Jonathan Kuminga once again rode the bench as the Golden State Warriors opened their playoff run with a grind-it-out 95-85 Game 1 victory on the road against the No. 2 seed Houston Rockets on Sunday./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60002483/usa_today_10878535.0.jpg)
One game benching is enough. Two straight games are too much. Three consecutive games could be a point of no return.
Kuminga will likely seek a change of scenery this summer. But the Warriors hold the leverage with his restricted free agency and limited money in the open market.
A sign-and-trade could be Kuminga’s only option to get out of Steve Kerr’s doghouse. With this in mind, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey proposed a three-way trade that will send Kuminga to a rebuilding team that has a longer runway for him to develop into a star.
Bailey’s trade proposal:
Golden State Warriors Receive: Corey Kispert, Jonas Valančiūnas and a top-5 protected 2031 first-round pick from Washington
Washington Wizards Receive: Jonathan Kuminga (sign-and-trade) and Malik Monk
Sacramento Kings Receive: Marcus Smart, Buddy Hield, Saddiq Bey, Trayce Jackson-Davis and a top-20 protected 2030 first-round pick from Washington (via Golden State)
“Golden State extracting a first from someone (in this case, Washington) for Kuminga wouldn’t be shocking,” Bailey wrote.
Given the Wizards’ track record, that pick might become valuable.
The Warriors would only lose essentially one rotation player in Buddy Hield in this trade proposal. Trayce Jackon-Davis has become expendable once Quinten Post emerged as a stretch five.
As for the Wizards, they “may be loathe to include a draft pick, but Kuminga is the biggest individual prize in this deal. And at 22 years old, he’s likely to be younger than some of the players taken in this summer’s draft,” Bailey reasoned.
Win-Now Role Players
Jonas Valančiūnas can be the Warriors’ backup center and help address their rebounding woes. The Lithuanian center has a 9.7 career average in rebounding, 2.7 on the offensive glass.
Plus, Valančiūna “could be a heat-check scorer against reserves (think 2019-20 Montrezl Harrell, but with post-ups and dives to the basket) and has long been an underrated passer (3.2 assists per 75 possessions over the last four seasons),” according to Bailey.
On the other hand, Corey Kispert could be developed into a Klay Thompson mold as a consistent volume 3-point shooter and a decent stopper, which Hield will never become.
“[Kispert] is six years younger than Hield, has decent size (6’7″) for a floor spacer, has averaged 2.8 threes per 75 possessions for his career, while shooting 38.2 percent from deep,” Bailey wrote.
Jonathan Kuminga Unlikely to Return Next Season
In the aftermath of the fallout between Kuminga and Kerr, Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard opined that the former lottery pick and the Warriors are likely headed to a divorce this summer.
“The likely situation is [Jonathan Kuminga]’s not going to be on the Warriors next season,” Kawakami said on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard and Dibs” show. “Things can change, but all things being equal, it was probably going to be a tricky situation for him to come back to the Warriors anyway.”
ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania reported that Kuminga’s camp is “exhausted” by the disrespect after his latest benching.
“They need him in this series because you think about the athletes that Houston has,” Charania said of Kuminga on the “NBA Today” on April 16. “This is why they drafted Jonathan Kuminga. This is why they put so much trust in him. But back-to-back games in this play-in tournament, Steve Kerr essentially tells Jonathan Kuminga, ‘You are not in our rotation. You are not going to be playing.’
“And this is something that Jonathan Kuminga has been really immune to over the course of his career with Steve Kerr and the Warriors. His side is exhausted by a lot of disrespect in a lot of ways.”
