As we relayed on Friday, the Warriors continue to seek, whether internally or externally, another star player to pair with Stephen Curry. Golden State wants to give Jonathan Kuminga a chance to show whether he can become that star, so with Curry and Draymond Green returning from injury in Friday’s game, the team moved Green to the bench with Kuminga starting at power forward.
According to The Athletic’s Anthony Slater (Twitter link), the Warriors would like to keep Kuminga in the starting lineup and Green on the bench in the near future. Head coach Steve Kerr said the goal is to maximize Kuminga and not wear down the 34-year-old Green.
For his part, Green expressed support for the move. The four-time All-Star said he isn’t sure how long this particular lineup change will last, but that he wants to fully uplift Kuminga if the franchise thinks he’s a star-caliber player and that this is the best way to maximize his talents moving forward, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk writes.
“I don’t necessarily look at it as like this demotion,” Green said. “I’m a starter in the NBA. I know that. But if it’s something to try to help this team win, I’m always going to be for it. I hate losing. I care about this organization, and I know a lot of people in this organization, including myself, think he’s next. And so if he’s next, at some point we got to see it.”
When former Warriors forward David Lee got injured during the 2014/15 season, Green took over for him as a starter, taking off and eventually helping Golden State claim a title that year. Green said he’s not interested in acting as a roadblock for Kuminga’s potential success in the league.
“I am a product of my vet being willing to take a backseat for me,” Green said. “So you got to give back what came to you. That’s what this is about.”
The calculus for what exactly Golden State’s rotation looks like is somewhat in question after starter Andrew Wiggins and reserve Moses Moody both exited the game with injuries. Wiggins limped to the locker room early in the third quarter before eventually being ruled out with an ankle injury. Moody is dealing with knee soreness. Regardless of how the starting unit looks until the team is healthier, the plan is for Green to close out halves at center.
One game after recording a season-high 33 points against Houston, Kuminga scored just 13 on Friday against Minnesota, though he was the team’s second-highest scorer behind Curry, with the Warriors getting to just 90 points on the night.
Kuminga is averaging 14.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game this year while shooting 44.8% from the field and 31.1% from three. Those numbers are down from last season, but he’s averaging 19.2 PPG in his last five games, four of which were starts.
“For us to be good, you saw flashes against Houston, we need him to be his best version,” Curry said, per Youngmisuk.
In 22, they started getting hit with injuries at this point. Time for other players to step up. Buddy Heild has been silent lately. If not, the draft is pretty deep.
The Wiggins loss was brutal, he been playong so well and they really needed him last night (and every night honestly).
Wiggins has been so good this year so far (other than the FTs but that’s been the
entire team other than Steph LOL).
I almost think maybe he should’ve just taken off the 2nd half of last year to deal with his father’s health and just play JK/Moody more to see what they really had or to just give them more reps.
I know, hindsight is always 20/20.
dezpoo, couldn’t agree more, Wiggins is playing exceptionally at or near an All-Star level.
Assuming Wiggins is healthy, Kerr should increase his minutes from the current 28 to, say, 34 per game (the average for an NBA starter). Wiggins averaged 35 minutes per game in Minnesota, played > 32 in his All-Start 2021-22 season.
Wiggins has recently said (politely, of course) that he’d love to play more minutes. Wiggins said that he’d like to be a > 20 ppg scorer again, along with being All-Defense. If he played 6 more minutes per game, he projects to score 20 ppg.
IMO, it’s coaching malpractice to take minutes away from a two-way star like Andrew Wiggins to play your 12th and 13th best players.
Wiggins is the Warriors best player
3 pts
Wiggins 43%
Hield 42%
Curry 41%
Wiggins and Melton for Ingram and 2 Firsts?
I say no
Ingram came out and said he would never play for Kerr. When he was on the cup team he was benched because of his poor defense. Ingram said he doesn’t fit Kerr type of offense. There is no way the warriors would trade for Ingram.
The rotation remains an obvious problem. If Kerr continues in this mode (he played 13 last night, even before Wiggins and Moody went down), we’ll continue to see splits like this:
– Waters: 20 mins, 2-7, 6 pts, 0 ast
– Payton: 17 mins, 0-3, 1 pts, 1 ast
NBA teams can’t win playing their 9-13 best players at these levels. There is no precedent for it. It’s especially unsuccessful against strong opponents.
This roster can win 48-54 games if Kerr allocates minutes in proportion to performance. There are at least 2 immediate remedies. Assuming health (Wiggins was hurt last night), that starts with:
1. Wiggins & JK play like starters: 34 mins per game. That means taking 20 minutes away from lesser players.
2. Use a 9-10 man rotation in each game.
This next month projects as disastrous unless Kerr changes. We’ll be under .500 by the New Year.
For those that argue Wiggins and Kuminga can’t play with certain other players and rotations, the data from the last 1.25 seasons disagrees. You can play one or both of them with or without Draymond and/or Steph, with or without TJD or Looney — no matter what, you’re better off.
The problem last 6 games is no scorer off the bench. Hield had done nothing. The offense sputters in the second half. The other problem is a PG for assist. Not much ball movement and a lot of terrible passes. Teams are double guarding Curry and nobody is stepping up.
arc89 , you’re right that we haven’t had as much scoring off the bench lately and that our turnovers are too high. Some conventional coaching remedies:
1. NBA teams shorten their bench, using their best players more, against stronger opponents. Giving away your starters’ minutes to lesser players hurts more against Minnesota and Denver than against Utah and Portland. For example, Lindy Waters will be outmatched against Anthony Edward’s.
2. Shooters, like Hield and Moody (who scored 13 0ts against Denver), need regular and predictable minutes. This is not an urban legend. A player that shoots 40% from deep playing 24 minutes per game will tend not shoot as well, much less end a slump, if his minutes are dramatically reduced.
3. Turnovers are dramatically increased by irregular rotations, and reduced with consistent rotations. Unsurprisingly, the Warriors’ rotations are currently the least consistent, and most varied in the league. Using consistent rotations may not change Steph’s and Draymond’s turnovers, but it would help the rest.
last night game was frustrating on the TO that kept happening. So Kerr blast Podz about bad passes but there was so many long passes that was thrown away.
You are ignoring the problem. Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney/Draymond are not outside shooters. Kuminga has struggled to shoot the 3 this year. Teams can sag 2 defenders to the basket and take away their shooting. They can then double up Curry. The Warriors offense becomes non-existent. If Kuminga wants his $30+ million a year, he needs to show that he is not one dimensional on the offensive end.
Replace Payton with Wiggins. Payton is not guarded at all. He needs to work on his 3pt shooting. TJD is frustrating too. He can dunk but nothing else. He needs to develop a mid range shot. Watch him on offense he hangs around the top of the 3 pt line too much allowing the defense cheat and guard the basket. Kerr needs him to wait in the corner 3pt so it draws one of the defenders out of the key.
You might want to let Andrew Wiggins know he’s not an outside shooter, so far he’s hitting at .427 on 5.2 attempts per game.
Yeah that was a weird statement. Wiggins definitely has an outside J.
Wiggins doesn’t attempt a lot of shots.
giants74, that’s nonsense. Let’s start with this:
> If Kuminga wants his $30+ million a year, he needs
> to show that he is not one dimensional on the
> offensive end.
Kuminga has been offered $30M/yr by GSW already, and he’ll be making more than that for years after Kerr is retired in 18 months. I’ll assume you saw him score 33pts on Thursday night in a rare start, but here are his numbers from last season in the 30 consecutive games following his promotion in late January. HINT: HE WAS ELITE (AND STEPH WAS BETTER WITH HIM ON THE FLOOR.)
Game Mins Pts
38 MIL 29:36 28
39 MEM 29:07 20
40 ATL 28:51 25
41 SAC 30:11 31
42 LAL 43:11 22
43 PHI 39:03 26
44 MEM 36:58 29
45 ATL 34:14 16
46 BRK 33:02 28
47 PHI 29:11 18
48 IND 33:26 18
49 PHO 34:15 21
50 UTA 27:06 14
51 LAC 34:47 13
52 UTA 24:28 13
53 LAL 24:11 12
54 CHO 28:23 6
55 DEN 24:41 19
56 WAS 28:11 21
57 NYK 30:07 25
58 TOR 27:16 24
59 BOS 19:40 6
60 MIL 25:00 20
61 CHI 32:35 19
62 SAS 30:21 26
63 SAS 31:08 22
64 DAL 35:12 27
65 LAL 31:08 23
66 NYK 25:35 16
67 MEM 28:00 26
Summary
“FG% 241/437 (55.1%)”
“3PT% 22/60 (36.7%)”
“FT% 110/139 (79.1%)”
“Avg Points/Game” “≈ 20.5”
“Avg Minutes/Game” “≈ 30.3”
“Avg Points per 34 Minutes” “≈ 23.0”
“Avg Rebounds/Game” “≈ 5.4”
Averages:
Total Points = 614 over 30 games → 614/30 ≈ 20.5 PPG
Total Minutes ≈ 908.9 over 30 games → 908.9/30 ≈ 30.3 MPG
(20.5 PPG / 30.3 MPG) * 34 ≈ 23.0 Pts per 34 Minutes
Total Rebounds = 162 over 30 games → 162/30 ≈ 5.4 RPG
giants74 said, these statements, too, need correction.
> Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney/Draymond are not outside shooters…
Wiggins: 42.7% from 3 this season on 5.2 attempts, 39% as a Warrior.
Draymond: 40% from 3 this season. 40% last in 4.4 attempts/game.
giants74, this is provably incorrect.
> Teams can sag 2 defenders to the basket and take away their shooting.
> They can then double up Curry. THE WARRIORS DEFENSE
> BECOMES NON-EXISTENT. (capitalizations mine.)
In fact, exactly the opposite it true. Stat-heads, see Cleaning the Glass: link to cleaningtheglass.com. )
Let’s start with last season, where the lineup of Curry, Podz, Wiggins, Kuminga, and Green was our most used and best performing, and the second best in the Western Conference for any lineup with more than 350 possessions. We rode this lineup to the 2nd best record in the NBA last season in the 2nd half (after Boston)
Our 2nd best lineup combo last season was Curry, Klay, Kuminga, TJD, and Green.
That’s right, Kuminga was part of our best lineups. His presence makes everybody statistically better offensively, including Steph. One reason: the opposing defense has to account for his presence on the court, even if he only shoots 34% from 3. Another reason: defense, especially the opponent’s 3 point shooting attempts, which we are appallingly bad at without Wiggins and Kuminga.
Kuminga is only attempting 3.7 3pt shots and making .311. Podz has been in a shooting funk all season. Jayson Tatum attempts 12 3pt shots and makes .333%.
According to the NBA, Kuminga ranks #138 in 3 point attempts. 31% of the league attempts more shots. Wiggins comes in at #78. 17% attempts more 3s.
giants74, are you channeling Davey? I’m assuming you can read the numbers and looked at the sources cited above?
Again, the numbers state our most productive lineups use Kuminga, with Steph being more productive. JK improves team offense by pressuring the rim.
GSW plays a motion offense, not a spread or 5-out one as your comments seem to imply. The goal is to maximize high-quality shots, not take the most three pointers.
Babey J causing brainrot
Didn’t the Spurs win a literal championship playing this many guys in the regular season
Real2K Insider,
> Didn’t the Spurs win a literal championship playing this many guys
> in the regular season
Great question (assuming you’re referring to the 2014 Spurs)…but not quite. That team had the “flattest” distribution of playing time of any championship team — nobody on the team played more than 30 minutes, and they had 12 guys that played more than 50 games with > 10 minutes/game.
However, here is the catch: Pop stuck to a 9-10 player rotation each game until the game either ended or there was garbage time. Yes, the Spurs were very strong at 6-14, and players 6-10 played a great deal, but Pop would rarely use players 11-14 man until the game was effectively over.
Why are the mins/game for players 10-14 so high, then? Because Pop systematically rested his better players at least 8- 16 games off per season (you probably remember him getting sanctioned by the NBA Commissioner), often dressing only 10 players, so that their otherwise low average mins/game increased significantly.
In summary, the 2014 Spurs systematically used a deep roster to give older players days off and to minimize the effects of injury. But their rotations in each game were typically limited to 9-10 players.
I wish the media would stop using the bench excuse whenever Kerr doesn’t start somebody. He is just mixing up things not punishing somebody
Kuminga is 22yrs old and in his fourth yr. I’d say he’s ready to start. Unfortunately he and Wiggins play the same position.
Trade Payton and Melton with a 2nd for Nikola Vucevic and cash. Have the team practice FTs
PG. Curry, ?, ?, Beekman
SG. Heild, Moody, Waters
SF. Wiggins, Kuminga, K Anderson
PF. Green, Jackson-Davis, Santos
C . Vucevic, Looney, Post
Sign E Payton and Fultz and a young C on a two way contract
Or trade Melton and two 2nds to Detroit for a 2nd. Promote Post. Look at young C and PG’s. Sign a back up PG