Why the Warriors removed Jonathan Kuminga from starting lineup

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins and De’Anthony Melton being sidelined by injuries paved the way for more opportunities for Jonathan Kuminga. Just not in the Warriors’ starting lineup.

Kuminga, 22, played a season-high 28 minutes in Golden State’s 124-106 win over the Pelicans. He registered 17 points, three rebounds and three assists, and logged a plus-4 in the box score. Before the game, he learned via a Steve Kerr text message that he wouldn’t be in the starting group.

“It wasn’t my decision,” Kuminga said postgame. “It was the man himself, Coach Steve Kerr’s decision. It wasn’t my decision.”

Kerr didn’t explain his decision before the game because he declined to share his starting lineup with the media. After the win, in which his lineup patterns worked, he said bringing Kuminga off the bench was matchup-based.

“Without Steph and Wiggs, we didn’t want to start Trayce, Draymond and JK,” Kerr said. “I wanted a little more spacing. I knew it’d be a JK game. I knew he’d play a lot because he’s played well against this team. The matchups are good for him. I told him before the game, ‘You’re going to play a lot. This is just about combinations and getting a little more spacing on the floor to start.’ All it is is just shuffling the lineup to try to get the right five-man grouping out there.”

Curry makes it much more palatable to play two non-shooters with Kuminga — who’s still growing as a 3-point threat. Kuminga went 1-for-3 from behind the arc on Tuesday and is 2-for-12 on the year.

Kuminga started each of the Warriors’ first three games in a jumbo lineup next to Curry, Wiggins, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. That combination has had mixed results as it learns to play together.

The Warriors and Kuminga failed to strike a deal on an extension before the deadline, making him a restricted free agent at the end of the year. Golden State prioritized in-season flexibility and wanted to see more out of Kuminga entering his fourth year. Kuminga’s camp wasn’t hard-lined at a max contract and didn’t receive a market-value offer, per sources.

That situation puts a spotlight on Kuminga — and his relationship with Kerr.

Kuminga got off to a poor start this year, which he called “decent,” after averaging 16.1 points per game in his third season. He started 46 of 74 games in 2023-24.

Against the Pelicans, Kuminga played his best all-around game so far. On one play, he swatted a shot and tossed a lob to Jackson-Davis for an alley-oop on the other end. He later added a gliding, two-handed reverse dunk on a fast break.

“I thought JK was great,” Kerr said. “We’re going to need him, obviously. He is our most athletic player. He’s got great size. There’s games like tonight where we have to have him, and other games where things maybe aren’t going his way, and that’s OK. This is about winning. This is a deep team. The thing I’ve asked these guys to do is commit. Every night’s going to be different. Just because the first three games didn’t really go his way — we’ve got 74 more now. I think it’s OK for guys to have a slow start or a couple tough nights. I’m very confident JK is going to make a huge impact for us.”

Kuminga said that just because he scored more on Tuesday doesn’t mean he was flowing better than the first three games. Not everything’s going to be perfect right away, he said, but he likes the shots he’s been getting. They just haven’t gone in like they did Tuesday, when he went 6-for-13 from the floor.

“Still attacking the rim, putting pressure (on the rim),” Kuminga said. “Today, things went in, it looks good. The days it doesn’t go in, it looks like I’m doing something else. My gift and my nature is to attack the rim as much as I can.”

Without a stretch center on the roster, the Warriors can have trouble fitting enough space around Kuminga to clear driving lanes (though he said playing with Green and Jackson-Davis doesn’t impact his ability to get downhill). At times Tuesday, the Warriors played both Lindy Waters III (21 points) and Buddy Hield (28 points) next to Kuminga, spacing the floor with the team’s best shooters not named Steph Curry.

Even though the Warriors didn’t start Kuminga, they found ways to put him in spots to succeed. That’s going to be a key for the rest of the season, even when Curry, Wiggins and Melton return. To reach its ceiling, Golden State needs Kuminga to add the driving dimension it doesn’t have otherwise.

“Just got to wait, because a lot of better and good things are going to come,” Kuminga said. “It was just a slow start, but not every time’s going to be perfect. Not every time you’re going to come out of the gate and be who you want to be. It takes a lot, and I’m going to get there.”