Expected, but rough news.
The Golden State Warriors have been hurting for offense, and unfortunately they won’t be getting a quick fix anytime soon. During their Monday off-day, the Warriors released an injury update on fourth-year forward Jonathan Kuminga, who has been sidelined since spraining his right ankle in a win over the Memphis Grizzlies on January 4.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the update that we were all hoping for, though there was some good news in it. The team announced that Kuminga “is making good progress” and is “expected to begin light on-court individual workouts in the next week,” but the timeline isn’t looking great. The Warriors say that Kuminga will be re-evaluated in two weeks, which brings us to February 10. Given that Golden State’s final game before the All-Star break is a February 13 visit to the Houston Rockets, it seems likely that we won’t see Kuminga until after the midseason break. If I had to guess, I’d say that their first game out of the break — a February 21 road rivalry game with the Sacramento Kings — is the most likely time for Kuminga to make his return.
None of this is surprising after coach Steve Kerr revealed recently that Kuminga was “nowhere close” to being ready for a return. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less. At the conclusion of that win over Memphis where Kuminga was injured, the Warriors were 18-16 with a garbage-time adjusted offensive rating of 111.9 and a defensive rating of 110.5. Since then, they’ve gone a dismal 4-7, with an offensive rating of 112.1 and an abysmal defensive rating of 120.0.
Not all of that is due to Kuminga, of course, but he had pretty firmly evolved into one of the team’s best players, and his absence is sorely felt. While there was some speculation early in the year that the Warriors might look to trade Kuminga ahead of his restricted free agency, the combination of his improved play and his injury make it very unlikely that he’ll be shipped before the February 6 trade deadline.