The writing might have been on the wall, but it’s still wild to see.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr used 10 players in the first quarter Sunday against the Chicago Bulls. Jonathan Kuminga wasn’t one of them. Gary Payton II started the second quarter and made it 11 Warriors to see the floor, the same number that saw time in the first half. Kuminga still wasn’t one of them.
Kuminga rode the bench the entire second half, too. The 23-year-old who signed a two-year, $48.5 million contract in restricted free agency to return to the Warriors a day into training camp received his first healthy DNP-CD (Did Not Play — Coach’s Decision) of the 2025-26 NBA season in a 123-91 wire-to-wire road win against the Chicago Bulls.
“Just got to keep going, just like everybody else who’s in this position,” Kerr said after the game. “And it happens to everybody, pretty much, other than the stars. Guys come in and out of the rotation depending on who’s available, how the team’s playing.”
There were several factors that Kerr went into about why Kuminga was leapfrogged in the rotation Sunday. From a positional standpoint, he mentioned wanting to give more minutes to Gui Santos after the impact he made the previous two games. Santos was a plus-15 in 11 1/2 minutes on Thursday, and scored 14 points, including five clutch points in the fourth quarter, on Saturday.
Kerr did not elaborate about his conversation with Kuminga on his decision to keep him out of the rotation against the Bulls.
“All that stuff is private,” Kerr said.
Kuminga spoke with reporters in Chicago for a little more than five minutes after the Warriors’ win. There wasn’t any animosity towards Kerr. Kuminga chose a mature approach, saying “we don’t have any problems,” and noted that he’ll work every day to be ready for his next opportunity.
“As long as things are working out and we’re winning, I don’t see a point of switching anything or changing,” Kuminga said. “Whenever my number gets called, I’ll be ready. But I don’t see the point [of changing]. We’re doing good. We’ve been doing good, things are working really well.
“I don’t see a point of taking certain people out of the rotation when they’re playing well and things are going good right now. I don’t see a point.”
“We don’t have any problems.”
Jonathan Kuminga talks about his relationship with Steve Kerr, his mindset and more after not playing in the Warriors win in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/GoCec9xHt5
— Joseph Dycus (@joseph_dycus) December 8, 2025
A numbers crunch was sure to come Sunday in Chicago. Along with the absence of Steph Curry, who didn’t join the team on the three-game road trip as he continues to rehab a quad contusion, the Warriors on Saturday also were without Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Seth Curry. Only 10 Warriors were healthy, and all 10 played.
Kuminga was one of them, and he was in the starting lineup after coming off the bench his previous four games. But he scored just four points on 1-of-10 shooting in 21 1/2 minutes. Kuminga missed his first seven shot attempts and was held scoreless in the first half.
“Some of the guys that played tonight aren’t going to play tomorrow,” Kerr said Saturday night after the Warriors’ short-handed win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “That’s got to be OK. For them, for everybody. It’s what it takes to be a great team. You have to be able to sacrifice for the good of the group. Some nights are yours, some nights aren’t.
“Fortunately, we’ve got really good guys one our team and they’re committed to each other, and I feel confident going forward we’ll have a lot of guys who are going to contribute and every night will be a little different.”
Despite being extremely depleted, the Warriors had their best feel-good win of the season Saturday by beating the Cavaliers on the road.
Then came the Warriors’ reinforcements. Butler and Melton returned Sunday against the Bulls. A healthy Seth Curry was back but also received a DNP-CD. His older brother is expected to return Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center, as are Green and Horford.
Kuminga played nine minutes and 18 seconds in the second half Saturday, and a lowly two and a half minutes in the fourth quarter. His role being reduced in the more important parts of the game has been a recent trend. He sat the entire fourth quarter of their 12-point loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, and again Thursday in their one-point last-second loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
As Kuminga watched the entire fourth quarter from the bench against the Thunder, his agent, Aaron Turner, posted his disapproval of Kerr’s decision on X. He also reposted somebody else who was against the decision as well.
What are we doing out here 🤦🏻.
— Aaron Turner (@arockturner20) December 3, 2025
Restricted free agency between Kuminga and the Warriors dragged to the very last minute. And it didn’t just affect him. The Warriors were stuck in limbo and weren’t signing other players until knowing what the final number on Kuminga’s contract was going to be. In the end, Kuminga came back, but not on the contract he expected going into the summer, and the final deal didn’t include his preferred player option.
Turner took a public approach to Kuminga’s restricted free agency and joined multiple outlets to speak on the situation, including NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Can he be the player he wants to be here, right now, with this roster composition? No. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to win and he’s not willing to sacrifice for the group,” Turner said to myself and Monte Poole on the “Dubs Talk” podcast in September.
Earlier that same day, Turner was on 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” and hit on where things stood between Kuminga and his coach.
“The last point where we ended with Steve was, I can’t play this guy big minutes with what I have now. I don’t think that can’t evolve or can’t change but that’s where we are right now, until we see differently. That’s got to be the worst sales pitch to a 20-plus million dollar free agent in the history of basketball,” Turner said.
Kuminga began the 2025-26 NBA season doing all the things the Warriors asked from him and was a big reason why they started the campaign 4-1. The Warriors then went 2-5 over their next seven games, all with Kuminga in the starting lineup. He was dropped to a reserve role in San Antonio on Nov. 12 and left the game at halftime with knee soreness before missing the next seven to bilateral patellar tendonitis.
Before Sunday night’s DNP, Kuminga has played four games since returning from his knee issues and has averaged 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting 30 percent from the field and 30.8 percent on 13 3-point attempts. Kuminga in those four games has as many turnovers (eight) as assists.
The Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline now is less than two months away. The first day Kuminga can be traded is Jan. 15, and Sunday’s healthy and loud DNP is the latest development in a rocky relationship.
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