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Warriors’ Steve Kerr confirms Jonathan Kuminga lineups with Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler
- Story by
- Warriors’ Steve Kerr confirms Jonathan Kuminga lineups with Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler
The post Warriors' Steve Kerr confirms Jonathan Kuminga lineups with Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler appeared first on ClutchPoints .
SAN FRANCISCO – With messy contract negotiations out of the way, the next step for the Golden State Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga is figuring out how to maximize his fit with the rest of the team on the court.
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In the Warriors' 111-103 preseason win over the Los Angeles Lakers , Steve Kerr used their time on the court to get a glimpse at some potential rotations this upcoming season. While Stephen Curry , Draymond Green , and Jimmy Butler played limited minutes, Kerr used their time on the court to get Kuminga into the mix with them.
One of those lineups included Kuminga next to Green and Butler, a three-man combination the Warriors tried out last season in limited minutes with mixed results. On Tuesday afternoon, the Dubs' head coach talked about what he saw from that lineup and how he foresees the playability of those three together moving forward .
"Well, there wasn't much spacing, which is the big concern. But we've got to continue to give them some looks," Kerr said.
Spacing has long been a concern for Kerr with this specific three-man combination, as none of them command a defense's attention from beyond the 3-point arc. And while they only played 38 minutes together all of last season, the Kuminga-Green-Butler trio generated a poor negative-24.9 net rating. The lack of spacing muddied the Warriors' offense (97.5 ORTG), and to add insult to injury, they struggled defensively (122.4 DRTG).
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"It still feels to me like if we're trying to play Jimmy-JK-Draymond, just from the other night, immediately it was the spacing was not great, and it puts pressure on our offense to really have to execute," Kerr said.
"But it's early in camp, too. And so if we can execute the stuff we're trying to operate, then it can be effective. But it's just not a smooth, smooth fit."
The Al Horford piece
While the Kuminga-Green-Butler lineup remains a work in progress, Kerr believes crucial free agent acquisition Al Horford could be the guy who can solve some of the spacing concerns that come with those three players.
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"I think Al [Horford] kind of changes the equation here," Kerr said. "I'm really intrigued to put Al and JK together with Draymond or Jimmy. Like that lineup makes perfect sense."
In his media availability, Tuesday afternoon, Horford talked about his fit next to Kuminga.
"With his athleticism, the way he moves, and how much pressure he generates at the rim, it's going to be great," Horford said. "I feel like with me out there, I'll be able to give him some space. He probably won't always have an extra defender there. And if he does, I'm going to be open, and either I'm going to shoot it or we're going to get a really good shot."
Horford and Kuminga played very few minutes with each other in the first preseason game, but we still got flashes of what that duo can do for each other.
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In the second unit together, the Dubs ran specific half-court sets to get Kuminga the ball in the post with Horford stretching the floor on the perimeter. And while nothing directly came from those newly installed preseason sets, the spacing Kuminga had was far better than what he had with Green and Butler.
It's clear the Warriors are going to continue tinkering with that duo, and Horford is more than excited to play with a player like Kuminga.
"It's really fun to play with a player like that," Horford continued. "The pace that he wants to play at and how he wants to attack the basket, I actually enjoy playing in that way. We played very little [together] last game, but I'm sure we'll continue to play more and more – get more familiar with one another."
Related: What Warriors' Al Horford will 'take advantage of' playing with Stephen Curry
Related: 10 worst Warriors roster moves under GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., ranked
