As it turned out, Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry had played a part in Jonathan Kuminga getting removed from the rotation.
Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard reported on April 17 that Curry asked Golden State coach Steve Kerr to play Gui Santos in the closing lineup, bumping Kuminga out in the process.
A few Warriors sources pointed to the Warriors’ huge victory in Memphis on April 1 as a turning point. That’s when Curry scored 52 points and the Warriors put up 134 in maybe their most electric, connected game of the season. And it was a game Kuminga missed with a pelvic bruise.
Two games later, in another huge Warriors victory — over Denver at home on the back end of a brutal back-to-back — Curry himself told Kerr that Santos should close the game. Which he did, successfully. And who was the player Santos replaced? It was Kuminga, of course.
Preceding that big win over the Nuggets was a close call against the Los Angeles Lakers. In the 123-116 victory, Kuminga played one of his best games since he returned from his ankle injury.
Kuminga finished with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds, four assists and a block without a turnover in 25 minutes.
Steph Curry on Jonathan Kuminga: ‘He’s Figuring Out’
Curry was miffed when asked if that was the best game he’d seen Kuminga play.
“I think we need to kind of just let this guy play basketball,” Curry told reporters. “We don’t have to have a declaration after every game. We don’t have to be in a situation where we’re judging every minute he’s out there. I understand he’s next in line to come into his own as an NBA player, but I wish my fourth year wasn’t, ‘Was this the greatest game ever? Was it the [worst] game ever?’ He’s figuring it out. If we’re going to win at the highest level, he has to be a part of it.”
Then in their 118-104 rout of the Nuggets — the game which Curry asked Kerr to finish with Santos, Kuminga ended up with six points on 3-for-9 shooting in 18 minutes. But he only had a rebound and an assist to add.
On the other hand, Santos did not score, taking only one attempt in 11 minutes. But he grabbed three rebounds, handed out two assists and picked one steal. More importantly, he was plus-5.
Santos is fifth overall in plus-minus among all Warriors players with +165 behind Curry (+299), Draymond Green (+275), Brandin Podziemski (+259) and Jimmy Butler (+188), per Statmuse.
Warriors Need Jonathan Kuminga Now More Than Ever
Yet when Kerr shortened his rotation to nine players during their regular-season finale against the Clippers, both Santos and Kuminga did not play, which he highlighted during his postgame presser.
“We just found a group since Jimmy got here that we’re pretty comfortable with,” Kerr told reporters after their overtime loss to the Clippers. “Gui (Santos) didn’t play, either. Gui’s been our highest plus-minus guy over the past two months. Both he and JK have been really impactful players for us. Doesn’t mean they’re out of the loop going forward, it’s just this is how this game played out.”
Kawakami revealed the true reason why Kuminga did not play, which was the start of his three straight DNP-CD.
Then, going into the regular-season finale, Kerr and the coaching staff knew that the Clippers’ defense was designed to swallow up ball-dominant players like Kuminga. So they drew up a playing chart that didn’t include him. And even though they lost a thrilling game in overtime, the Warriors felt like that was also one of their best and most scintillating performances of the season.
But Santos was able to rejoin the Kerr’s rotation in the play-in win against the Grizzlies and the first two games of the first-round series against the Houston Rockets, while Kuminga did not get playing time until Butler’s injury in Game 2 forced Kerr’s hand to play him.
Now with Butler’s status for Game 3 uncertain, the Warriors need Kuminga more than ever.
