Report: Some Warriors coaches aren’t sure Kuminga can fit at small forward originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The NBA world continues to patiently wait for a real breakout and maybe an All-Star season of young Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga.
So are the Warriors.
What that looks like, however, is being questioned by some inside the building, though ESPN’s Kendra Andrews.
Golden State still is experimenting with Kuminga at both small and power forward, but with Draymond Green primarily filling that role at the four but occasionally playing center during the team’s “small-ball” lineups, this presents the unknown for Kuminga.
“If Green starts at forward, the only spot for Kuminga would be small forward,” Andrews wrote. “However, there is uncertainty from some coaches as to whether the fourth-year player can be comfortable at the three with this group.”
Kuminga played 96 percent of his minutes at four last season, Andrews wrote, citing Cleaning the Glass.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr played Kuminga at the three along with Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis during Golden State’s preseason opener but said the group was “not great.” However, Kerr and his staff still have a desire to make that combination work.
Kumiga averaged a career-high 16.1 points last season on 52.9 percent shooting, with 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 26.3 minutes played across 74 games (46 starts). There was a two-month stretch toward the end of the season where he proved he could be Golden State’s second-leading scorer behind Steph Curry, averaging 19.1 points in that span.
During that stretch, Kuminga was the powerhouse with Andrew Wiggins at the three and Green at center.
Despite his success at the four, Kuminga believes he is a small forward — not a power forward — but is willing to fill any role the team needs him to play.
“I have been in this team for three years. There’s never a position I haven’t played on this team, so that’s not really my biggest concern,” Kuminga said earlier this month after the first day of Warriors training camp in Hawaii. “At the end of the day I know I’m a small forward and I can play at the highest level. But just going forward, it’s about what the team wants you to do to help them win, to help them win.
“It doesn’t matter. Small forward or whatever, I’m just going to get better at it.”
With an offseason full of change for the Warriors, the only certainty in Steve Kerr’s lineup is Curry and Green. Everything else is fair game. Golden State wants Kuminga to be part of its success, but the position in which he does so remains up in the air.
