After stunningly being left out of the rotation by Steve Kerr for Sunday's regular season finale against the L.A. Clippers, Jonathan Kuminga's future with the Golden State Warriors appears all but over even before the start of the postseason.
Kuminga's inability to re-integrate effectively to the Warrior rotation following a long-term ankle injury reached a tipping point on Sunday, with Kerr choosing to remove the young forward altogether despite having finished the regular season as the third-leading scorer on the current roster.
Jonathan Kuminga's career with the Warriors looks in jeopardy
When asked post-game why Kuminga was left out of the rotation, Kerr responded by saying, "we've just found a group since Jimmy (Butler) got here that we're pretty comfortable with." That came after Kerr admitted that Kuminga, Butler and Draymond Green couldn't fit together, and that Golden State were playing better weeks ago -- presumably before Kuminga returned from his 31-game absence.
Kuminga's future with the Warriors has inched close to boiling point multiple times, yet it's usually followed by a stretch of good form that tilts the balance back in his favor. Even earlier this season, the 22-year-old's future became a storyline after he was removed from the starting lineup just three games into the season. Despite the speculation that came from that, Kuminga responded and was argubaly in career-best form prior to the untimely ankle injury in early January.
Unfortunately in this situation, time is running out. There isn't the same length of runway for Kuminga to respond, and not the leniency nor opportunity to allow him to play through mistakes. It will take a change of heart from Kerr for Kuminga to make an impact, and it's difficult to envisage that happening given what we've seen in the past.
If Kuminga continues to get regular DNPs across the course of the postseason, it's impossible to see how the two parties would have mutual interest in remaining together in the offseason. In fairness, Golden State do still hold the cards given he'll be a restricted free agent, but it's also difficult to see them matching a reasonably-sized offer sheet on Kuminga if he ends his fourth year out of the rotation.
It's a potentially unceremonious ending to a Warrior career that promised so much. At times Kuminga has displayed the sort of talent that suggested he could eventually take the keys from Stephen Curry and lead the franchise into a new era, yet it hasn't been anywhere near consistent enough and has ultimately fizzled out into this unfortunate situation.