The writing is on the wall for the Golden State Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga.
Even if player and franchise eventually reunite on a new contract in the coming weeks, it will merely be a union of circumstance and will almost assuredly be a short-term one that ends in divorce via trade in the next 12 months.
Is there anyway that Kuminga's future with the Warriors can be salvaged and actually turn into the decade-long marriage that both parties had previously envisioned? The only hope for that lies in one specific Golden State player, and one that's long advocated for Kuminga as a supremely talented young player in the league.
Draymond Green can salvage Jonathan Kuminga's career at the Warriors
Kuminga's stalled contract negotiations with Golden State is just as much about role and playing opportunity than it is the financial details. The young forward understandably wants to spread his wings and become a full-time starter, but those aspirations within the Warrior ecosystem have been blocked by his unwillingness to do some of the role-player aspects, and of course the ever-constant presence of franchise legend Draymond Green.
If Kuminga and the Warriors retain any possibility of a long-term future together, it will require Green to relinquish the starting power-forward role at some point -- and perhaps a point that's sooner rather than later.
How Green responds to this potential moment will be pivotal. Fortunately we've already seen a positive response in such circumstances, albeit only briefly when Kuminga started over the 4x All-Star in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 7 last season.
Kuminga had come off a game-winning 33-point performance the night before against the Houston Rockets with Green and Stephen Curry sitting on the sidelines. The veteran was fine with the decision, having initially taken the role off David Lee when he was in the opposite position over 10 years earlier.
"So if his (Kuminga's) opportunity goes through me, then it is what it is. He earned the opportunity. He played extremely well (Thursday)," Green told reporters. "You want to give that another look or two or three or four or however long. If it works, then you continue with it."
It didn't work though and the two were swapped back as if it never actually happened in the first place. The bigger question becomes how Green responds if or when it happens again, and particularly if it becomes a permanent arrangement.
Giving Kuminga a full-time starting role is the only way his career with the Warriors could possibly stem beyond the next year. Of course he has to earn that and actually win the position off Green, but the fluidity and ease in which it takes place is still very much dependant on the former Defensive Player of the Year.