Jonathan Kuminga had to watch much of the second half against the Denver Nuggets from the bench, even though he started the game as a starter. This apparently caused the young forward’s pent-up frustration to boil over. Chris Paul also probably broke his hand.
“He played great. Normally he would have come back in with about five or six minutes to go, but Andrew Wiggins was playing well at that point and we were leading by 16 points,” Kerr explained on Thursday the decision not to substitute Kuminga for the final 18 minutes of the game against the Nuggets. “It wouldn’t have felt right to change anything later; Kuminga had already been sitting for a long time at that point.” The Warriors lost the lead and lost to a buzzer beater by Nikola Jokic.
Shams Charania (The Athletic) subsequently reports that Kuminga has lost faith in Kerr and no longer believes he can reach his full potential under Kerr. “Thursday was the last straw,” Charania quoted one of his sources as saying. Kuminga started the game strongly against the Nuggets with 16 points on 5/7 FG as well as 4 rebounds and 4 assists in just 19 minutes.
“He’s not wrong to be angry,” Stephen Curry stood by his teammate. “He probably should have played. Not just probably even…”
2024-01-06 08:17:00
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