Last week, the basketball world was abuzz when reports that Golden State Warriors young forward Jonathan Kuminga had lost faith in head coach Steve Kerr surfaced. This development came to light after Kuminga was benched for the final 18 minutes of their game against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, despite scoring 16 points during his time on the court.
After that game in question, Warriors owner Joe Lacob made a point to attend Kerr’s postgame press conference, eager to hear Kerr’s thoughts on Kuminga’s benching.
Per NBC Sports Bay Area:
“Whether the culprit is impatience, poor scouting or poor development – or a combination of all three – the lack of positive outcomes have resulted in a high percentage of failed investments.
CEOs hate failed investments. As they should.
When Kuminga was benched for the final 18 minutes last Thursday as the Denver Nuggets erased an 18-point deficit to beat the Warriors at the buzzer, Lacob did something unusual. He came to Kerr’s postgame news conference.
The CEO wanted to hear Kerr’s responses, with reason to be particularly curious regarding Kuminga. The days since have been intriguing, with Kuminga’s frustration spilling out, leading to a conversation with Kerr, resulting in increased minutes on Friday.”
Back then, Kerr justified his decision to bench Kuminga, stating that the team had a significant lead when he substituted Kuminga with Andrew Wiggins. Despite the team eventually losing the lead and the game, Kerr maintained that he preferred to stick with the group that had initially gained the large lead.
“He was playing great. His normal time to go back in would have been around the five-, six-minute mark (of the fourth). (Andrew Wiggins) was playing great, we were rolling, were up 18, 19, whatever it was. So we just stayed with him. Then at that (later) point, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. He had been sitting for a while. So I stayed with the group that was out there, and obviously, we couldn’t close it out.”
