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Jonathan Kuminga's future with the Golden State Warriors is in serious doubt amid head coach Steve Kerr's decision to completely phase him out of the rotation. The Warriors over the years have given Kuminga some very tough love, and it's quite telling that the 22-year-old forward is currently in the doghouse as they enter the most important part of the 2024-25 season.
It remains unclear whether or not Kuminga will be featured in the Warriors' first-round series against the Houston Rockets. In Game 1, Kuminga played a grand total of zero minutes, and it's not a good look for him that the less-heralded Gui Santos is getting more minutes than him.
While it's not looking good for Kuminga in terms of whether or not he'd be playing a huge role for the Warriors in their playoff run, Anthony Slater of The Athletic reported that the 22-year-old forward still “looms as an in-game or in-series adjustment”.
Perhaps if the Warriors find extreme difficulty in scoring the basketball, then Kerr will decide to dust Kuminga off and throw him out on the court just to get a bit of an X-factor boost out on the court.
Alas, Kerr has said in the past that he is not a fan at all of the Kuminga-Jimmy Butler pairing, and for good reason, as lineups with those two sharing the court have been abysmal based on the numbers.
At the end of the day, however, with the Warriors going all-in this year in pursuit of another championship, Kuminga may have to spend the majority, if not the entirety, of this year's playoffs watching from the bench unless dire circumstances push Golden State to take drastic measures.
Warriors flex muscle, take Game 1 vs. Rockets
The playoff version of the Warriors is not to be trifled with. Buoyed by a combined 56 points from Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, the Warriors took a 95-85 win to go up 1-0 in the series, stealing homecourt advantage from the second-seeded Rockets.
It was a gritty affair that required both teams to muck things up. The Rockets struggled to score in the halfcourt but stayed in the game thanks to their 16-board advantage on the offensive glass.
Meanwhile, Curry made plenty of tough triples, bouncing back from his three-point outing during his last time out against the Rockets, while Butler asserted himself and even made a triple of his own.
When the Warriors are playing like they did on Sunday night, there's no reason for them to bring Jonathan Kuminga back into the rotation, preferring instead to stick with what's working.
