SAN FRANCISCO — Jonathan Kuminga practiced without any issue on Wednesday and is considered probable for Golden State’s Thursday night game against the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center.
The recovery road for the fourth-year wing has been long and grueling. Kuminga, 22, suffered a severe ankle sprain on Jan. 4 and missed the next 31 straight games. It took him a couple weeks of scrimmaging after getting cleared for contact to reach the threshold of readiness required for the Warriors’ training staff.
During Kuminga’s rehab process, the Warriors reinvented themselves. They stumbled into the trade deadline before acquiring Jimmy Butler, who has saved their season. They’re 12-1 with Butler in the lineup and have surged from 11th to sixth in the West.
“He’s excited about playing, but he understands the circumstances,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “This is actually probably the hardest time to return to a team, when a team’s rolling. Because you don’t want to disrupt anything. But he’s obviously aware of that. We’ve talked about just coming in and playing as hard as he can for short bursts, because if he does that, he’s going to impact winning.”
Kuminga’s anticipated return, barring a setback during pregame warmups, is here at long last. He’s going to come off the bench and likely play on a minutes restriction — at least to start. And his role is going to look vastly different than it was before, when he was playing the best basketball of his career.
Before his injury, Kuminga strong together 17 consecutive double-digit scoring performances, including three 30-point games. Especially in games without Steph Curry, like on Dec. 5 against Houston, Kuminga had the ball in his hands to make plays from all three levels. He was making an impact defensively and on the boards while stretching the bounds of his offensive profile.
There won’t be nearly as much room for Kuminga to do that anymore, with Butler in the mix.
Butler is another option on the wing who can make plays, both on the perimeter and inside. He’s not a prototypically ball-dominant star, but he still soaks up possessions that may have featured actions for Kuminga otherwise.
Kerr has also committed to keeping Gui Santos in the rotation as a 3-and-D energy guy. With two star playmakers in Curry and Butler, Santos’ glue-guy skills become much more valuable.
