Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr may be ready to make lineup changes after their most recent loss. The Warriors dropped their seventh game of the season and fourth straight to the Phoenix Suns by a score of 113-105 on Sunday night. Despite the loss, Golden State had two key role players offer steady contributions in the loss.
Warriors’ Steve Kerr could name Kevon Looney a starter
After the game, coach Kerr raved about the impact plays that center Kevon Looney and forward Jonathan Kuminga made during the affair. Free Dawkins shared coach Kerr’s comments from his postgame press conference after the contest, where he said this about starting Looney moving forward after doing so in the second half of the contest:
“Maybe. It’s a possibility. We changed our defensive coverage and so we decided to put Loon in there, cause he’s really good with that coverage and, just wanted to change the look. We were down 17 and we needed to get a spark and Loon gave us one. That third quarter was really good,” Kerr said.
Looney was the Warriors starting center in 2021-22 — the year they won their fourth championship in the Stephen Curry-Draymond Green era– and again the following season. However, last season, the 28-year-old started 36 times in just under half of the 74 games he played.
He has yet to start in 2024-25. Nevertheless, after grabbing four rebounds and finishing with the fourth-highest plus/minus on the team at a plus-seven in the second half, coach Kerr felt confident that his exceptional glass-cleaner could service the team in the starting lineup once more. Looney owns a staggering 24.5 percent offensive rebounding percentage and 25.9 percent rebounding percentage this season and is one of the more underrated shot-contesters in the league. He could help remedy the Warriors’ need for more frontline depth.
Kerr wants to play Jonathan Kuminga more with stars
As for Kuminga, the Warriors’ lead play-caller said this about his game:
“Yeah he struggled most of the game and then the late stretch, he gave us a big spark. And you know, he’s one of the guys who we have to look at in terms of who he’s playing with. Can we get him more minutes with Steph and Draymond? He’s better with those guys. Most guys are. But again, we’ve got a lot of things to think about and sort through,” Kerr remarked.
Kuminga had four points entering the fourth quarter. Then, he scored eight points in his final 6:59 of playing time on 4-5 shooting from the field. He helped the Warriors hold on toward the end of the game.
The 22-year-old started the season off slow in his first three games as a starter and then came alive once moved to the bench after that. Prior to the Suns’ loss, Kuminga shot under 40 percent from the floor in each of the Warriors’ previous three games. While he shot 33 percent on Sunday night, the G League Ignite product finished strong and could be due for more minutes with the first five down the line.
Golden State has bleeding to stop amid their uncharacteristic skid. Looney’s interior presence and Kuminga’s athleticism and scoring could be variables that facilitate that.
