We’ve yet to reach a conclusion with the Jonathan Kuminga situation. It’s been well over a month since the start of NBA free agency, and the talented but enigmatic wing remains unemployed. It seems he’s still looking for an ideal situation outside of the Bay Area, and it’s held up the entire offseason for the Golden State Warriors. More than five weeks after free agency began, the Dubs have yet to sign anyone, though they remain heavily linked to veterans Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton, with most insiders expecting the team to sign both as soon as the Kuminga situation is resolved.

But while a conclusion may still be a ways away, for the first time in a long time we have a sense of where things are headed. A recent report from The SF Standard’s Tim Kawakami suggested that the Dubs have all but given up on the prospect of executing a sign-and-trade with their former lottery pick, and will have him on the roster when the 2025-26 NBA season gets underway. The only question, then, is if the two sides can agree on a contract or if Kuminga will just take the qualifying offer so that he can enter unrestricted free agency in a year.

Assuming that report doesn’t go sideways — it would be fitting for this rollercoaster if it did — then the Warriors are preparing to enter the season with their same veteran core (Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler III), their same young crew of talented question marks (Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Quinten Post, and Trayce Jackson-Davis), and a handful of talented veterans (Horford, Melton, Buddy Hield, and possibly Gary Payton II).

That’s an exciting roster, and one that presents a lot of opportunities for Steve Kerr and his coaching staff. It also presents a lot of questions. One of those central questions: who starts?

It’s a question that has plagued the Dubs for a few seasons now, ever since they traded for Chris Paul a few years ago. At the heart of the starting lineup question is a Kuminga question: should he be starting?

That’s a question that it’s hard to find a “yes” answer to. Kuminga is unequivocally one of the five most talented players on the roster, but finding a fit for him was what put him on the outside looking in when the playoffs rolled around this spring.

There are two easy ways to accommodate Kuminga in the starting lineup: bench Green, or start Green at center. While Draymond was briefly moved to the bench last season — and showed great maturity in how he embraced the role — it’s not the solution. He’s still the team’s third-best player, and he’s still the heartbeat of the lineup. There’s no world — yet — in which the Warriors put their best food forward by putting their controversial star on the pine.

Starting Green at center would allow Kuminga to start at power forward, with Butler at the three and someone — Hield, Podziemski, Melton, or even Moody — at shooting guard. That’s a small ball lineup that would destroy many teams, but we’ve seen time and time again that Kerr is hesitant to have Green take on the physical toll of being a full-time center in the regular season. Green’s not getting any younger, which means the idea isn’t getting any easier to execute.

So now we’re left trying to fit Kuminga into a lineup of Curry, Green, Butler, and a center, likely Horford. Could that work?

The spacing would be clunky as hell. The four non-Currys in that lineup can all make a three, but none of them are exactly weapons from deep. Defensively, however, it would be fascinating. Green, Butler, and Kuminga could feasibly switch one-through-five against most lineups and Horford, even at the tail end of his career, remains a comfortably above-average defender, both on and off-ball, and against both traditional bigs and more modern ones. It’s a lineup I’d be extremely intrigued by, but it’s also a disaster waiting to happen that they probably shouldn’t start the game or the season with.

Instead, it seems that Kuminga is destined for the bench, at least to start. He can still play 25-35 minutes a night as the sixth man, assuming that Kerr feels comfortable letting him share the court with Butler. And given the collective age of the starting lineup, you can bet that there will be plenty of absences as the year wears on, opening up starting opportunities for Kuminga. As he plays his role off the bench, he’ll find the opportunity to prove that he works in certain lineups, and possibly work his way back into the starting fold.

But perhaps we’re getting a bid ahead of ourselves. There’s still a contract situation to be resolved.