[Kuminga] That’s where it’s confusing. Sometimes, I come out the game not knowing what I did. And that messes with my head. It’s like, what they want me to do? I can pass and I can do different sh–.
— warriorsworld (@warriorsworld) December 26, 2023
by n3cr0ph4g1st
27 Comments
That’s tough. I feel he’s playing super great recently. Making the right moves, playing smart, not forcing things. He also seems to play really well with Klay, Podz and Curry
How old is that quote?
That’s an incredibly concerning quote imo..
This doesn’t sound promising. Trade him and Moody if they won’t get minutes. JK makes a considerable difference. Limit Klay to 20-25. Allocate to Moody / JK.
Wow you could see his frustrations on that quote. This why you need a vet on the team to help young players deal with these frustrations. Also Kerr need to have better rotations. I see him going back to the old unathletic lineups earlier that hurt us
Is anyone else annoyed atp that this is still an issue and frustration he has? Does no one on the coaching staff communicate with him on this? Why does this keep getting rehashed one way or another since last playoffs? I don’t mind that he wasn’t in the closing lineup today but ffs someone needs to make it clear to him why he wasn’t. Idk if it’s on him, the staff, etc. But it’s starting to sound like a broken record Lol
He’s gonna be buried once Draymond and GP2 are back and Wiggins gains minutes. We need a 2 or 3 for 1 trade if we’re going to keep giving minutes to the youth that’s powered this last week
This is the sound of a young player who doesn’t fully understand that the coaches are playing chess, not checkers.
Getting on subbed doesn’t always have to do with what you’ve done right or wrong.
I mean I don’t think his frustration is unwarranted. He plays hard nosed defense, he’s been playing for the good-to-great shots, and they rarely if ever call his number for plays.
He is our best finisher at the rim, and takes defenders off the first step like no other on our team, but he rarely gets touches.
He is continually treated as a placeholder for any vet that finally plays well. All things equal, he gets benched.
Not just him, Moody as well.
I used to think that JK wasn’t ready. But he’s ready in a specific role (POA defender, cutting, dunker’s spot, rolling to the rim type of role). He’s just getting mixed messages and signals from Kerr and it’s making it very difficult to fall into a rhythm.
I no longer blame JK if he’s not ready at a moment’s notice.
To add: This is exactly how this sub feels when we see Podz / TJD / Moody / JK not getting minutes after they have a very strong game.
He also had the one of the worst +/- in the game so something was not working with him on the court. Remain patient and play your role young padawan.
It will be a concern if the problem persists long term. Similar thing happened last time Wiggs returned from his finger injury. They play same position(s) and the ceiling of the team lies with the vets.
The team is deep. It’s a good problem to have but it still is a problem after all. When Gary and Dray eventually return, the kids will lose even more mins. There are only 2(at max 3) positions for each player and only 48 mins in the game.
Sometimes other players are just playing better, it’s not that serious every time. Like Wiggins was surprisingly good today, and when he’s good like that, his offense is better than Kuminga’s.
And sometimes it’s about defense. He didn’t make the correct rotation a few times and taking him out for that isn’t punishment, but whoever is subbed in *will* hopefully make the correct rotation.
Only a matter of time before he requests a trade. He’s earned that closing spot.
Steph has literally said this (as in players not knowing why they’re not playing and/or playing fewer minutes than they expect) has never been the case with how Kerr operates. Direct quote from Steph when he was on the All The Smoke Podcast back in January 2020:
>”He’s wise in terms of how to manage people. That’s a big thing in the league, no matter if it’s the first guy or the fifteenth guy. You have to be able to be honest, you gotta be able to set expectations, and figure out ways to get the best out of guys. Anyone that would’ve played for him will tell you, you always know where you’re at [with Steve Kerr]. If you get a couple of ‘DNPs’, he’s gonna tell you why. He’s not going to just walk by you and not say anything to you….”
If he doesn’t know why he gets subbed out when he gets subbed out (and let’s be clear, he’s averaging 24.5 mpg this month, which is his highest ever so he’s playing plenty) then it’s a retention and/or BBIQ problem, not a no one has told him problem. That’s extremely concerning given Steve has made it quite clear what they need from him – he’s said explicitly to reporters on more than one occasion – and any time he comes out earlier than he was supposed to it’s because he hasn’t been doing those things. And those things more often than not lately are defense and motor related. His quotes in this article are so focused on his offense – he doesn’t even mention defense or hustle plays – and that right there is the problem. Direct quote from Kerr back in [October](https://warriorswire.usatoday.com/2023/10/18/steve-kerr-details-focus-point-for-jonathan-kuminga/):
>A lot of guys in this league, young players — shot goes up, and they just turn and look at the ball,” Kerr said. “So, on the defensive end, we need JK to take up space, find the guy that’s crashing early and go and hit him because there’s a lot of long rebounds. Then on the flip side, he should take advantage of all that ball watching. … We want him going every time. Go. Every time.”
Kuminga had 1 rebound in the second half, which is a frequent habit of his. He’ll put in decent rebounding effort in the first half and then just stops in the second half. This season he averages 1.5 rebounds in the second half.
Dray has also been really open in post games about what they need from Kuminga and there’s no way Dray is saying to these things to the media after games while no one is telling Kuminga himself behind the scenes lol like come on. Quote from his [post game](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/warriors-need-jonathan-kuminga-ever-especially-18523200.php) after the 11/28 Kings game:
>Green, the de facto captain of Golden State’s defense, traced Kuminga’s impact to him staying engaged on that side of the floor.
>
>”We need him to just compete on the defensive end,” Green said in his postgame news conference Thursday night. “His physical attributes can be overbearing on defense, then you add the effort and the ‘want’ to play defense, and it turns into a monster. He was incredible tonight on both ends.
In today’s game specifically, Kuminga was constantly late on rotations and generally uninterested in locking in defensively. On top of Wiggins playing very well, it’s not hard to see why Kuminga didn’t close, which is what I’m presuming led him to say these things to the media.
Sounds like he’s frustrated and he’s probably speaking up for his boy Moody as well..
I think it’s obvious that Kerr is pretty shit at developing young players
Politics my brother no other reason. Klay was playing like a corpse 32 mins with no production on both sides while Moody and Kuminga didn’t get much burn.
Dude, stay out of the media. Communicate this to the coaching staff and not the outsiders.
Sad. 🙁 I hope JK plays a lot..
To me, he was missing defensive rotations that led to easy buckets. He probably knows now.
this is stupid.
wigs was having a great game. you need steph out there. you need klay out there for spacing. you need looney out there as the big to guard joker since draymond is suspended. and kerr already had pod out there to give more ball handling.
when will the complainers realize, kerr is smarter than all of them combined?
moody can’t dribble and isn’t a great playmaker.
kuminga can’t dribble and still does the stupid shit where he just gets tunnel vision and drives into a crowded paint
kerrs lineups have been to create balance and to create match ups.
Steph – out there for obvious reasons
klay – for spacing and he’s had a great stretch of games
wigs – he is offensively more advanced than kuminga. he was back to the finals wigs where he was getting low post baskets. oh and he is a better rebounder than kuminga
looney – guarding joker, TJD had 5 fouls
pod – playmaking and another ball handler to help steph. if he wasn’t in then this role would be for cp3
He’s gonna be our Shai Gilgeous-Alexander if we trade him. Two years from now he’ll be dominating in Toronto and we’ll be remembering how Wiggins shot us out of a play in game.
Denver is a bad matchup since their front court is huge. And since Kerr sees him as a PF only it’s tough for him to cover Either the huge MPJ or super thick Gordon. Still, once he got rolling, just after missing 2 free throws, that was a moment Kerr needed to keep him in as a vote of confidence. He was aggressive and created for others and himself. He should have stayed. Klay’s defense is terrible. Wiggins and Kuminga can play together and shouldn’t be one at the expense of the other. If that means less Klay at the 3 than fine. Klay can barely guard at the 2 anymore and many SFs give him issues. Also Curry’s defense this year has fallen off. So that Starting lineup has Kuminga scrambling to help and recover almost any play. Klay and Looney are the ones who need a tighter leash.
I hope this issue blows up even more. Not because i simp for Kuminga and Moody but because Kerr should be humiliated with how he is treating hungry young players ever since last season.
Hope this makes headlines. Tired of Kerr’s BS this season. His allegiance to the vets is so apparent. Only reason young guys are getting their shine is because Kerr’s hand was forced. JK has one bad quarter he’s gets benched for Klay that has an awful game on both ends.
This explains a lot. Watching that game against Denver, no one could guard him whenever he drove to the basket. It was either a bucket or a foul, it was almost comical how easily he could get inside the hoop. But then then he’d inexplicably stopped trying to go the basket and play passive in the sense he’d look to pass and move the ball.
I guess he’s still trying to figure out the balance between getting his own and meeting Kerr’s requirement for his motion offense. JK simply can’t continuously attack the basket over and over, it’ll be against Warriors basketball, so he has to find that balance.
I wish Kerr would find those moments when JK is unstoppable going in the paint, to let him ride it until he get stopped, just like how Klay or any of the shooters get hot we keep feeding them. Denver couldn’t defend the interior and the plan yesterday should have been to feed JK and Wiggs in the post and go to work, especially since Steph and Klay were cold shooting from outside.