What Jimmy Butler injury means for Jonathan Kuminga, per Steve Kerr

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What Jimmy Butler injury means for Jonathan Kuminga, per Steve Kerr

Tomer Azarly, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Wed, Jan 21, 2026 ·

4 min read

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In a lot of ways, the Golden State Warriors are starting a new season on Tuesday night. Jimmy Butler left Monday night's game with a right injury and was diagnosed with a torn right ACL later that night. That opens the door for a lot of questions involving the Warriors , with most of them surrounding the future of Jonathan Kuminga .

As of January 15th, Kuminga became trade eligible, and the Warriors will have a little over two weeks until the NBA trade deadline on February 5th to find a new home for Kuminga. But does the Jimmy Butler injury now mean that Kuminga could re-join the Warriors lineup?

"He could be, he could be, yeah," Steve Kerr said before the Warriors hosted the Raptors on Tuesday night. "You know, he obviously hasn't played in a while. But at this point, we have to experiment a little bit with rotations, see where we are. And he's definitely a part of that talk, that conversation."

Steve Kerr was later asked by reporters if he believes that Kuminga wants to be a part of the Warriors rotation and if he wants to play for the organization right now.

Kerr gave a yes to both of those inquiries, which sets the stage for a potentially new era for the Warriors.

Jonathan Kuminga has made just 18 appearances for the Warriors this season, averaging 11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game while shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 32 percent from three. He was named a starter by head coach Steve Kerr before their third game of the season, which had many thing the two sides had turned a corner.

But after starting the first 12 games, things have gone downhill for the two sides. Jonathan Kuminga has not appeared in any game for the Warriors since taking on the Phoenix Suns on December 18th. He's been a healthy DNP since, which has continued to signal an impending end to his time with the Warriors.

But the injury to Butler may end up changing things as far as Kuminga's playing time and his reported trade demand.

Kuminga played 21 minutes off the Warriors bench Tuesday night against the Toronto Raptors , finishing with 20 points, five rebounds, and two assists

General Manager Mike Dunleavy spoke with members of the media about the Jimmy Butler injury on Tuesday night, while also diving into the team's trade deadline plans involving Jonathan Kuminga.

"Yeah, I mean, I think as far as the demand, I'm aware of that," Mike Dunleavy said before Tuesday night's game against the Toronto Raptors. "I think when you, you know, in terms of demand, when you make a demand, there needs to be demand on the market. So we'll see where that unfolds. But Burt, always with these guys, I tell them I'm willing to work with them. You know, wanna help people out, whether that's JK or any player on a roster. So we're good with [it], that's his wishes, trying to figure that out. But we gotta do what's best for our organization, and that's what we'll do.

"As far as it goes with the deadline coming up, I think we'll take the next couple of weeks to assess this team a little bit more. I felt pretty good with where we're at heading into last night's game, in terms of what we need to do. I thought our team was playing really well, headed in the right direction. Obviously, things have changed. So I wanna take a couple of weeks here to watch these games and see our team and what we can do better.

The Warriors are currently eighth in the Western Conference standings at 25-19, having won four games in a row entering Tuesday night.

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