Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga Says Steve Kerr Benched Him Over Text

On Tuesday night time the Golden State Warriors took down the New Orleans Pelicans, 124-106, within the workforce’s first sport with out Steph Curry this season. It was a little bit of a rollercoaster of a night for younger ahead Jonathan Kuminga, as reviews emerged previous to tip-off that he was getting benched by head coach Steve Kerr after beginning the primary three video games of the yr.

It got here throughout as one other controversial choice from Kerr involving a younger rotation participant after a number of years’ value of them, and Kuminga revealed to reporters after the sport that he did not actually have a dialog with the top coach concerning the choice. As an alternative, Kerr knowledgeable him through textual content.

“It wasn’t my choice,” Kuminga stated, through ESPN’s Kendra Andrews. “I acquired a textual content, that is how it will go, that is who it will be, and I went with it. What am I purported to do … ask why am I not beginning? That is the choice of the coach, and we’ll comply with what he’ll do.”

As to the why of all of it, Kerr defined after the sport that the beginning lineup was lacking a whole lot of taking pictures with Curry and Andrew Wiggins each out. He felt it made extra sense to have Buddy Hield and Moses Moody on the market with the beginning 5 to supply spacing. Which logically traces up, as each gamers are taking pictures over 50% from three to begin the yr whereas Kuminga is taking pictures 16%.

In the end the choice to bench Kuminga did not impact his enjoying time. He performed a season-high 28 minutes, ending with 17 factors, two steals, and one block. However as Kuminga performs out the final yr of his rookie contract earlier than hitting restricted free company, how these conditions unfold is value monitoring.