Curry's return, Kuminga DNP make for a busy week without a game

Warriors' filling gaps in unexpected ways, but surviving

Golden State has the week to lick their wounds, as their next game isn’t until Friday, when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves. After such a frenetic start to the season, this four day break feels a little extra sweet. The timing works out quite well, too.

The biggest news is that Stephen Curry is back at practice, and targeting his return on this upcoming Friday home game. That would put his entire absence at two weeks, with the team managing a respectable 2-2 over that span. The news cycle will roll back around mid-week, with Curry’s “possible participation in some parts of practice Wednesday” serving as an initial barometer.

Those practices should be interesting, with multiple positional battles playing out all across the team’s rotation. Jonathan Kuminga didn’t log a single minute in the Warriors’ last game - a blowout that they won while playing short-handed. Any pivot would come quickly: the team can’t trade Kuminga until January 15th, and then would have to do so prior to the league’s February 5th trade deadline.

Playing Connect 4; not Chess, not a puzzle

“There’s always someone knocking down the door trying to get your job.” That was coach Steve Kerr the other day, talking about why Kuminga had fallen out of the rotation. This has been an issue with a number of young and old players in Kerr’s system, the fickle hand of “what the team needs” can pull opportunities in any direction at any time.

It’s not that Kuminga is bad. The Warriors will continue to look for ways to harness his explosive athleticism and ability to get to the basket and draw fouls. But if cohesion and impact are the core considerations, it’s a tough draw for Kuminga to be reduced to a 3rd string player. He was told prior to the game that not only wasn’t he starting, but that Gui Santos was penciled in for the backup minutes.

Kuminga said Kerr’s message to him before the game was simple -- the Warriors were going in a different direction.

“I’m not really sure [how long it lasts],” Kuminga said. “But as long as things are working out there and we winning, I don’t see the point of switching anything, changing. Whenever my number get called, I’ll be ready.”

Stick with me for a bit of an analogy?

What the Warriors are finding out right now is that they’ve got their big three, but are really building much less intentionally around the rest of the edges. Sometimes, this looks like a puzzle piece, where there’s a certain archetype that you chase: a long-limbed wing with a nice outside shot, or a stretch big. The Warriors have been here, but primarily concerned with finding wings that work well between Curry and Draymond Green (and now Jimmy Butler).

Some players are filling in all of the needs.

That’s Quintin Post up there on the top right (the very best part of a graph to be in)

But if there is a “chess not checkers” sentiment, then this moment feels a whole lot like a game of Connect 4. The Warriors know what they have: one of the best defenses in the league (ranked 2nd), and one of the ugliest, least efficient offenses (ranked 22nd).

The Warriors aren’t looking for some puzzle-perfect fit, they just need someone to step up and drop into that missing rotational spot. At the end of the day, these Warriors are going to likely need to import some offense. But in the meantime, they’ve just got to lean into this out of balance reality and put forward the best team that they can. This player doesn’t need to be a perfect fit, just an effective one.

At all of 6’2”, Pat Spencer is earning the trust of the team and while they don’t need both him and Brandin Podziemski, they’re happy to utilize what has currently been their best option. If this was a search for the perfectly-sized component, then Kuminga would be a shoe in. Instead, playing without Curry, the Warriors have looked to Santos for 12, then 27, and then 20 minutes in the last game; way over his average of 9 minutes per game.

What makes this moment especially volatile is that the Warriors aren’t merely rearranging pieces - they’re redefining what the board even looks like. The staff has clearly prioritized clean decision-making and defensive consistency, which means every player outside the core is essentially auditioning on a rolling basis. One mistake can cost you a week; one impactful stretch can vault you into 20 minutes a night. It’s a precarious ecosystem, and Kuminga’s situation is just the most visible example of how rapidly fortunes can swing inside this rotation.Curry’s imminent return might change some of the dynamics, but not fundamentally. The Warriors are still going to need players that they can trust to reliably make the right plays that contribute to winning, and it’s still far from clear how exactly Kuminga fits into this whole device.

Plunk. It’s a jarring, but with that last DNP (again, short handed and in a blowout win?), it’s becoming clear that Kuminga is slated for a trade. There’s still time to poke and prod at this situation, and the Warriors and Kuminga will certainly expend some effort this week into solving it in a way that works for everyone. But the Warriors and Kuminga are probably both over the idea that this is some sort of puzzle-perfect fit. While his strong opening salvo this season isn’t all that far removed, it is one of those memories that feels unevenly far away.

The Warriors have this week to look at what did and didn’t work without Curry, and then a couple of days to practice and tweak things prior to Friday. But the rumors are beginning to swirl a little harder. The Sacramento Kings are dangling Malik Monk, according to reports, and unless the Warriors and Kuminga can find something that works well enough to force minutes away from any of the others who have featured in these recent games, that might be what looks like the best option for all parties.

Embrace change / be the change

So the Warriors head into this rare pause knowing exactly what they are and exactly what they still lack. Curry’s return will restore the shape of their offense, but it won’t quiet the rotational noise or the trade winds beginning to press at the edges. This week offers clarity, not comfort: a chance to decide which players can truly anchor the next stretch of the season. If someone doesn’t seize that role soon, the front office may be the ones to fill it for them.

Maybe that’s the real shape of this Warriors season: not a tidy puzzle with fixed contours, but a long, uneven search for the next stabilizing force around Curry, Butler and Draymond. Whether that help comes from internal growth, a reshaped rotation, or a trade that finally tilts the balance back toward offensive competence, the team has reached the point where standing still is its own kind of risk. By Friday, Curry will be back. By February, the roster may look different. And in the space between those two moments, Golden State has to decide who they trust to climb onto the board and change the pattern.

In the end, this week feels less like a reset and more like a reckoning. Curry’s return will smooth some edges, but it won’t resolve the underlying question of who fits and who fades as the Warriors chase stability on one side of the ball and salvation on the other. The clock is ticking, the rotation is tightening, and the margin for patience is thinning. Whether it’s Kuminga, Santos, Spencer, or someone not yet in the building, Golden State needs someone to grab that open spot and hold it.