The Golden State Warriors are scrambling to figure out what to do in light of Jonathan Kuminga's trade request and Jimmy Butler's season-ending ACL tear, with recent comments from general manager Mike Dunleavy that could come back to bite the franchise in the worst way.
Prior to Tuesday night's game when Kuminga went off and scored 20 points in 21 minutes in his first action in over a month, Dunleavy said the following about the young forward's recent trade demand:
"As far as the demand, I’m aware of that. In terms of demands, when there’s a demand, there needs to be a demand on the market. So we’ll see how that unfolds.”
Warriors GM takes pointed swipe at Jonathan Kuminga
Basically, Dunleavy is saying there isn't a lot of demand for Kuminga right now on the trade market, something that's not overly surprising. The young forward had not played in a month when those comments were made and while he obviously has promise, teams aren't currently willing to part with much to make a deal with the Warriors.
However, maybe the Warriors are poking the bear here. Dunleavy made those comments and Kuminga subsequently went off. Now, head coach Steve Kerr really has no other choice but to start playing him more to see if he can maintain any sort of consistency which has been a struggle throughout his career.
Obviously, Kerr and Kuminga have had a complicated relationship basically ever since Kuminga came into the league. The 23-year-old has never fully meshed with what Kerr wants the Warriors to do on both ends of the floor, making for a lot of friction.
There are moments when it seems like everything is working and everyone is fine, including when the Warriors began the season 4-1 and Kuminga was playing well as a starter. He then began to struggle, went back to the bench, and also suffered an injury at the worst possible time.
It's just never been the right fit, so it's foolish to think that everything is going to click now for good. But if Kuminga goes off in the next week and a half ahead of the trade deadline, Golden State may be in a position where they are considering keeping him, especially if they win some games and appear to still be alive in the Western Conference.
That could also potentially be a worst case scenario -- keeping Kuminga hoping he's cracked the code when in actual fact the likelihood is that it will fall apart again in the weeks following the deadline.
The Warriors need to trade Kuminga because the situation is no longer tenable. Dunleavy giving him some bulletin board material could work out if he plays well enough for the Warriors to get something decent back in a trade. If Kuminga balls out so hard that the Warriors have to keep him, then that would be a less than ideal outcome and lead to more question marks going forward.