Stephen Curry's legacy as the greatest player in Golden State Warriors history is already secured, but it could take a new and surprising twist in regard to the development of young teammate Jonathan Kuminga.
Kuminga's improvement has been one of the major positives for the Warriors over the first three games of the season, and perhaps Curry can take some credit given the way their minutes have been overlapped in Steve Kerr's rotation.
Stephen Curry is helping to turn Jonathan Kuminga's fortunes
After a controversial offseason where his free agency stalemate dominated headlines for months, Kuminga has surprisingly averaged the third-most minutes for Golden State at 31.1 across the first three games.
The 23-year-old's increased on-court maturity and overall improvement is largely down to him of course, but it doesn't hurt when he's playing almost all of his minutes with Curry on the floor next to him.
Kerr has been particularly focused on pairing Curry and Kuminga together, while also pairing veteran duo Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green to make sure two of the quartet is on the floor at almost all times.
Of the 93 minutes Kuminga has played so far, 90 of them have been Curry alongside. Their pairing is easily the most used duo that Golden State have utilized, with Butler and Green playing 71 minutes together. In fact, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. (91 minutes) are the only set of teammates in the entire league to have played together more than Curry and Kuminga through three games.
The Curry-Kuminga combination only has a 0.2 net rating, so it's not as if it's absolutely dominating opposing teams. However, there's certainly something in the fact that both are playing incredibly well individually right now, which in itself is a reason to continue with the same rotation patterns for the time being.
Curry doesn't need to add anything to what's already one of the greatest careers in the history of the game, yet helping to turn Kuminga from sure fire trade candidate to vital piece of a championship-aspiring team would be quite an underrated achievement.
It could also have long-lasting effects if Kuminga becomes a legitimate long-term piece at the Warriors, something that still seems hard to fathom as a possibility after all the drama that took place during the offseason.
Kuminga's future at the franchise certainly feels far more solidified right now than what it did even a week ago, with Curry (and Kerr) deserving some credit for that thanks to a far more distinct on-court relationship between Golden State's best player and their brightest young talent.