Report: Anonymous Warriors Player Supports Kuminga's Decision to Sit vs. OKC

Jonathan Kuminga is currently getting healthy DNPs, and there's been some mystery into how we got here.

The leading theory is he was simply out of the rotation for playing poorly, and then when he had a chance to get back into it on Jan. 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, something happened behind the scenes that made the Warriors list him as out with lower back soreness.

Whether it was Kuminga's side that demanded not to play or a mutual agreement between Kuminga's side and the Warriors front office is not clear, but multiple team sources told The Athletic that "they suspect Kuminga wasn't actually hurt."

One Warriors player, quoted anonymously, sided with Kuminga.

“I wouldn’t have played either,” the Warriors player told The Athletic. “It’s clear the coach doesn’t believe in him.”

Kuminga became eligible to be traded on Thursday. The Warriors have until Feb. 5 to trade him this season.

Warriors, Kuminga Share Blame

The Athletic article lists the Dec. 2 game against the Thunder as the last straw for Kuminga.

He wasn't having a great game, mind you, but he helped the Warriors go on a third-quarter run with his rebounding and defense, and yet he didn't play at all in the fourth.

After the game, The Athletic witnessed his frustration boil over.

"He mumbled loud enough to be heard as he rustled through the belongings at his locker inside Chase Center. A few choice words made clear his mood as he hastily dressed and departed."

Steve Kerr is guilty of jerking around Kuminga's playing time. Even if Kerr didn't think Kuminga was playing as well as other options off the bench, he could have given Kuminga a consistent role to keep his trade value as high as possible and avoid where we are now.

With that said, just about every stat suggests Kuminga has been one of the Warriors' worst players this season.

He has a team-low minus-3.4 EPM, per Dunks and Threes. The Warriors are nine points worse per 100 possessions when Kuminga is on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass.

He's shooting just 32.0 percent from three, and he has almost as many turnovers (44) as assists (46).

So Kerr was justified in lowering his minutes as other Golden State bench players outperformed him. Other Warriors who have seen their minutes fluctuate, such as Brandin Podziemski and Will Richard, have stayed ready and played well when given more playing time.

And don't forget the Golden State front office in all of this. We're 4.5 years into Kerr and Kuminga clashing. The front office could have predicted it would only get worse and traded Kuminga a year or two ago—or if Kerr is so wrong about this, the FO could've fired Kerr.

In summary, everyone deserves some blame that we've gotten here.