SAN FRANCISCO — Jonathan Kuminga wants to be somewhere else.
The Warriors want him to be someone else.
Well, “I’m here now,” Kuminga said Thursday.
This, folks, has the makings of a toxic situation.
Sure, the summer contract saga is over, but it’s hard to believe the Kuminga Conundrum is at all settled.
Yet Warriors coach Steve Kerr said on Wednesday, after Kuminga signed, that he’s “not worried about anything.”
And you know what? I believe him. I don’t think him or the Warriors have anything to worry about.
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Yes, they have a young player with a contract tailor-made to be traded, with a style of play that’s a bit of a square peg in a round hole. “That’s the thing that’s held him back — what we need versus what he wants to do,” Kerr said. But that’s an on-court issue. The Warriors are confident this can all be handled with professionalism. After this summer’s contract negotiation nonsense, perhaps, even some much-needed class, too.
Kuminga provided it on Thursday in his press conference. He showed up, took questions in a language that wasn’t his first, about a tricky situation, and answered them in that same tongue with thoughtful responses (though, one imagines, most of the thought was devoted to how he could best phrase things to conceal the truth of the matter). He didn’t sell a false bill of goods, and that’s a credit to him.
The one-plus-one deal? He said he didn’t smile when it was signed. (His family did.)
Being flattered by other teams in restricted free agency? An eye-opening experience.
How does he fit on this team? “Be impactful.”
Truth, but not the whole truth.
Another half-measure in this story.
A tinderbox in any other situation.
So why is Kerr so carefree, though?
Well, it helps to have three “alphas” (the old Chicago Bulls fan in me cringed when Kerr made the statement) in the locker room.
“Jimmy is an alpha,” Kerr said. “Steph and Draymond are alphas. They run that locker room.”
Kuminga might not be an alpha, but he is now a No. 1 — he changed his number for this season. A new start, he said.
Perhaps Kerr was most carefree because, well, Kuminga’s a decent, pleasant fellow.
“He and I have always gotten along well. There’s never been any issues on a personal front for us,” Kerr said Wednesday.
But I suspect Kerr can sleep easily because he believes that Kuminga is “not that guy to come in and tear a team down.”
That’s a compliment — not a backhanded slight.
And he’s right.
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I don’t think being a ballstopper and now-and-again defender is a moral shortcoming.
Kuminga is a professional, head-down worker who is a go-along-to-get-along guy off the court. His agent might be a clown, but he’s a model citizen — the kind of person anyone would want in their locker room. The worst you’re getting from him is passive-aggression. In the drama-filled NBA, you’ll always take that.
Or, to put it even more simply: this dude would never punch a teammate.
Kuminga, the guy? Keep him around forever.
Kuminga, the player? The Warriors will give it one last try, but he might just be the wrong guy at the wrong time for Golden State. The divorce papers have already been drawn up — this contract is practically begging to be traded, even if Kuminga won’t stoop to demanding such a thing in a press conference.
So expect more of the same: The same offense that plays through Curry and Butler. The same asks of Kuminga on both sides of the court. And, in all likelihood, the same forward who wants to be the man on a team that already has three above him on the pecking order.
“The more he can defend with activity, rebound, run the floor, and then there’s a better chance he has to play,” Kerr said. “You know, everybody progresses at a different rate.”
Who knows, maybe Year 5 is the one where it clicks. Maybe all those sweet nothings the Kings and Suns whispered in his ear will prevent that from happening.
Either way, the gauntlet has been thrown. One last shot. Fit in or get out.
Kuminga, in a way, received what he’s always wanted in his showdown. It might just be metaphorically, but the ball is now in his court.
“We’ve been through a lot bigger deals than this,” Kerr noted on Tuesday, before Kuminga was signed.
We know, Steve, we know.
But we’re here now.
