You know it’s going to be a tough night when you’re causing trouble before the game even starts.
Saturday’s matchup between the Warriors and Timberwolves was delay of almost half an hour due to a puzzling network malfunction in one of the Target Center baskets. It’s true: we’ve seen this kind of thing before, and there’s usually no traceable reason for the problem.
However, thanks to the Minnesota broadcast, it was soon discovered that the likely culprit was Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, who was having fun hanging from the rim and deflecting shots from his teammates during warmups. Unfortunately, his fingers must be more muscular than those of the average basketball player, since anything he did somehow irreparably damaged the net, which had to be replaced several times.
As embarrassed as Kuminga may have been by the incident, he really didn’t do anything wrong. Later in the game, however, he certainly did.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr went viral with one of his responses following the 113-103 win over the Wolves, criticizing his team’s unnamed “young players” for finding their own shots instead of holding the line. ball in motion.
“When you have Steph Curry on your team, you pass the ball,” Kerr said. “Because if we pass it two or three times, the defense fights and all hell breaks loose. So it’s a choice: We can do that and win games, or we can shoot a bunch of contested shots from 15 feet down the field.” half the shot clock and be a lousy NBA team. “It’s up to us and we’re driving that point home with our team.”
Never after hours, the roving horde of tireless Internet sleuths quickly found a clip from the game that pretty well illustrated the exact point Kerr was trying to get across. Who was to blame? Jonathan Kuminga.
Late in the third quarter, Kuminga outran Minnesota big man Naz Reid and got help from four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. As you can see in the well-edited clip below, Kuminga has an easy kick available to teammate Brandin Podziemski, who Curry is clearly aiming to direct the ball towards.
Instead, Kuminga says, “No, guys, I got it,” and stops to take a mid-range jumper over two defenders with a combined wingspan of more than 15 feet (not a joke). As expected, the shot didn’t go in (worse, it didn’t hit anything other than the backboard) and was possibly (probably?) the main source of Kerr’s consternation after the game.
Kuminga has taken 1.3 mid-range jumpers per game this season, which ranks third on the team behind Curry and Andrew Wiggins, and has made just 25% of them. The fourth-year forward is also one of the nine NBA Players this season average 13 or more field goal attempts with an effective field goal percentage of less than 49% (minimum 20 games). He’s also shooting just 48% on 3-pointers, a mind-boggling number for someone with such athleticism around the rim. Simply put, he has been disappointingly inefficient after a great 2023-24 campaign in which he averaged a career-best 16.1 points per game on 53% shooting from the field.
Kerr in particular inserted Kuminga into the starting lineup in early December and pushed Draymond Green to the bench, basically saying the team needed the young forward to flourish if they wanted to be successful. An ulterior motive that many suspected was to show off Kuminga to potential business partners. He performed very well in the latter regard, as he averaged 21 points and five rebounds on 40% three-point shooting in six starts. In the first, it was a failure, as the Warriors finished just 2-4 in that stretch.
In the Warriors’ last two games, a horrible loss to Memphis and Saturday’s win over Minnesota, Kuminga came off the bench, which doesn’t sit well with a young man who has been frustrated with his role in the past and he clearly sees himself as a future star (he may very well be right).
Trade rumors surrounding Kuminga have been rampant basically since the Warriors selected him No. 7 overall in 2021, but they went to another level when he and the team failed to accept an extension before the season, meaning he will be a restricted free agent in June. A realistic goal hasn’t exactly emerged for Golden State, especially after Lauri Markkanen’s extension in Utah left him off the table until this summer, but recent speculation on Jimmy Butler’s future in Miami has provided the biggest fish for which Kuminga could serve as tempting bait.
The Warriors have traditionally been hesitant to offer Kuminga in potential deals (reportedly refused to include it in a package that would have expanded the Dennis Schroder trade to include Cam Johnson). However, Butler is the type of game-changing addition that can lead the Warriors back to championship contender status.
With Kerr seemingly frustrated with Kuminga’s offensive mentality and free agency pending, the time might be right to finally pull the trigger on a trade, especially if it leads Butler to Golden State.
