Two key Warriors figures face lame-duck seasons

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and young forward Jonathan Kuminga have had an up-and-down relationship over Kuminga's first four seasons. Now they're both on one-year deals for 2025-26.

The Warriors' summer-long stalemate with Kuminga ended Tuesday when the 22-year-old signed a two-year contract for a reported two years and $48.5M, with the Warriors holding a team option on the second year. As part of this deal, Kuminga waived his right to veto a trade this season.

At the same time, Kerr told reporters that he's comfortable going into the season on the final year of his contract with the team. Not only that, but he doesn't expect to negotiate an extension with the Warriors during the season. This isn't new for the two sides, who didn't agree on Kerr's current two-year, $35M contract until the second half of the 2023-24 season, when he began the season as a lame-duck coach.

Steve Kerr and Jonathan Kuminga haven't always seen eye-to-eye

Kerr seemed to alienate Kuminga at the end of last season, when Kerr kept Kuminga out of the starting lineup after the team traded for Jimmy Butler and Kuminga missed two months with an injury. Kuminga barely played in the Warriors' upset win over the Houston Rockets in the first round, before scoring big (20.8 PPG) with Steph Curry out with injury in the second round.

Kuminga was upset by Kerr's comments from April that "the lineup with Jimmy, Draymond and JK doesn’t fit. It just doesn’t. We need more spacing." With Butler and Green firmly established at the forward positions, there's a cap on how many minutes Kuminga can expect when none of the trio of forwards is a serious three-point-shooting threat.

Kuminga and Kerr could each move on in 2026-27

That's why many observers expect that Kuminga will be traded during the upcoming season. While the Warriors could clearly use another scorer to support Butler and Steph Curry, Kuminga is simply blocked at his natural position of power forward — while also not rebounding at a power forward level (4.6 rebounds per game in 2024-25). If he's unhappy with his coach and that coach doesn't think he fits with the team's best players, that doesn't bode well for Kuminga's future in Golden State.

But at the same time, Kerr and the Warriors may decide they're no longer a good fit as well. Kerr is entering his 12th season as head coach, with only Green and Curry remaining from the Warriors' four title teams. He would have lucrative offers to continue coaching or return to broadcasting as a free agent next summer.

The Warriors might want to save money with a coach who made less than $17.5M per season if they don't think that a team with four starters 35 or older is going to be a contender. They also might want a coach more committed to developing young players than Kerr seems to be, with Kuminga's struggles as Exhibit A.

What could unite Kerr and Kuminga is that it's in both their interests for the team, and particularly Kuminga, to thrive. The better Kuminga plays, the more options he'll have for trade destinations, the larger the Warriors' trade return will be and the more lucrative Kuminga's future contract will be. And Kerr will be able to name his price on his next deal.

They may both be in a contract year, but Kerr and Kuminga need each other more than ever in the next few months. We'll see if they're finally a fit.