Golden State Warriors forward says it's 'tough to smile' after reduced playing time
Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga has expressed displeasure pertaining to his drastically reduced game-time in the ongoing playoffs.
During the Warriors' regular season, Kuminga averaged 9.9 points on 52.5% shooting, including 37.0% from 3-point range, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists while logging 20.8 minutes in the 67 games he has played.
However, in the postseason, the Warriors' forward has only logged six minutes in the six games he has played. In those minutes played, he has averaged 2.3 points on 46.2% shooting.
In an article written for the San Francisco Chronicle by C.J. Holmes, Kuminga spoke about the challenge in limited or lack of playing time in the playoffs as the Golden State Warriors are in the middle of a deep postseason run.
“It’s still tough to lock in every single time. It’s still tough to smile every single time,” Kuminga said. “I feel like throughout my career, throughout my life, I’ve never been given anything. I’ve seen so many people just get handed stuff. That’s never happened to me."
Coming off the bench, Kuminga is battling for minutes against Jordan Poole (23.8 minutes) Gary Payton II (15.6 minutes), Donte DiVincenzo (16.4 minutes), Moses Moody (10.1 minutes), JaMychal Green (5.8 minutes), Anthony Lamb (5.5 minutes).
This is considering that Kuminga is one of the promising young players on the Warriors roster with tremendous upside but has seen his postseason numbers go down compared to the previous year wherein, he logged 8.6 minutes in the 16 games he played that year.
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr to Kuminga's limited minutes of action in the playoffs
Compared to Golden State's title run in the previous postseason, Golden State doesn't have that kind of quality depth the second time around as Warriors caoch Steve Kerr has relied on his starters playing huge minutes due to the bench unit's youth and inexperience.
Following the Game 1 loss at home to the Los Angeles Lakers, Steve Kerr spoke to the media regarding the tough sitution Jonathan Kuminga is in.
"The playoffs are tough in that regard," Kerr said. "JaMychal [Green] just got through basically not playing six of the seven games against Sacramento because it just wasn’t an ideal matchup.
"The opponent changes, you see the opportunity for JaMychal to play in a game last night. He stays ready. That’s what the playoffs are about."
From Kerr's perspective, Kuminga's momet will come but urges patience and a team-first mentality to come through first.
Whether it's a matchup mismatch or Kerr not completely trusting Kuminga that much yet, the Warriors' forward could act as a backup big when Looney is resting on the bench.