Getty Head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors reacts.
Golden State Warriors‘ former lottery pick Jonathan Kuminga had seen enough to believe his future is not in the Bay Area.
Kuminga no longer trusts that he will reach his potential with the Warriors following another fourth-quarter benching in their deflating 130-127 loss to defending champion Denver Nuggets on Thursday, January 4, according to a report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Antony Slater.
“After sitting for the final 18 minutes of Thursday night’s loss to the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga has lost faith in coach Steve Kerr, and the 2021 lottery pick no longer believes Kerr will allow him to reach his full potential, sources close to Kuminga tell The Athletic, adding another layer of turbulence to an already complex Warriors season,” Charania and Anthony Slater wrote.
“(Thursday night) was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” one of the sources told The Athletic.
Before the Warriors blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead to the Nuggets, Kuminga had scored 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting with four rebounds and four assists. More importantly, he was a plus-6 in 19 minutes.
Steve Kerr Explains Jonathan Kuminga’s Latest Benching
Kuminga thought he played well enough to earn crunch time minutes. But Kerr opted to close the game with Andrew Wiggins, the same thing he did on a Christmas Day loss to Denver.
“He was playing great,” Kerr told reporters of Kuminga after the January 4 loss. “His normal time to go back in would have been around the five-, six-minute mark (of the fourth). [Wiggins] was playing great, we were rolling, were up 18, 19, whatever it was. So we just stayed with him. Then at that (later) point, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. He had been sitting for a while. So I stayed with the group that was out there, and obviously, we couldn’t close it out.”
Wiggins was part of the group that grew the Warriors’ lead to 18 in the fourth quarter only to surrender it in a 25-4 closing run by the Nuggets capped by Nikola Jokic’s ridiculous banked 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Not the First Time
It was not the first time that Kuminga voiced out his frustration. After their first Denver loss on Christmas, he did the same, but on record in an interview with The Athletic’s Marcus Thompon II.
“I’ve gotta take that away to make sure my OGs get the ball. That’s where it’s confusing. Sometimes, I come out of the game not knowing what I did. And that messes with my head. It’s like, ‘What do they want me to do?’ I can pass and I can do different s—,’ he told Thompson II.
The 21-year-old Kuminga was the seventh overall pick in 2021. He is eligible for an extension in the offseason.
Before the season tipped off, he talked boldly about his future.
“This is the year,” he told ESPN’s Leonard Solms in August.
He showed flashes especially when Kerr moved him to the starting lineup, replacing Wiggins.
Kuminga seized the opportunity. He averaged 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 57% from the field in 25.5 minutes per game as a starter. But Kerr still trusted the veteran Wiggins to close out games which became the source of Kuminga’s frustrations.