SAN FRANCISCO — In the aftermath of The Athletic’s report that Jonathan Kuminga had lost faith in Steve Kerr’s ability to maximize his potential, the Golden State Warriors’ head coach and third-year wing met in Kerr’s office before Friday night’s 113-109 win over the Detroit Pistons.
Kuminga’s latest frustration came a night earlier when he watched the final 18 minutes from the bench — and particularly the agonizing final six minutes — as the Warriors let an 18-point lead over the Denver Nuggets slip away into another gut-punch lost.
Kerr’s decision to limit Kuminga to 19 minutes and zero in the fourth quarter, despite 16 points prior and an obvious need for his downhill skill set, was placed under a harsh microscope. Kuminga’s boiling feelings surfaced to the public. Kerr felt a face-to-face conversation necessary. Speaking after the win over Detroit, Kuminga said the discussion had a positive impact.
“I think it went really well,” Kuminga said. “I think it was just all about better understanding of each other. More communication. We don’t really get to sit together as much and communicate about pretty much non-basketball things, basketball things. We don’t get to do that as much. Just us having that conversation today made me more comfortable that any time I have something to ask, I should just go up to his office. His door is open. Go up there and chill and wait for him to come back whenever. I think that’s what it’s all about, communication every single time if something is going wrong. Communication is the key.”
Kuminga played a season-high 36 minutes against the Pistons. He didn’t rest a single second in the fourth quarter. He had 11 points and six rebounds and spent the majority of crunchtime as the primary defender on Cade Cunningham. It was his 12th consecutive game in the starting lineup, but Kuminga is still yet to play 30-plus minutes in consecutive games in his career. So the playing-time tracker will continue to be monitored.
“I never complained about playing time (during the meeting),” Kuminga said. “We were just talking about if I do great at something, just go back and remind him, ‘Yo, coach, what do I need to do to get better at this? What do I need to do to gain more trust or more minutes?’ Like I said, it’s more about communication and better understanding from both of us.”
Kuminga’s uneasiness about his fluctuating role — which dates to the previous postseason when he went from an integral part of the rotation the final two months of the regular season to a bench bystander after Andrew Wiggins returned from a long personal absence — has generated questions about his future with the Warriors. Does he want to be with them long-term? Will he still be on the roster past the Feb. 8 trade deadline? After Friday’s meeting, how does he feel about his standing in the organization and with Kerr in general?
“I love it here,” Kuminga said. “I got drafted here. There’s always ups and downs. I feel like when you look at all the ups and downs, that will confuse a lot of people. But I know Steve believes in me. I know he trusts me at this point. It was just more about communication and better understanding. It wasn’t no beef. None of that. Scratch whatever happens. It’s the past. Move on with better understanding and hoping we all can work with each other and help this team and leave everything in the past.”
What does that better understanding entail?
“All together a better understanding of certain things on the floor I need to do to get the team better,” Kuminga said. “Who is he going with tonight or the next night? Who he trusts the most? As a coach, you talk about who you trust the most or who is producing things as a coach you want at the moment. So it was all about those little things. As we sat together and spoke about it, it went well.”
The crux of the problem is the Warriors’ inability to fit Kuminga and Wiggins on the floor together. Entering Friday, they were a cumulative minus-66 together as a pairing in 131 minutes. The Warriors have an analytics department that feeds the coaching staff these numbers, partly fueling their lineup choices. It’s why Kerr has maintained a hesitancy to play his two bigger wings together, calling them a “redundant” pairing.
But he tried to find time for them together against the Pistons. They were on the floor for six minutes together. They outscored Detroit by seven points. But Wiggins struggled to a 1-of-5 shooting night and didn’t provide much else. So he was limited to 19 minutes and Kuminga received 36.
“I’m gonna keep it real,” Kuminga said. “I went to Coach and talked about me playing with Wiggs. I don’t want it to seem like me and Wiggs are out here fighting every day for minutes. I know Wiggs come to work every day not thinking about that. Same with me. I don’t come to work every day thinking about taking Wiggs’ minutes, taking this guy’s minutes. We come here to play good and help the team win and accomplish things that we all as a team are about. Championship and all that. Whenever the team win, everybody win. Just moving forward, it’s really all about what the team needs first and concerned about the rest after.”
In the immediate future, more minutes are opening up in the Warriors’ rotation. Chris Paul fractured his left hand against the Pistons and will get surgery next week. He is out indefinitely. Kerr said that’ll give Brandin Podziemski, Cory Joseph and Moses Moody a bump in opportunity. But it could also creep open the door to experiment more with Kuminga and Wiggins lineups.
Draymond Green’s impending return from his indefinite suspension will regenerate another logjam. But that’s another depth problem for another day.
“I’ve been there before,” Curry said of Kuminga. “He’s not wrong for being upset and pissed off, wanting to play. Probably should’ve played. Not probably. … But the ultimate challenge for anybody in this league is to not let the narrative be told for you and you not be able to address that with your own voice or directly with Coach or whatever the case is. We all go through our challenges. We all go through our learning lessons. Like I said, he’s not wrong for being upset and frustrated. I heard Coach talk about. He was kind of half-joking but serious about 15 years he was always upset with playing time. That’s a talking point in every locker room in some way, shape or form. There are ways to express it, ways to voice your opinion but protect the team. I’m just proud of the way he — we talked about it before the game. Go out and play. Go hoop. Be a professional. And that’s what he did.”
(Photo of Jonathan Kuminga driving against Detroit’s Isaiah Livers during the first half Friday: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
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