Kuminga Suffers Minor Injuries, Remains Adamant About Trade
Jonathan Kuminga‘s night was cut short by injuries on Thursday and he’s not interested in playing with the Warriors much longer, according to an NBA insider.
Kuminga twisted his left ankle and hyperextended his left knee during a second-quarter drive against the Mavericks, Anthony Slater of ESPN reports. The fifth-year forward didn’t play the remainder of the contest but neither injury is believed to be serious, Slater added.
While Marc Stein of The Stein Line tweets that Kuminga is expected to undergo an MRI, the former No. 7 overall pick told Slater that he’ll see how he feels on Friday morning before determining whether that’s necessary.
Kuminga, who has demanded a trade, played 21 minutes on Tuesday in the aftermath of Jimmy Butler‘s season-ending knee injury. Kuminga had 20 points and five rebounds against Toronto and was off to a strong start in Thursday’s contest vs. Dallas, supplying 10 points, two assists and two steals in nine minutes prior to his departure.
Coach Steve Kerr said prior to the contest that Kuminga would remain in the rotation, according to Nick Friedell of The Athletic (Twitter link). However, the 23-year-old hasn’t softened on his trade demand, Chris Haynes reported during an NBA on Prime segment (Twitter video link).
“Kuminga has no desire to remain a member of the Golden State Warriors. He is very much hoping that he will be dealt by the deadline,” Haynes said, adding, “His relationship with head coach Steve Kerr is fractured beyond repair. He’s felt that he hasn’t had any organizational support throughout this process, so he’s felt devalued with the organization.”
According to Haynes, some teams believe the Warriors might wait until the summer to trade the 23-year-old forward. Rival teams have also told him that Golden State refuses to take on additional salary for 2026/27 in an in-season Kuminga trade.
General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. stated this week that the market for Kuminga is cool. “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,” Dunleavy said.
Pacific Notes: Kuminga, Kerr, Sabonis, Lakers
Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he discussed Jonathan Kuminga‘s trade demand in frank terms, telling reporters, “When there’s a demand, there needs to be a demand on the market.”
Kuminga’s agent Aaron Turner responded to Dunleavy’s remarks on social media, tweeting the definition of the “law of demand” accompanied by the following caption: “Demand is sensitive to price or playing time, So if a seller sees demand is low, lower the price point or let him play and demand will go (up).”
While it remains to be seen whether the Warriors will “lower the price point” as they explore potential Kuminga trades, they moved forward with the other half of Turner’s suggestion — following Jimmy Butler‘s season-ending ACL tear, Kuminga was back in the rotation on Tuesday for the first time in over a month. The move was a success, writes Nick Friedell of The Athletic. In 21 minutes of action, the fifth-year forward scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting and was a +3 in a game Golden State lost by 18 points.
“It was great,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “He came in and had great energy, attacked the rim, made some shots. I thought JK was really good and it’s a great sign. With Jimmy out, obviously there’s a hole at that spot on our roster. So JK’s gonna factor in here again and really pleased with the way he stayed ready and stayed prepared and got his opportunity and played really well.”
Veteran forward Draymond Green viewed Kuminga’s performance as a reflection of the work the 23-year-old has put in and the positive attitude he has maintained as he awaits a potential trade.
“I think we’ve all been very vocal about how he’s handled himself,” Green said, per Friedell. “He’s been incredible. And that is proven by the game he had. If you’ve been a nuisance, if you will, that game doesn’t happen for you.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Within a larger story about the situation in Golden State, Logan Murdock of The Ringer cites sources who say multiple Warriors assistant coaches have been operating under the premise that Kerr won’t be coaching the team in 2026/27. Some of those assistants have been preparing for the possibility of finding new jobs, Murdock adds, noting that veteran assistant Chris DeMarco left earlier this season for a WNBA position. To be clear, that doesn’t necessarily mean Kerr (who doesn’t have a contract for next season) has made any decisions about his future — his assistants may just be preparing contingency plans in case he decides not to return.
- Kings center Domantas Sabonis has come off the bench and averaged just 19.3 minutes per night in his first three games back following a two-month absence due to a knee injury. According to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter links), head coach Doug Christie said on Tuesday that Sabonis’ limited role isn’t the result of an explicit minutes restriction from the medical staff and has been “decision-based.” Sabonis will sit out the second end of a back-to-back set on Wednesday vs. Toronto due to left knee injury management, Anderson adds.
- In Tuesday’s win over Denver, the Lakers looked more connected defensively than they have for much of the season, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic, who wonders if the performance is a positive sign of things to come for Los Angeles. “One of the things that makes it complicated for us is, we have a lot of guys that are going to be free agents, and we have a lot of guys that have player options for next summer, so you might as well count them as free agents,” head coach JJ Redick said. “And the tendency for any athlete when things aren’t going well … you’re naturally going to turn inward. So that’s really what our emphasis points as coaches are, just being about the group and staying connected and keep continuing to fight and play for each other.”
Warriors’ Vets Say Kuminga Situation Not A Distraction
It was an eventful Thursday in the Bay Area, where the day began with forward Jonathan Kuminga issuing a trade demand and wrapped up with a 126-113 victory over a New York team missing star point guard Jalen Brunson. After the win, head coach Steve Kerr and the Warriors‘ veteran stars made it clear that they don’t view the Kuminga situation as a distraction.
“Jonathan’s a great young guy,” Kerr said, according to Nick Friedell of The Athletic. “His teammates like him. He’s handling himself well. There won’t be a distraction.”
“Everyone around here can confidently say it won’t be a distraction because he is not a distraction,” forward Draymond Green told reporters, including ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
Two-time MVP Stephen Curry and six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler each conveyed a similar sentiment. Curry indicated that he’s focused on winning games and that the Kuminga situation will “resolve itself one way or the other.” Butler said his teammates “love JK,” adding that won’t change if he’s traded. Asked whether he wants to see the Warriors grant Kuminga’s trade request, Butler shut down the line of questioning, suggesting it wasn’t his place to weigh in.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey,” Butler said, per Slater. “It ain’t got nothing to do with me. I want JK to be happy. At the end of the day, that’s what I want. Whatever brings him his joy and his happiness, that’s what I want.”
Kuminga, the seventh overall pick in the 2021 draft, appeared to be on the verge of a breakout when he averaged 16.1 points per game and shot 52.9% from the field in 74 games in 2023/24. However, he missed significant time due to an ankle injury in ’24/25 and was held out of the rotation in several key games at the end of the season and in the postseason.
After a protracted restricted free agency standoff that saw him re-sign with the Warriors on a two-year, $46.8MM deal that includes a second-year team option, Kuminga opened this season in the starting lineup and played well, earning kudos from Kerr. But when the fifth-year forward and Golden State began to struggle and he dealt with another injury (this one affecting his knee), Kuminga was removed from the starting five and then taken out of the rotation altogether.
Although the 23-year-old hasn’t played in 14 consecutive games (and 17 of the past 18), Kerr insisted on Thursday that his relationship with Kuminga isn’t acrimonious, as Friedell relays.
“Our relationship is fine,” Kerr said. “There’s not a whole lot I can say about the other stuff. Just is what it is, a difficult situation for everybody. Part of this league, part of the job. So we just keep moving forward, but tough situation. I don’t really have much to add.”
As we outlined on Thursday, the Kings remain very much in the mix for Kuminga, though they’re not willing to offer as strong a package as they did during the offseason. The Lakers and Mavericks are among the other teams rumored to have some level of interest. Golden State has until February 5 to make a deal, and if Kuminga does get moved, Green is optimistic about his teammate’s ability to “reach his full potential” with his new team.
“Wherever that is in this league, it’s not always how we envision it,” Green said, per Friedell. “I’ve been so lucky and fortunate to play in one place for 14 years. How rare is that though? The reality is it’s more likely that it happens the opposite way than the way it’s going for myself or Steph, Klay (Thompson). 13, 14 years in one spot, it just doesn’t happen.
“So for a guy like that who’s drafted (with) the seventh pick, you expect it all to go the way you want it to go, the way you think it should go. And sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. But that doesn’t make him any worse of a player. That doesn’t make this any worse of an organization. Sometimes things just don’t work out.
“… But I know how talented he is, I know how good of a teammate he is, I know how good of a person he is. And usually when you have those three things going for you, it works out in the end. So I have zero doubt that no matter what happens with him, whether it’s here or anywhere else, it’s going to work out for him in the end because he works his tail off and he’s a great person and a great teammate. And things work for those guys.”
Pacific Notes: Durant, Suns, Sanders, Kerr, Kuminga
Playing against his former team on Monday, Rockets forward Kevin Durant secured a victory for his current team by making a game-winning three-pointer with one second left in the fourth quarter. He admitted to reporters after the victory that being able to deliver that dagger against the Suns made the moment more meaningful, per Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press.
“Most definitely,” Durant said. “A place that I didn’t want to leave. My first time — I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but I will — to be kicked out of a place.
“It feels good to play against a team that booted you out of the building and scapegoated you for all the problems they had. And it hurt because I put all my effort and love and care towards the Suns and the Phoenix area and Arizona in general. But that’s just the business, that’s the name of the game. So, when you play against a (former) team, yeah you got a chip on your shoulder.”
The Suns, whose “big three” of Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal never meshed like they hoped, began discussing possible KD trades ahead of last season’s trade deadline, which was news to Durant. He helped nix those talks by making it clear he had no interest in returning to Golden State, then put Houston on his list of preferred destinations when the Suns renewed those trade efforts in the summer.
“It’s nothing but love for the players, but I want to beat that team,” he said on Monday. “I want to show them that I still got some juice in the tank. Even though I’m old, I still can play. I feel like every player has that mentality playing against their former team. I don’t think it’s malicious in any way towards them. But just as a competitor, you want to go out there and beat them.”
We have more from around the Pacific:
- Clippers rookie Kobe Sanders made his fourth career start on Monday with James Harden out due to shoulder stiffness and set or matched career highs in points (20), rebounds (seven), and minutes (36). Sanders, who has now been active for 29 games, has made a strong case for a promotion from his two-way contract to the standard roster and is earning praise from head coach Tyronn Lue in the process, writes Beth Harris of The Associated Press. “His poise, his ability to understand what we’re doing defensively and offensively, and just getting more and more confident,” Lue said of what has impressed him about the 2025 second-rounder.
- Monday’s one-point loss to the Clippers was a frustrating one for Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who received two technical fouls and was ejected after disputing multiple referee decisions, including a no-call that crew chief Brian Forte acknowledged after the game should have been a goaltending violation, per Anthony Slater of ESPN. Veteran assistant Terry Stotts coached the team following Kerr’s ejection, then took Kerr’s place during the post-game media session. “I’m up here because I’m saving Steve some money,” Stotts explained.
- Monday’s game was the ninth in a row that Jonathan Kuminga didn’t play, including his seventh DNP-CD during that stretch. Asked after the game about whether he thinks Kuminga’s nonexistent role and uncertain future are weighing on his Warriors teammate, Jimmy Butler quickly replied, “Nope, not at all,” and referred to Kuminga as his “friend” and brother” (Twitter video link via Slater). “I tell JK, you be a pro of all pros,” Butler said. “Come here and get your work done. Smile and have a good time. Because you’re still an NBA player (and) one of the best people in the world. I’m not even talking about basketball. So you keep smiling and you keep being the great human being that you are.”
Warriors Notes: Kerr, Draymond, Kuminga, Curry, Melton
Appearing this week on The Tom Tolbert Show (YouTube link), Warriors head coach Steve Kerr provided some insight into the circumstances that led to the heated sidelines confrontation between him and veteran forward Draymond Green last Monday. In Kerr’s view, the entire back-and-forth was the result of a “misunderstanding,” as Angelina Martin of NBC Bay Area relays.
“Draymond was talking to the refs, and I had called a timeout because I thought we lost our focus,” Kerr explained. “And I wasn’t mad at him, but he was talking to the ref for a long time, and then I see five of our players over there trying to bring him back and he had been ejected the night before. So I started yelling his name, ‘Draymond! Draymond!’ Basically just telling him to, asking him to get to the huddle.
“He thought I was yelling at him because of a turnover he had just made, and so he says something snarky, I say something back snarky, and next thing you know, we’re yelling at each other. We’re at each other’s throats, and then it all comes to bear.
“But I should have been calmer at that time. Like, I know Draymond so well and there’s always a buildup to these things, and he’s such an emotional player and passionate player and he had been frustrated for a couple of days, and I recognized that, but I needed to recognize it and do something about it in the huddle. I needed to be the the the calming force, and so we went back and forth and I regretted not being the calming one in that conversation.”
Green went to the locker room following the altercation and didn’t play for the rest of that game. But he and Kerr both downplayed the incident after the game, with the Warriors’ longtime head coach later taking full responsibility and telling reporters a couple days after the fact that the situation had been resolved. Green has played his normal role since then.
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- With several regulars sidelined, forward Jonathan Kuminga was supposed to play on Friday for the first time in two-plus weeks. However, Kuminga was a late addition to the injury report due to low back soreness and was ultimately held out of action despite being active. According to Kerr, Kuminga’s injury surfaced before the game and it’s unclear whether or not it will linger (Twitter link via Nick Friedell of The Athletic). After this missed opportunity, it seems increasingly plausible that the fifth-year forward won’t see the court again before he becomes trade-eligible on January 15.
- Kerr said after Friday’s loss that Green will return on Saturday vs. Utah after sitting out on Friday, and he’s hopeful Stephen Curry (ankle) will be back as well (Twitter link via Friedell). Jimmy Butler‘s availability will depend on how quickly his illness clears up, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be out long either.
- The Warriors essentially tanked Friday’s game against the defending champion Thunder, a 37-point loss, writes Monte Poole of NBC Bay Area. The team’s goal wasn’t to improve its draft position but to get a few veterans some much-needed rest ahead of more winnable games. “The schedule is what it is,” Kerr said. “When you have an older team, you have to navigate it as best you can. We’re trying to do that.”
- Veteran guard De’Anthony Melton, who re-signed with the Warriors this summer on a minimum-salary contract, told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Poole and Bonta Hill on the Dubs Talk podcast that he had no hard feelings about the team trading him away last season after he tore his ACL. “Given what my contract was, the mid-level, that’s a serviceable player,” Melton said. “You want someone like that who’s going to provide something good for your team. With me going down, and the dip the team took, I understood and I kind of saw it coming. And I think talking with (general manager) Mike (Dunleavy Jr.) and talking with Steve, they kind of helped me with that situation, too. So I had a feeling it was coming and I understood it. When it was on the horizon, I told them it’s OK. I said, ‘Honestly, I would trade me, too.'”
Steve Kerr Says Situation With Draymond Green Is Resolved
It appears that Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Draymond Green have resolved the issues that led to Monday night’s heated sidelines confrontation, writes Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area. Kerr told reporters on Wednesday that he and Green have spoken about the incident and have settled their differences. Kerr also accepted full blame, saying he overreacted to a tense situation.
“Frankly … Monday night was not my finest hour. That was a time I needed to be calm in the huddle,” Kerr said. “So I regret my actions in that exchange. I apologized to Dray, he apologized to me, we both apologized to the team. These things, they happen. Especially when you get two incredibly competitive people like Dray and me. Over the 12 years we’ve been together, this has happened occasionally. I’m not proud of it. We had a great chat.
“I care so much about Draymond. And the relationship we have is like family. And like family, you go through ups and downs. My number one goal, honestly, is for him to finish his career as a Warrior, with us, fighting — metaphorically, not literally — and competing together. Until we’re both done. And I believe that’s going to happen. Because I believe in Draymond and I believe in myself, and I believe in everything we’ve built for the last 12 years.”
Kerr and Green engaged in an intense argument during a time out in the third quarter of Monday’s win over Orlando. Green left the bench area and went to the locker room to “cool off.” He eventually returned, but Kerr didn’t put him back in the game.
The incident renewed trade speculation regarding Green, who hasn’t been playing up to his normal standards this season. He’s shooting just 40.9% from the field and 32.7% from three-point range and his scoring average has dropped to 8.1 PPG, nearly a full point lower than last year. The biggest concern is the decline in his play-making, as he’s putting up 5.1 assists and a startling 3.1 turnovers per night.
Kerr reiterated that he doesn’t want to see his long partnership with Green end. He pointed to Green’s role in helping to win four NBA titles during their time together and said they’ve had similar confrontations in the past, but have always been able to work through them.
“One of the things I love about Draymond is his loyalty,” Kerr added. “… He’s loyal to the Warriors. Loyal to me. Loyal to (Stephen Curry). He wants to be here his whole career. I want nothing more than that. I love Draymond, love everything he’s meant to me, to the organization, to the Bay. He’s a complicated guy. He’d be the first to admit that. He’s very complex. But he’s undyingly loyal and passionate and I will go to bat for him as long as I’m coaching him here. Honestly, I’d go to bat for him 20 years from now when we haven’t been together. That’s how strongly I feel about him. And that’s how I want this thing to end with us, whenever that is.”
It’s been a challenging season for the Warriors, who Kerr admits are “a fading dynasty.” They’re one of the league’s oldest teams, led by Green, Curry and Jimmy Butler, and their age has shown during the first two months of the season. At 15-15, they face a difficult path to move into the top six in the West and avoid another trip to the play-in tournament.
Kerr is confident that the blow-up with Green won’t be a distraction moving forward and that he’ll be fully focused for the Christmas Day matchup with Dallas.
“I think there’s always going to be dynamics within a team, any team, that exist all season long,” Kerr said. “And it’s the coach’s job and the leaders of the team’s job to help guys through those circumstances. We have issues just like every other team has issues. But we have to work through them. I believe this was a major step in that happening. I feel really good about where our team is on the floor, about where we’re heading. I see the potential to do exactly what we did last year. To really go on a run and give ourselves a chance.”
Warriors Notes: Green, Kerr, Horford, Melton, Richard
The Warriors picked up a second straight victory on Monday, beating Orlando by 23 points to get back to .500 (15-15). As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, Golden State got exactly the kind of tag-team performance it wanted to see from Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, who led the team with 26 and 21 points, respectively.
However, the big story of the night was a third-quarter spat between head coach Steve Kerr and Draymond Green. The two men engaged in a heated argument in a team huddle during a timeout (Twitter video link), resulting in Green leaving the court and not playing for the game’s final 20 minutes, as Anthony Slater of ESPN details. Kerr said after the game that he and Green “had it out a little bit” and that it was the forward’s decision to head to the locker room to “cool off.”
“Tempers spilled over, and I thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green confirmed. “I don’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better. It was best to remove myself.”
According to Slater, teammates Butler, Al Horford, and Buddy Hield checked on Green during the third quarter and the former Defensive Player of the Year returned to the bench in the fourth quarter. He remained on the sidelines for the rest of the night, with Kerr explaining to reporters that he didn’t seriously consider reinserting Green into the game.
“No, he wasn’t going back in,” Kerr said. “No. He left. He went back to the locker room. We moved forward, and the guys played great.”
Green’s play has been under a microscope lately due largely to his turnover issues — he committed a combined 13 turnovers in the Warriors’ two most recent losses, and Golden State has been outscored during his time on the court in his past six games (including by five points on Monday).
Still, Kerr said he thought Green played well in the first half vs. Orlando and stressed that the team “needs” the 35-year-old going forward. For his part, Green downplayed the incident and suggested he didn’t think there would be any lingering effects.
“We’ve been at this now for a long time,” Green said. “Sometimes you’re with people for a long time and there’s a level of comfort and s–t happens. We move forward.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Horford, who has played just once in the past month as he dealt with sciatica, could be back in action for the Christmas Day game vs. Dallas, Kerr said on Monday (Twitter link via Slater).
- Guard De’Anthony Melton has played between 15 and 21 minutes in each of his seven appearances since making his season debut following his recovery from an ACL tear. According to Kerr, Melton could play more than that if needed, but the head coach’s preference would be to keep him in that 20-minute range for now (Twitter link via Slater).
- In a profile for The Athletic, Nick Friedell takes a look at rookie Will Richard‘s path to the NBA, detailing how the guard transformed his body in high school and then capped off his college career with a national championship. “He’s a winner,” Butler said of his teammate. “He’s hella smart. But I think the thing that I love the most about Will is his ability to listen. You tell him what to do, to the best of his ability he’s going to do it. … It’s really hard to try to please everybody because you can be told five different things from five different people, and he’s the type of human being that’s going to try to do all five of those things that everybody’s telling him. They could totally contradict each other, but he’s a hellafied listener.”
- Kerr remains confident about the Warriors’ ability to contend in the Western Conference despite the team’s up-and-down start to the season, per Friedell. “Look, our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach,” Kerr said on Sunday. “But it can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum because everybody else is gonna go through tough stretches too.”
Warriors Notes: Green, Kerr, Curry, Richard, Hield
Draymond Green’s ejection early in the second quarter of Saturday’s game wound up being a turning point for the Warriors, who rallied for a win over Phoenix, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. Golden State trailed by 11 points when its volatile leader was tossed for picking up a pair of quick technical fouls, but the sequence sparked a rally that led to the end of a three-game losing streak.
“Sometimes we take advantage of Draymond, what he does for us, and we count on him to clean up everything,” Gary Payton II said. “But once he’s out of there, we know we all got to come together and do it collectively. I think everybody felt that. And when we’re doing that as a unit, we can be pretty damn good.”
Green got his first technical for pushing Suns guard Collin Gillespie in transition (YouTube link). The next one came seconds later when Green taunted lead official Pat Fraher, resulting in an automatic ejection.
Phoenix scored 44 points and registered five dunks in the first quarter, according to Poole. The Warriors’ defensive effort picked up after the incident as they held the Suns to a combined 31.8% from the field in the second and third quarters.
“I think it woke us up,” Stephen Curry said. “Because we knew without him, we’re going to have to play even tougher, dig deeper down the rotation. I think everybody was kind of on alert and trying to have his back.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Coach Steve Kerr called Green’s ejection “weak” on the part of the officials and compared it to an incident from the teams’ prior matchup on Thursday, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. Kerr is still fuming about a play late in that game where he claims Dillon Brooks hit Curry with a “premeditated” punch to the stomach. Brooks was assessed a flagrant 1 foul after a video review, but wasn’t ejected. “How can you not be upset? This is a guy who broke Gary’s elbow in the playoffs, clotheslining him with one of the dirtiest plays I’ve ever seen,” Kerr said. “So it’s not like there’s not a track record there, and it’s right there, they look at it. I don’t know what the point of replay is if you’re not gonna kick a guy out for literally punching somebody. It’s bizarre to me that he was not, first of all, ejected from that game, and then suspended or fined. Nothing. Nothing.”
- In an interview with Zena Keita of “The Athletic Show,” Kerr expresses gratitude for being able to coach Curry and Green for so long, relays Jordy Fee-Platt of The Athletic. Kerr reveals that he nearly worked out a draft-day deal to bring Curry to Phoenix in 2009 when he was serving as general manager of the Suns. Kerr also states that even though he’s in the final year of his contract, he has no plans to retire while Curry is still active. “I will never leave Steph Curry,” he said.
- Rookie guard Will Richard contributed 20 points in the victory, but he only played because Kerr chose to end Buddy Hield‘s long streak of consecutive games, Poole notes in a separate story. Hield was a healthy scratch for the first time since joining the Warriors last season. “I told him beforehand, I feel terrible, he had a streak of 199 games in a row, it was one of the longest streaks in the league and one of the things I love about Buddy is he’s there for you every single night,” Kerr said. “He’s the greatest teammate ever and just an amazing spirit and a key part of our team, and it felt terrible not to play him, but I sat Will the last five or six games and we needed to get him back out there and you can see why. Buddy’s time will come back around, it always does. He has got the right attitude, he’s going to keep working and getting shots up and I know things will work out for him.”
Warriors Notes: Kerr, Butler, Green, Lacob, Lineup, Horford, Spencer
After the Warriors fell below .500 on Sunday as a result of a 136-131 loss in Portland, head coach Steve Kerr took the blame for the loss and the 13-14 club’s recent struggles, writes ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
“I’m not doing my job well this year,” Kerr told reporters.
Stephen Curry scored 48 points in the loss, his second-highest total of the season. However, Golden State’s offense has struggled badly when the two-time MVP isn’t on the floor. The team has scored 118.8 points per 100 possessions when Curry is in the game, compared to just 107.1 when he’s not. The latter mark would be equivalent to the worst offense in the NBA.
As Slater notes, Kerr singled out one sequence in Sunday’s game when Curry wasn’t on the floor and star swingman Jimmy Butler didn’t touch the ball for four consecutive possessions.
“That’s on me,” Kerr said. “But that’s also on our players to understand. I can’t call a play every time. Nor do I want to. We have to find a way in collaboration to make sure we are playing through Jimmy.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Nick Friedell of The Athletic suggests that the Warriors need more aggression from Butler, whose 11.4 shot attempts per game this season are well below the 14.5 per game he averaged from 2014-24. Draymond Green didn’t disagree with that sentiment, though he also suggested he needs to do more to get Butler involved in the offense. “I think I got to do a better job of knowing, paying attention to the flow of the game, when he hasn’t touched the ball.” Green said. “When he hasn’t touched the ball for multiple possessions, getting him a touch and making sure he’s in the flow. … And then, as I do a better job of that, I also need Jimmy to be more aggressive and demonstrative and go take the ball. Or come get the ball. And say exactly where he want the ball.”
- As Alex Simon of SFGate.com writes, a Warriors fan who wrote an email to Joe Lacob to express his frustrations with the team and with Golden State’s usage of Butler got a candid and near-instant response from the team owner. “You can’t be as frustrated as me,” Lacob wrote in his reply to the fan. “I am working on it. It’s complicated. Style of play. Coaches desires regarding players. League trends. Jimmy is not the problem.” Asked on Tuesday about the leaked email, Kerr indicated he wasn’t bothered by Lacob’s reference to “coaches’ desires regarding players,” according to Slater. “Not a big deal,” Kerr said. “… We’re all frustrated. Joe is frustrated. I’m frustrated. Steph and (Green), everybody’s frustrated. … Joe supports me 100 percent. I support him. We have a great connection. We’ve had so much continuity here. Our stable environment in our organization is one of our strengths.”
- Seeking more continuity, Kerr said on Tuesday that he intends to keep using his current starting lineup – Curry, Butler, Green, Moses Moody, and Quinten Post – for the foreseeable future, barring an injury, tweets Slater.
- The health issue that has sidelined Al Horford for eight of the past nine games (right sciatic nerve irritation) has healed, Kerr said on Tuesday. The veteran big man is still considered doubtful to play on Thursday vs. Phoenix, but he’s nearing a return (Twitter link via Slater).
- Two-way player Pat Spencer will miss Thursday’s game for personal reasons, as Marc Stein tweets. Spencer has been active for each of Golden State’s 27 games so far and is already more than halfway to his 50-game limit. Any game he misses will give the Warriors a little extra time later in the season to convert him to a standard contract in order to keep him active.
Warriors Notes: Defense, Curry, Melton, Kuminga, Spencer
The Warriors have the NBA’s top defense over the past two weeks and rank third in the league for the season, writes Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). Golden State has held its last three opponents under 100 points and has shown significant improvement in that area since Draymond Green blasted the defensive effort following a November 26 loss to Houston.
The team doesn’t have much size on defense, but Gordon notes that it’s able to compensate by wearing down opponents with ball pressure and frequently switching between man-to-man and zone. The addition of De’Anthony Melton, who made his season debut last week after recovering from an ACL tear, has given the Warriors another capable on-ball-defender.
“We’re taking away some of the easy stuff. Some of that is taking better care of the ball,” coach Steve Kerr said. “When you’re in control of the game, you just feel like your defense is set up. Overall, we’re doing a better job containing dribble penetration and just helping each other and playing with a lot of energy.”
The offense ranks just 22nd, which Kerr attributes to a lingering turnover problem, but scoring from unexpected sources has helped the Warriors survive some early-season injuries. Gordon notes that backup point guard Pat Spencer is averaging 16 points and 5.8 assists while shooting 59.1% from the field over the past four games while Stephen Curry is sidelined with a quad contusion and muscle strain.
“He’s a really good downhill pick-and-roll player, which is a powerful force,” Kerr said of Spencer. “You need that type of action, especially in the modern game with the floor spacing. And he’s a good passer.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Curry was able to participate in a full scrimmage on Wednesday, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link). No decision has been made on his status for Friday’s game against Minnesota, but Kerr said it looks promising that the two-time MVP will be able to play.
- The team will continue to be cautious with Melton, who has logged 21 and 17 minutes in his two games since returning, Slater adds (Twitter link). Kerr plans to keep Melton in that range until his conditioning returns and probably won’t use him on both ends of back-to-backs.
- Kerr addressed the status of Jonathan Kuminga, who will be become eligible to be traded on January 15 (Twitter video link from Slater). Speculation that Kuminga will be shipped out increased after he received a DNP in Sunday’s game at Chicago. “I can imagine it’s not easy for him,” Kerr said. “We talked about the situation. My desire is for JK to be the best player he can be, regardless of where he ends up, whether it’s here or elsewhere.”
- Spencer, who was considered one of best lacrosse players in NCAA history, talked about why he chose to pursue a career in basketball in a video posted at NBC Sports Bay Area.