Still lost amid widespread handwringing on Jonathan Kuminga's shift to the bench is the specific context that prompted it.
The Golden State Warriors' new-look starters weren't setting the league ablaze before Steph Curry twice tweaked his left ankle during his 5-1 team's lone loss of the regular season's early going, but that big, athletic, defense-first quintet was clearly growing more comfortable after ugly starts against the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz. Steve Kerr had already made clear the Dubs would let that oddball lineup fail for good before before it was subject to permanent change, too.
Shooting and spacing was hard enough to come by for units featuring Kuminga at his preferred position of small forward before Curry went down. Absent the ever-present singular threat the greatest shooter ever poses to defenses from the moment he steps past halfcourt, it stood to reason that slotting Kuminga next to Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis up front would only exacerbate those well-founded concerns about halfcourt offense.
Kerr justified his hot-button decision to bring Kuminga off the bench in precisely those terms after the Warriors blew out the New Orleans Pelicans while Curry watched from the Chase Center sidelines. They're now 3-0 sans the two-time MVP as his return to the court looms, with Kuminga playing an indispensable role in the Dubs' wild win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night—the third straight game he's played arguably his best ball of 2024-25.
Green doesn't want Kuminga getting too comfortable coming off the pine, though. Impactful as he's been igniting transition, exploiting halfcourt mismatches and checking multiple positions defensively, Golden State's veteran leader also believes Kuminga's improved play of late is rooted most in the 22-year-old's maturity.
“I don’t want him to love coming off the bench. He believes he’s a superstar; I believe he can be a superstar,” Green said of Kuminga after Saturday's game. “And so as long as you believe that, you shouldn’t be okay with coming off the bench. But how you respond is important. You can respond with sulking, or you can just go do what it is that you can do to help the team win and be great, and that’s what he’s doing.
“So not only should we talk about his play, but we should talk about his maturity because last year he wouldn’t have handled that well,” Green continued. “But another year of growth and maturity, he’s taking it in stride and he’s had his best three games yet this season.”
Is Jonathan Kuminga at his best coming off the bench for Warriors?
Kuminga is averaging 18.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, two assists and one steal as a reserve, shooting 51.4% overall and 42.9% on 2.3 three-point attempts per game—numbers far better than those he managed over the first three games of the season as a starter.
“He’s been great. This is the third game in a row he’s come off the bench and these were his three best games,” Kerr said of Kuminga on Saturday's postgame podium. “I think the way he’s responded to a role change is perfect. That’s what we expect. The professionalism, the force that he brought, coming off the bench and playing the way he has is a huge sign of growth. Couldn’t be more proud of JK.”
All sample sizes are small less than two weeks since tipoff of the regular season. Splitting Golden State's six games in halves of Kuminga's starts and otherwise definitely leaves any statistical evidence minuscule, if not altogether meaningless. But the eye test of increased freedom and aggression he's played with since moving to the bench amid Curry's absence is unmistakable, not to mention supported by usage discrepancies dating back to last season.
Kuminga sports a 22.1 usage rate in the 47 minutes he's shared the floor with Curry this season, per pbpstats.com. That mark spikes all the way up to an alpha-dog type 28.5 across the 94 minutes he's played without Curry so far, higher than any of their teammates' under the same circumstances. The 6.4-point gulf between Kuminga's usage rates depending on Curry's presence comes as no surprise. He was subject to a very similar 5.5-point difference in 2023-24.
The most pertinent takeaway here isn't that Golden State should redirect a significant chunk of usage from Curry to Kuminga when they're playing together. Given the peerless passing and screening mind meld between Curry and Green, it's actually that the primary obstacle to Kuminga consistently thriving remains the latter's utmost importance to the Warriors.
Kerr made no secret throughout the preseason of both player and team's preference going forward to avoid playing Green at small-ball center close to full-time. Maybe Kuminga develops the reliable jumper, playmaking nuance and all-around feel needed to eventually be his best on the wing, but it's obvious for now the four is still his optimal position.
But those competing realities seem conveniently lost on Green, who publicly went out of his way before the regular season began to agree with Kuminga about his natural small forward bonafides.
“That’s neither here nor there whether it’s ‘Oh, you’ll play better coming off the bench.’ I don’t buy that for anybody. No one wants to come off the bench, everyone wants to be a starter,” Green said of Kuminga on Saturday. “That’s the game we play. You didn’t make it to the NBA if you were coming off the bench, so no one’s used to it coming in. If you’re gonna find someone with star potential that want to come off the bench, send them the opposite way of me. Who wants that? Credit his maturity and how he’s handling this as well as his play. But I think the maturity is equally if not more important.”
Any suggestion that Kuminga's happy coming off the bench is foolish. What's not is the notion that Golden State's most workable disbursement of talent means limiting the time he and Green play alongside another traditional big, the main factor calling Kuminga's status as an ingrained starter this season into greater question as Curry's return nears.
Follow Us
Subscribe
