For all of the Golden State Warriors‘ accomplishments over the past decade, their ability to build their team organically was among the main reasons that people spoke so highly of them.
At their genesis they were buoyed by veteran big men in David Lee and Andrew Bogut, who spent the first few seasons of their career with the New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks respectively. Nonetheless, the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green were able to develop over the course of several seasons. The end result being one of the winningest trios in NBA history.
However, where former head coach Mark Jackson thrived in the area of player development, his replacement in Steve Kerr found his success with outside-the-box thinking.
The tradeoff has become increasingly clear.
Former lottery picks such as Harrison Barnes and James Wiseman have fallen by the wayside with the Warriors charging forward to amass four NBA championships. Even their best player development success story of Steve Kerr’s tenure, combo guard Jordan Poole, leaves something to be desired. Drafted by Golden State in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft, Poole has the salary and confidence of an upper echelon starter but the approach and consistency of a sixth man.
Consequently, Warriors fans have become dismayed by promising players like Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga being relegated to mop-up duty. This despite demonstrating the ability to be quality rotation players.
In fact, Kuminga’s frustrations have become so apparent that trading him may become necessary, lest they run the risk of another blow to their team chemistry. The last blow coming by way of an infamous in-practice punch by Green.
That said, the Warriors trading Kuminga — as they traded Wiseman — would be far from the worst idea. Especially if they’re not going to utilize him.