Before the game, Kerr—long hesitant if not outright dead set against deploying Kuminga next to a pair of bigs—explained that starting his team’s budding star at small forward was more preseason exploration than a true harbinger for the 82-game grind and beyond.

“We gotta see. Last year we didn’t feel comfortable going that route,” Kerr said of Kuminga playing the three, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “We would love to play Draymond at the 4, Trayce gives us a shot-blocker next to him and we wanna play JK. If he’s ready for the three and it works with those guy then we’ll see, and if not we’ll adapt. But now’s the time to try these things and see which combinations work and which ones don’t.”

Kuminga finished with seven points and seven rebounds on 3-of-6 shooting in 19 minutes against the Clippers, joining his veteran teammates on the bench for good after playing the opening stint of the second half. He also clanked both of his tries from deep and didn’t look especially comfortable navigating the Dubs’ halfcourt offense, mostly functioning as playmaker rather than finisher—the role he so badly wants but has never played in the NBA before.

Golden State has no delusions of competing for a title as currently constructed. There’s time for the Dubs to play through inevitable growing pains of fostering Kuminga’s development on the wing.

At Media Day, Curry even publicly alluded to the possibility of the Warriors making a major win-now move leading up to the February 6th trade deadline. A star turn for Kuminga before then while playing the three, obviously, would go a long way toward clarifying both his future in Golden State and making him a worthy centerpiece of the potential blockbuster trade this team needs to truly level up in the Western Conference.

But basketball isn’t played in a vacuum. Team context is always crucial while assessing individual players, and Golden State lacks the interior personnel that would make Kuminga’s acclimation to small forward smoother.

Don’t be fooled by Green’s quiet career-best of 39.5% shooting from deep last season; defenses still won’t defend him like a floor-spacer. Jackson-Davis’ horizontal range is capped at a few feet from the rim. It’s shrewd of Kevon Looney to spend his summer jacking up 500 threes a day, but the next time he truly stretches an NBA defense will be the first. Even playing small with Kyle Anderson at nominal center wouldn’t create the halfcourt spacing pretty much all NBA offenses prioritize in the modern era.

Kuminga still has a long way to go as a shooter, playmaker and overall processor before staking his claim at the three. The environment he’ll play in with the Warriors this season—and not just with regard to the interior—will only make those necessary strides harder to come by.

The backcourt equation

Kerr has made clear only two starting spots are set in stone ahead of the Dubs’ October 23rd season-opener. Curry and Green will start against the Portland Trail Blazers, but three slots in Golden State’s starting five are apparently available for the taking.

De’Anthony Melton opened next to Curry in the backcourt on Saturday, relegating Brandin Podziemski—the Dubs’ other prized young prospect, along with Kuminga—to the bench. Andrew Wiggins, don’t forget, remained sidelined with an illness.

Golden State’s starters were outscored 17-12 in the first seven minutes against the short-handed Clippers, never seeing the floor again. They shot 4-of-14 overall and 1-of-7 from deep, looking disjointed offensively while failing to make Los Angeles feel them on the other side of the ball.

“Not great, not great,” Kerr said after the game of how the Dubs’ starting unit played, per KNBR. “But it’s preseason for everybody, so we didn’t have really good rhythm coming out. Slow start. But still good to get those five guys on the floor and see what that looked like.”

No one would be surprised if Podziemski ultimately began the regular season starting next to Curry in the backcourt. While Golden State seems more inclined this season than in recent years to play Green with another big, he’ll still log plenty of time at small-ball five whether starting there or otherwise.

What was the Warriors’ main departure from expected norms in the exhibition debut, then? Shoving Kuminga into the starting five at small forward, a choice undoubtedly made with Wiggins’ absence in mind.

Both Kerr and Wiggins spoke at Media Day of the latter’s usage increasing this season, affording him the opportunity to emerge as the Dubs’ full-fledged No. 2 offensive option. Coupled with his bonafides as a solid-at-worst on-ball defender, Wiggins certainly appears set to join Curry and Green as an everyday starter in 2024-25.

Where that likelihood leaves Kuminga—the avatar of this organization’s obvious best bet at maximizing Curry’s extended prime—will be a typically hot-button matter not just leading up to the opener, but also the trade deadline and potentially into restricted free agency next summer.

Warriors’ sixth man?

Starting Jackson-Davis next to Green up front alongside Curry and Wiggins will almost surely force Kuminga to the bench. Maybe Wiggins really does enjoy a bounce-back year as the Dubs’ secondary scorer, but even that optimistic outcome wouldn’t make him a natural creator for others or knockdown three-point shooter—basic prerequisites for Curry’s partner in the backcourt, especially if the Dubs open with two non-spacers on the interior.

Melton and Podziemski, obviously, are much better suited than Wiggins to start next to Curry in the backcourt. With Green locked in at tipoff and Wiggins projected as this team’s No. 2 scorer, it’s safe to say Kuminga is essentially battling with Jackson-Davis to emerge as Golden State’s fifth and final starter.

That stylistic dissonance—small with Kuminga, big with Jackson-Davis—would ideally be one the Warriors avoid while deciding on their starting five. Identity and continuity loom extremely large in the NBA, and Golden State’s inability to manage either last season while juggling suspensions, injuries and an over-crowded roster was its primary undoing. Toggling Kuminga between both forward spots if he’s not ready to play the three could spark similar instability.

Either way, the Warriors will only set themselves up to climb the ladder of Western Conference contenders come spring if Kuminga makes a major impact in the season’s early going. He’s always believed he’s a small forward, and remains years away from his playing peak at just 22 years old. But given existing limitations of his own game coupled with ingrained ones of Green’s, Kuminga’s only plausible path to beginning this season is as a small-ball four.

Maybe more likely? He becomes entrenched at sixth man while the Dubs start big with Jackson-Davis up front, rightly or wrongly calling Kuminga’s assumed status as franchise building block and transformational trade chip into greater question almost no matter how well he plays in that role.