Getty Kevon Looney goes to the basket in a game against the Dallas Mavericks.
For the first time this season, Kevon Looney watched the start of a Golden State Warriors game from the bench.
Head coach Steve Kerr removed the veteran big man from the starting lineup in Friday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, inserting rookie Jonathan Kuminga instead. The move was one forecast by insiders as Kuminga took on a steadily bigger role and the Warriors struggled to score with Steph Curry out of the starting lineup. It’s also a move that some consider a forecast for the playoffs, when Kuminga may be trusted with an important role.
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Looney Sits for First Time This Season
Prior to Friday’s game, Looney had started all 73 games for the Warriors this season and had played a career-high 21.6 minutes per game. As The Athletic’s Anthony Slater noted, the decision means Looney, the team’s traditional center, will be playing opposite the small-ball center, Draymond Green.
“The Warriors are starting Jonathan Kuminga tonight in Atlanta in place of Kevon Looney, per source. Very notable shift,” Slater tweeted. “This splits up Draymond Green and Looney, who will likely be paired with [Otto] Porter off bench.”
Kuminga is taking Looney’s spot in the starting five tonight
The move was not unexpected. The Warriors had lost 12 of their last 19 games, and were struggling to score with Curry on the sidelines with a foot injury. Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area predicted earlier in the week that Looney would be the most likely to move out of the starting lineup. Looney brings strong rebounding and defense to the Warriors, but is not a strong offensive option, averaging just 6.2 points per game this season.
Poole noted that Porter has shown a much stronger scoring touch lately.
“Kerr, clearly agitated after consecutive losses to teams that won’t sniff the playoffs, will join his assistants in a late-night search for answers,” Poole wrote. “Looney’s starting spot has to be among the potential changes – particularly with the way Porter is playing.”
Kuminga Looks Playoff-Ready
The change to the starting lineup could also say as much about Kuminga as it does Looney. Kerr has shown increasing trust in the rookie this season, inserting him into the starting lineup nine times and steadily increasing his role in the rotation.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe predicted that Kuminga had proven enough to earn himself a spot in the playoff rotation.
“In the absences of key players, the Warriors have learned unexpected things,” Lowe wrote. “One is that Kuminga is way ahead of schedule, and maybe ready (to these eyes, is ready) for playoff minutes … Kuminga is providing that ingredient, and then some, right now. He is 19 and somehow built like a tank — with elite speed, power, and leaping ability. Blink, and he’s on top of the rim.”
ESPN story on Golden State’s James Wiseman — who’s rehabbing his right knee — missing the entirety of the 2021-2022 season:
Kuminga could potentially assume at least some minutes of the team’s other promising young big man, James Wiseman. The Warriors announced on Friday that Wiseman would miss the rest of the season after he suffered a setback in rehabbing an injured right knee. Wiseman tore a meniscus in his right knee last April and initial projections had him returning midseason, but he hit a setback in December that required a second surgical procedure and then another this month when he experienced swelling in the knee.
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