggins is more of a 2/3 and JK more of a 3/4. This year, JK is being used as a 4. If you read
Kinda crazy to realize, even with Steph, the Warriors just don’t have enough offense to legitimately challenge for a championship. I think this is why they tried to get Lauri and PG, they would’ve centerpieced Kuminga for either of those two in a heartbeat.
I’m happy that Harden has discovered that sleep is necessary for a human being to perform at a high level. I wonder how many games he played on fumes because he hadn’t slept the night before?
Debo is not the reason the Kings are underperforming. Abysmal 3pt shooting is the reason (or at least the biggest reason). 33.8% as a team is ridiculous. They’ve looked better as of late and the 3pt numbers look way better in their last 5 games but Keegan Murray couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Not sure how he stays on this roster if Vivek and Monte are actually serious about making the playoffs. 28% from the guy who’s supposed to be the best shooter on the team…
Time will tell