Golden State Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga (00) walks back after scoring against the Portland Trail Blazers as Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) and Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson (11) wait for him to give him high-fives in the fourth quarter of a NBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)\
PHOENIX — The Warriors’ next two opponents, the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers, are rife with superstars. That likely means more minutes for Jonathan Kuminga this week as Golden State looks to counter with a little rotation innovation on the wing.
In search of something to spark a run following this tepid 10-12 start, coach Steve Kerr has been inching away from his preference to stick with a familiar nine-man rotation on a nightly basis and, instead, mix and match based on hot hands and matchups.
What has become clear through the many turnovers, stagnant motion offense and mediocrity so far is that the Warriors need Kuminga’s scoring threat at and above the rim to balance out the attack and keep opposing defenses on their toes. Plus, he profiles as an ideal defensive cog if the Warriors get switch-heavy against the Suns, who feature Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and a returning Bradley Beal. The same applies to Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden of the Clippers.
“That’s one of the things we’ve been trying to help him with is leveraging his athleticism, power and strength to get closer to the rim and rolling rather than popping,” Kerr said. “Relying more on the force of his cuts and working out of the dunker spot and making himself available to catch and go right up and finish.”
The go-to starting lineup of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney has mostly struggled this year because defenses know Looney and Green are hunting the extra pass and not looking to score. That clogs the spacing — and often Kerr’s way of unclogging is to stagger the pair and put Dario Saric at the five as a scoring threat.
But leaning into athleticism against bouncy teams such as Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers allowed Kuminga to pick his moments as a needed scorer. He went a combined 16-for-21 from the field in those two games, primarily in the paint. Any changes to the starting lineup or rotation could lean into that attack. If Wiggins can get going again, the Warriors could even kick their bounciness up a notch by having both on the court together attacking the glass on one end and paint on the other. Creating force.
“If (Kuminga) can establish his game near the rim that softens everything up and he can play more on the perimeter,” Kerr said. “As a young player, he fashions himself as a three man who can do everything. We feel like he needs to establish that power game inside and the finishing and he’s done that the last two games and that’s going to get him more playing time.”
Phoenix Suns DJ vs. Steve Kerr
After the Warriors’ last visit, and loss, to Phoenix on Nov. 22, Kerr went on an impromptu rant deploring the use of noisy music at Footprint Arena.
“What are we doing?” Kerr said then. “I’m being dead serious. I couldn’t hear anything out there. It’s just the whole game, it’s thumping techno club music. Can we just have a basketball game anymore? What the hell?”
Earlier this week, Suns DJ Chris Villa dropped a remix of Kerr’s public complaints to the tune of “Satisfaction” by electronic dance musician Benny Benassi. Kerr said about 100 people texted him video of the remix, and he got a kick out of it.
“I think it’s hilarious, I love it,” Kerr said. “We’re in the entertainment business and stuff like that is great. I may have to respond with something of my own, so we’ll see how it is.”
Kerr also acknowledged that his rant will probably prompt the Suns’ arena operations staff to pump the tunes even louder on Tuesday.
“Given the game atmosphere last time with the South Beach club music, I’m expecting it to be even more techno, even louder,” he said. “Our timeouts, we may not even be able to hold a timeout. I’ll tell the guys to go get ’em and we’ll see what happens.”
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Chris Paul sat out against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday with an undisclosed illness and is expected to play against his former team in Phoenix on Tuesday. Paul was issued double technical fouls and ejected in the first half after a heated conversation with referee rival Scott Foster the last time the Warriors were in Phoenix, spoiling his homecoming.
Klay Thompson missed Sunday’s practice with an illness, but practiced on Monday and is expected to play on Tuesday, Kerr said.