2 weeks Ago By Stephen Noh
Jonathan Kuminga's role with the Warriors has always been a bit of a mess. Last season, Kuminga admitted he "lost faith" in coach Steve Kerr . That led to a meeting between the two, more playing time and a breakout second half of the season for the No.
7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Despite averaging nearly 20 points per game after that meeting in early January, the Warriors and Kuminga couldn't come to terms on an extension. His future looks even murkier now.
A month into the 2024-25 season, Golden State sits in first place in the Western Conference and has done it while reducing his minutes. Kuminga lost his starting job just four games into the season. He's averaged under 20 minutes per game over his last three contests, including only 15 minutes on his bobblehead night on Wednesday.
With the re-emergence of Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green, he has been the odd man out. Kuminga certainly has talent — he has shown that through stretches of his four years in the league — but Kerr does not seem to have confidence that he can fit into his system. It's time to trade him rather than continuously trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
SN's NBA HQ: Live NBA scores | Updated NBA standings | Full NBA schedule Why the Warriors need to trade Jonathan Kuminga Kuminga doesn't fit Curry Ball The Warriors' offense still revolves around a now 36-year-old Stephen Curry. They know exactly what types of players are needed to make him perform at his best, and Kuminga doesn't fit that bill. Curry remains one of the most dangerous shooters in the game and a wizard when flying off screens.
To maximize his threat, the Warriors need great screeners who have a high passing feel. Those are not strengths of Kuminga's game. Kuminga also doesn't have the floor spacing to play with Curry.
He's shooting just 33.9 percent from deep for his career and an even worse 31.9 percent this season.
This isn't to say that Kuminga is a bad offensive player. On the contrary, he is a tremendously skilled driver who is unstoppable when he has momentum going downhill, even if he always goes left. That style just doesn't mesh well with what the rest of the team is doing with Curry.
It's not a good fit for Kuminga or the team, and he could be a lot better somewhere else. MORE: How Warriors have built another contender around Stephen Curry Kuminga isn't the high-feel defender that fits in the Warriors' new system The Warriors have somewhat surprisingly reinvigorated their defense this season, ranking No. 4 in efficiency going into their game against the Pelicans on Friday.
That defensive renaissance has come as a result of a more aggressive scheme under new assistant Jerry Stackhouse. With a riskier defense that puts two defenders on the ball more frequently, there is zero margin for error when it comes to help rotations. That is a big issue for Kuminga, who still doesn't read the game at a high level.
He's often out of position or very late to recognize where he's supposed to be going. This is the kind of stuff that's unacceptable for a 4th year player. Steph AND Draymond both call out the easy transition rotation for Jonathan Kuminga, yet he's far too late and allows the open three pic.
twitter.com/TfZ9pZsq4B Kuminga's footwork isn't great and he too frequently gets blown by on the perimeter. Kuminga defense is hard to understand.
-Bad postioning and angle predicition -Bad initial foot plant while defense. pic.twitter.
com/TbzQA1IBW6 Despite those limitations, Kuminga does have great defensive tools. He's a plus athlete with a 6-11 wingspan. He would fare better in a more conservative scheme or on a team where he had more wiggle room to play multiple positions rather than being stuck primarily as a power forward.
MORE: How Buddy Hield has unlocked the Warriors scoring machine Kuminga still has a lot of trade value Kuminga may not be a star on the Warriors, but he could be somewhere else. And that trade could be coming. According to The Athletics' Sam Amick , "rival executives believe the Warriors are more willing than ever to include Kuminga in a trade of significant magnitude.
" Given how well the Warriors have played, it makes sense to be judicious about who they bring in if and when they trade Kuminga. De'Anthony Melton is out for the year with an ACL injury. He could be combined with Kuminga to bring back a $20 million player like the Raptors' Jakob Poeltl or the Bulls' Nikola Vucevic.
The Warriors could go for a much bigger name like Jimmy Butler, but it would take Andrew Wiggins and several other veterans to make the financials of that type of deal work. They would also need to throw in their future draft picks, of which they have two available to move. The options are open for the Warriors, but they have to act before the trade deadline.
Kuminga's value will continue to decline if Kerr keeps reducing his minutes, and this team is too good to wait for him any longer..
