SAN FRANCISCO — Let’s try this again.
Jonathan Kuminga is poised to return on Thursday after 31 games missed with an ankle sprain.
Now — finally — the Warriors’ extraordinary experiment can begin.
Golden State has one month — 17 games — remaining in the regular season to re-integrate Kuminga, who possesses the talent to take this team to another level.
And make no mistake about it, the Warriors need Kuminga. While the Golden State played exceptionally with Kuminga out of the lineup, going 19-12 since Jan. 4 and 12-1 in games that Jimmy Butler has played— a stretch that has the Warriors within striking distance of not just home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but even the No. 2 seed (4.5 games back as of Thursday morning) — the Dubs are also only one loss ahead of the seven-seed Timberwolves and a spot in the play-in tournament.
Yes, as the Dubs have made their season-saving, imagination-activating run, Minnesota has kept pace in recent weeks, winning six straight games. The Timberwolves also boast the easiest remaining strength of schedule remaining in the Western Conference.
All that work, to still be in the play-in tournament? It’s plausible, if not probable for the Warriors unless they can elevate their game even further — making stretches like the one they are on the team’s new norm.
The good news for the Warriors is that Kuminga can provide that boost.
The problem, four years into Kuminga’s NBA career, is that no one knows if he will.
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Contrary to a popular belief before the trade, the arrival of Butler has made life easier for the Warriors. The team’s nebulous roles around Steph Curry from earlier this season have been cemented into a clear hierarchy: Curry is No. 1 and Butler is No. 2, who steps into that No. 1 role when Curry is off the floor. Everyone else? Figure out how you can positively affect the team around those two pillars.
Moses Moody has a role and is thriving. Gary Payton II looks like his 2022 self again. Before injury, Brandin Podziemski was playing his best basketball as a professional. But Gui Santos put it best on Wednesday, “I don’t need to score one point to make an impact in the game…They’re the guys who are going to decide the game, I’m just there to help them do it.”
You can easily see in that quote why Steve Kerr is keeping Santos in the rotation, even with Kuminga’s return.
Meanwhile, when I asked Kerr if the new hierarchy would help Kuminga, he hardly had a ringing endorsement:
“That remains to be seen because, you know, we can’t really predict anything,” Kerr said. “But it always has to click… We’ve got to help him fit into this current team.”
Kuminga isn’t trying to torpedo anything. He wants to win and we have seen him play winning basketball in spurts before. If it does, indeed, “click,” the Warriors will be undeniable title contenders in a month. An explosive athlete who can attack off the dribble and score at all three levels — plus play dogged perimeter and interior defense — is the kind of addition every other Western Conference playoff team wishes they could make. The Timberwolves won’t be able to keep up. The Rockets and Lakers will be on high alert, lest the Dubs overtake them.
It could also be exceptionally lucrative to Kuminga, a restricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
But anything less than Kuminga’s best leaves the Warriors in a strange place.
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They didn’t need him to win this past month-plus, and if he’s not playing the right brand of basketball—if he’s isolating too often on offense and getting lost just as frequently on defense, two things we’ve seen often in his career—it could seriously contribute to the Warriors’ playing in a mini-tournament in a month.
In fact, after the Butler trade, Kerr’s biggest challenge hasn’t been Butler. It could well be Kuminga.
And if that proves to be the case, who knows what Kuminga’s future with the Warriors will be.
It will all be decided in the next month. By the time the playoffs start, we’ll know what’s what.
Hell, by the time Thursday night’s game with the Kings is over, we might have a good idea of what’s coming down the stretch from Kuminga and, ergo, the Dubs.
I’ll plant a flag right now: I think it’ll be fine.
Not a gangbusters win, but hardly a disaster.
I’ll bet that Kuminga buys into the system and buries his ego. It won’t always be perfect, and it might not be prolific, either — there will be games where Kerr benches him and others where the Dubs ride him to the finish line. All in all, it will constitute winning basketball.
In turn, the Warriors will have everything to play for in April—and a valid belief that they could actually win it.
