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It was right there for everybody to see in that frenzied Warriors fourth quarter in Philadelphia on Thursday — who was out there flying around, screaming at the crowd, and almost pulling this game out; and who was not.
It’s been subtext for the last few weeks, really. But it’s not subtext now.
Pat Spencer, Gui Santos, Quinten Post, De’Anthony Melton, Will Richard, and Buddy Hield were the main characters in this play-within-a-playoff-drive.
Not all of them will stay in the main rotation once Stephen Curry (out for the road trip with a sore quad), Jimmy Butler (sore knee, might be back in the lineup Saturday in Cleveland), and Draymond Green (hurt his foot in the first half on Thursday) are healed up — and certainly not all of them deserve to.
But it matters that they were out there almost winning this game while Jonathan Kuminga (-18 in the game) and Brandin Podziemski (-20) sat the entire fourth quarter and Moses Moody sat the final 9:13.
It matters that Spencer, in particular, has looked good and earned more playing time as an aggressive playmaker since Curry’s been out. And Melton, in his first game this season, looked very comfortable and valuable playing alongside Spencer or on his own as a driver and defender.
It definitely matters that Kuminga, Podziemski, and Moody absolutely have not looked great and have lost fourth-quarter playing time since Curry’s been out.
Two games ago, Kerr went with Podziemski and chose not to stay with Spencer to ride out a late Warriors rally in an eventual loss to the Thunder and maybe lived to regret it; meanwhile, Kuminga didn’t play a second in that Tuesday fourth quarter and Moody, as is now a trend, only played cameo crunch-time seconds.
What’s going on here? Let’s stipulate that things can change swiftly and often do — just a few months ago Kuminga was playing with high energy and efficiency and was fully engaged in every way that Steve Kerr and the Hall of Fame veterans could want. It could bend that way again soon for Kuminga and for Podziemski and Moody, too.
Kuminga and Moody are 23. Podziemski is 22. They all have done good things with the Warriors. They all have long careers ahead of them.
But this season seems to have taken a major turn, especially for Kuminga, dating back to the Warriors’ emotional back-to-back victories over the Spurs in San Antonio last month. That came right after a demoralizing blow-out loss in Oklahoma City and murmurings from Draymond and Butler that something was wrong that must be fixed.
Pointedly, the Spurs victories came after Kuminga was moved out of the starting lineup; also, he hurt his knee in the first Spurs game and missed the next seven.
Since returning from a knee injury, Kuminga has scored a total of 27 points over three games. | Source: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
In the three games since Kuminga returned, all with Curry out, he’s scored 10, 8, and 9 points, shot 36.7%, and played a total of 54 minutes. He hasn’t been terrible. He just hasn’t been a focal point of anything, offensively and defensively, and that’s expressly what the Warriors need when Curry and Butler are out. And expressly what Kuminga believes he should be doing for the Warriors.
As Draymond said after the OKC game: Kuminga asked for this responsibility.
Today
3 days ago
Tuesday, Nov. 25
This is me, not Draymond: It feels more like late last season, when Kuminga was pulled from the rotation in the Warriors’ biggest games, than any Kuminga partisan wants to see or acknowledge.
We can add Podziemski and Moody into the broader discussion, but they’re not the ones who went through a torturous negotiation last summer that produced a two-year, $48 million contract (only this year’s $23.5 million guaranteed) built as a trade chip either at the February trade deadline or next offseason.
Since it’s a new deal, Kuminga can’t be traded until Jan. 15. Which sets up the next five weeks as a typical period of heightened Warriors mid-season drama.
Basically: the Warriors won’t want to spend it losing leverage in this situation as it heads to a conclusion that was probably inevitable all along. Maybe inevitable since Kuminga’s rookie season.
The Warriors want to win games, they want Kuminga to maintain or increase his value, and they want to have the option to either trade him for something very good or to keep him and know he’ll be a major plus into the spring.
They don’t want to get to Jan. 15 with the entire league knowing they need to trade away a disengaged Kuminga at rock-bottom prices.
It’s the same for Moody. Maybe the same for Podziemski. But given their fits alongside Butler and Curry and relative low salary cost (at least until Podziemski comes up for a rookie extension next summer), I don’t see either Moody or Podziemski getting traded this winter, unless they’re throw-ins to complete a huge deal featuring Kuminga.
Notably, Spencer is showing that he might be a better option than Podziemski as a lead guard when Curry is out, maybe with Melton as his main backcourt mate. But when Curry is playing, Podziemski probably is a better option as a secondary initiator most games. And, as Kerr has been mentioning frequently lately, Spencer is on a two-way deal and already is at 23 games toward the 50-game limit on the active roster.
The Warriors just added Seth Curry to get to the maximum 15 full roster spots and they’re hard-capped at the second apron with almost no wiggle room. The only ways they could add Spencer is if they expose themselves at center by waiving Trayce Jackson-Davis’ deal before Jan. 10 when it guarantees for the full season (very unlikely), or they make a two-for-one, three-for-one, or four-for-one trade to open space.
The way this is going, it’s very doubtful the Warriors could get into any developing talks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. They just don’t have enough firepower, even though I’ve heard Milwaukee had at least some interest in Kuminga last offseason.
Kuminga’s restricted free agency dragged throughout the summer before he ultimately agreed to a two-year deal with the Warriors. | Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
But the Warriors can also see what else is out there as teams jockey for Giannis and deal with any kinds of side effects of such a massive undertaking.
I don’t think the Warriors will just give Kuminga away, though. Maybe they should — just move his money to pick up a veteran like the 34-year-old CJ McCollum, who should be playing more meaningful basketball in the final years of his career than anything happening with the Wizards. But I doubt Joe Lacob wants to sell that low.
So what will the Warriors do? I think it’s up to Kuminga at this point, not Kerr, not the veterans, or anybody else.
Should Kerr be this tough on Kuminga in particular? Kuminga told me earlier this season — granted, when things were better for him — that he wants Kerr to coach him hard, that he’s told Kerr that he wants to hear directly if he makes a mistake.
If Kuminga can’t break through, that’s more about him than it is about Kerr or his system, in my opinion. Just like Spencer’s ascendance is about him and his play, not about Kerr.
After Thursday’s game, Kerr logically said that it was a one-time situation that broke for Spencer, Santos, and the other third-string closers, and that any other time it could be Kuminga, Moody, and Podziemski playing all the crunch-time minutes.
Which makes sense. It’s what a coach should say. Kerr will need Kuminga, Moody, Podziemski, and everybody else at points this season. But Kuminga, Podziemski, and Moody aren’t random players anymore. This roster is not built for that. Kuminga and Moody are being paid well. Podziemski is coming up on the window to sign his rookie extension, and by all signals, expects to land major money.
They’re all supposed to be major, permanent parts of the every-game journey — when Curry and Butler are playing, and even more when they’re out.
It can’t be all about setting up everything perfectly for them. That’s the argument by the Kuminga partisans, that this system needs to adjust to him, not the other way. But no, that’s just not how it works in the NBA hierarchy. You have to make it work for you, or you’re just another role player. And it’s good that Kuminga definitely doesn’t consider himself a role player. He just has to prove it.
It’s still up to Kuminga. It’s not up to anybody else. Even on his way out, it’s up to him.
His exit is coming, whether it’s this winter or in the summer, and he’ll be better off when it happens. How much better off will the Warriors be?
