SAN FRANCISCO — Jonathan Kuminga was steaming at his locker that he missed a couple chances at the rim in the second half after Golden State’s 105-101 loss to the Thunder.
What he didn’t know was that the Warriors as a team went 19-for-46 in the paint, including 33.3% at the rim. He went 5-for-11, meaning the rest of his teammates shot 40% from inside the lane.
In a defensive struggle, Kuminga scored 10 of the Warriors’ 38 paints in the point, including a thunderous jam over Jalen Williams in the first half. He shook off rust after missing the previous two games with a stomach bug, finishing with a team-high 19 points.
The 22-year-old is the only Warrior outside of Steph Curry who can consistently put pressure on the rim. He’s not a perfect fit within the Warriors’ system — he might never be — and head coach Steve Kerr doesn’t see him as a starter. But as a scorer who provides an element no one else on the roster can, he’s vital.
That showed both on Wednesday night and in the two games he missed — losses to San Antonio and Brooklyn.
“We need him against (the Thunder), we need him against everybody,” Kerr said before Wednesday’s loss. “JK has played a really important role for us this year. I know he would prefer to start, but the way that the team is built, what we’re trying to do defensively — what we’ve done defensively to this point — it makes perfect sense for JK to come off the bench and be our scorer off the bench.”
Kuminga started against the Thunder, but only because Curry (knees) and De’Anthony Melton (ACL; out for season) were unavailable. He began the season in the starting lineup, but the team quickly shifted to a two-big look with Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Because of Kuminga’s lack of an outside shot, playing him alongside two non-shooting bigs is untenable.
Since Kuminga and the Warriors failed to make progress toward a contract extension before the deadline, the wing is in a contract year. He hasn’t complained about the bench role, but was admittedly glad when Kerr informed him he’d start Wednesday’s game.
At first, Kuminga was rusty because he hadn’t played in a few days. Not coincidentally, the Warriors fell behind by 19 early in the first half. Like in their losses to the Spurs and Nets, they weren’t playing with enough energy.
Then reserve Pat Spencer entered — after three days of intense practices in a row, including a full lift before the game — and injected some life into the game. Kuminga returned and followed suit.
“He was at the 4 his first stint, and he wasn’t good because he wasn’t aggressive,” Draymond Green said postgame. “He came back into the game and he went for broke. And when you go for broke with that level of talent, that level of skill, it usually works in your favor.”
As Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein thwarted Warriors drivers in the lane, Kuminga at least had some success. He threw down a dunk when a runway cleared for him and walked down smaller defenders into the post.
“I feel like I just settled down,” Kuminga said. “Knowing angles to attack, too. Put a lot of pressure on the rim, that kind of helped. … Even just to kick it out and the rest of our guys got easy shots. I think that’s just my main focus. I always work on finding a way to get there.”
Later, in the fourth quarter, Kuminga got back-to-back stops against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the perimeter. He still has defensive lapses, especially off the ball, but has been locked in at the point of attack when given challenging assignments. He has arguably the most athletic player on the team, and the team needs him to leverage it however possible.
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One of the biggest see-saws in the Warriors’ season is how often Kuminga plays power forward or his preferred spot of small forward. Without a stretch center, Kerr has correctly decided that Kuminga is a full-time power forward. But that may require Green to play more center in small-ball lineups, which the organization is hesitant to do.
Green personally prefers playing next to another big who can let him roam as a help defender, but he’s happy to do whatever the team needs.
What the Warriors need and what Kuminga needs to get paid aren’t necessarily the same thing. But the Warriors certainly need to unlock Kuminga as much as possible, because without him, they’d be without any dribble penetration, stuck passing around the perimeter and running split action every possession.
Green, one of Kuminga’s biggest boosters, knows it.
“I don’t care what position he’s at, we need him being aggressive at all times,” Green said. “We’ll all fit around him. We’ll figure it out. That’s the thing he needs to understand, is what he needs to be: That pressure he started putting on the rim, we need that all night. And everyone else will figure it out.”
