The Golden State Warriors have long been defined by great shooting. Having the face of your franchise be the undisputed greatest shooter in NBA history will do that to a team. Having his wingman for more
than a decade be arguably the second-greatest shooter in NBA history helps, too. Having the coach be one of the best shooters of all time doesn’t exactly hurt, either.
And in the modern NBA, shooting is king. There’s simply no way to win without it. Which has made it hard for Steve Kerr to find minutes for Jonathan Kuminga following the blockbuster trade of Jimmy Butler III. Butler, along with Draymond Green, gives the Warriors two players in their Hall of Fame-bound star trifecta who aren’t big weapons from deep. And since Kuminga isn’t, either, it makes the minutes hard to come by.
Kuminga did a lot of impressive things in the team’s preseason opener on Sunday. But the lack of spacing was certainly evident. Kerr tried to find ways to make the Kuminga-Butler-Green lineups work, and added that he’ll continue to do so. But for all the encouragement of Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Kerr sounded pretty discouraged at the likelihood of those non-shooters having success on the court together.
“There wasn’t much spacing, which is the big concern,” Kerr told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about that trio sharing the court. “But we’ve got to continue to give them some looks … it still feels like, to me, if we’re trying to play Jimmy, JK, and Draymond, just from the other night, immediately the spacing was not great. And it puts pressure on our offense to really have to execute. But it’s early in camp, too. If we can execute the stuff we’re trying to operate, it can be effective. But it’s just not a smooth fit.”
Kerr shied away from the lineup a year ago, which led to Kuminga’s minutes tanking when he returned from injury after Butler had been worked into the system. And it certainly wasn’t hard to see why Kerr went away from it: in 38 minutes last year, the trio had a paltry offensive rating of just 97.5, with an ugly true-shooting percentage of 52.9%. Also of concern — though less likely to be an issue going forward — was that that trio also had a horrible defensive rating of 122.4, leading to an awful net rating of -24.9.
With that said, the Warriors have a new weapon this year that could help: center Al Horford, who brings with him a career 37.7% three-point mark … including 40.9% over the last three seasons. Kerr was optimistic that Horford’s presence can lead to some good lineups with the lesser shooters, saying, “I think Al kind of changes the equation here. I’m really intrigued to put Al and JK together, with Draymond or Jimmy. That lineup makes perfect sense.”
It’s early, but that suggests to me that we might see a starting frontcourt of Butler, Green, and Horford, with Kuminga being the first sub off the bench to replace Jimmy or Dray. Either way, these lineups are going to be one of the most important things to watch as the preseason rolls on.
