“Fire this man” – NBA Twitter FURIOUS about Steve Kerr’s justification on Jonathan Kuminga’s dry postseason
Steve Kerr under fire from fans after controversial reasoning for benching Jonathan Kuminga during the 2023 playoffs
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Jonathan Kuminga
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr‘s comments on Jonathan Kuminga have Warriors fans mad at him. The Warriors lost their first-ever non-finals playoff series under Steve Kerr against the Los Angeles Lakers, and the lack of defense played was a glaring reason for their underperformance. During the post-season, the media and fans criticized Steve Kerr for underutilizing his squad, particularly players like Kuminga.
Kerr explained why Kuminga did not see too many minutes in the playoffs, saying – “I think the biggest thing was with Wiggs and Gary in place again, it lessened the need for what JK’s strength is, which is on-ball defense.” Andrew Wiggins was absent for a lot of the season due to personal issues, and Gary Payton was acquired at the trade deadline while Kuminga has been there the entire year.
Jonathan Kuminga was selected 7th overall in the 2021 draft by the Warriors and has been a top prospect in the NBA due to his height and defensive skills. Kuminga played 67 regular season games averaging 9.9 points in 20 minutes per game.
Despite his improving stats, Kuminga saw only 6 minutes per game in this year’s playoffs as the Warriors fell in 6 games to the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round.
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NBA fans berated Steve Kerr for his decision to bench Jonathan Kuminga so often
The Golden State Warriors have been the most successful franchise for most of this decade, thanks to their offense and defensive ability during the playoffs. However, some fans feel that Kerr’s decision to bench Kuminga due to having too much ‘on-ball’ defense should lead him to get the sack. The Warriors struggled to guard the Lakers backcourt of D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, who torched the Lakers down the stretch throughout the series.
“Uh, the kid is a walking bucket Spot minutes against the Lakers when Wiggs couldn’t throw it in the ocean would have helped sheesh,” said one fan on Twitter in reaction to Wiggins being prioritized over Kuminga. Despite the smaller sample size, Kuminga had better shooting splits than Andrew Wiggins these playoffs to go with his defensive prowess.
Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here’s what fans have to say:
Another fan echoed the sentiments of the media and the Warriors fan group alike, saying, “We quite literally could of used more on ball defense.” Steve Kerr decided to play 6’2 guard Gary Payton as a defender over Jonathan Kuminga, and he got severely under-matched against the stronger and taller Lakers guards.
Kuminga is also a potent offensive player when given minutes, and fans felt the lack in scoring could have been solved by Kuminga’s addition, as one Twitter user pointed out, “Kerr cmon you not gonna ignore the fact that we were lacking scoring the whole series.”
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Anuj Shrikanth Iyer
(290 Articles Published)