Dub Hub: Jonathan Kuminga to miss three weeks with right ankle sprain

01/06/2025 03:00 PM

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Monday, January 6th.

In today's Dub Hub:

• Jonathan Kuminga out three weeks with a right ankle sprain, per The Athletic's Anthony Slater.
• Warriors 'aren't likely' to pursue Jimmy Butler in a trade, according to The Athletic.
• Thunder win franchise record 15th game in a row after beating the Celtics, 105-92.

The Golden State Warriors split their weekend back-to-back, capping it off with a lopsided 129-99 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night. While the blowout snapped the Warriors' two-game winning streak, the bigger setback this weekend was the injury to Jonathan Kuminga.

The fourth-year forward suffered a right ankle sprain during Saturday's win over the Memphis Grizzlies and was seen on crutches after the game. He is expected to miss at least three weeks, according to The Athletic's Anthony Slater.

Kuminga's injury comes at a particularly unfortunate time. He was starting to find his stride off the bench, delivering consistent production over the past 10 games. During that stretch, he averaged 20.1 points per game, including consecutive outing where he scored and matched his career highs with 34 points.

The injury is projected to sideline Kuminga for at least 10 more games, but he emphasized the importance of taking it slow with a cautious recovery plan.

For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Monday, January 6th:

Warriors News:

Warriors get blasted by Kings; won't have Jonathan Kuminga for 3 weeks | The Athletic

"I just don't want to be off," Kuminga said. "I want to be playing. I feel like our team had started taking off in the right direction."

The three-week re-evaluation timetable rules Kuminga out through at least the home game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 25. That's less than two weeks before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, when Kuminga (who will be a restricted free agent this summer) will go through another checkpoint in his career.

"I feel good (about my place with the Warriors)," Kuminga said. "You never know what's going to happen, but I'm pretty confident this is where I'm at."

Why Warriors aren't likely to pursue Jimmy Butler before NBA trade deadline | The Athletic

Nikola Vučević has actually emerged as the more discussed Warriors' trade target, according to team and league sources. The front office and coaching staff have acknowledged back to training camp this team's need for a true stretch center, something Curry has never really had. Vučević is making 44 percent of his nearly five 3s per game this season and averaging 20.3 points per game. In theory, he'd get protected on defense by Green, while opening up offensive space for Curry, Wiggins and Kuminga.

Steph Curry says the Warriors aren't built to overcome large deficits

NBA trade deadline: One player to watch on all 30 teams | ESPN

Expect the Nets to want more in a Johnson trade than the combined six second-round picks Brooklyn received for trading Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith to the Warriors and the Lakers, respectively. Johnson checks three boxes for playoff teams. He plays a position of need, is on a team-friendly contract for the next three seasons ($22.5 million, $20.5 million and $22.5 million) and is averaging career highs in points (19.5), field goal percentage (49.6%) and 3-point percentage (43.6%).

One hiccup for teams hard capped against the first apron is Johnson's $4.5 million in unlikely bonuses. For example, a trade with Golden State would involve Gary Payton II, Kevon Looney, Brandin Podziemski and a 2026 top-eight-protected first match in salary. However, because bonuses count toward the apron, the trade is not legal.

Draymond Green's 'Boom' celebration vs. Kings goes viral after he received a technical for saying the word in the previous game

NBA News:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder make most of opportunity in win vs. Celtics | The Athletic

Eager to get a crack at a Celtics team that went 16-3 in the playoffs last summer, Gilgeous-Alexander didn't disappoint Sunday. He scored 33 points and made critical defensive plays that helped his team erase a 10-point halftime deficit and beat Boston 105-92.

"At the root of it all, I like to go against the best and see where I stand, how good I really am," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "That's all it comes down to."

The Thunder are now 30-5 this season. They have won a franchise-record 15 consecutive games. (That mark excludes the NBA Cup championship against the Milwaukee Bucks, as the game didn't count toward the standings.)

Clippers' Leonard has 12 in debut, calls playing 'easy part' | ESPN

After 253 days between games, Kawhi Leonard returned to action Saturday — and that, he said afterward, was the easy part.

"[There] was nothing hard about playing tonight," the LA Clippers star said after making his long-awaited season debut in his team's 131-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks at the Intuit Dome. "We did the right steps to get me to this point, and playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having to rehab and not competing with my teammates."

Leonard scored 12 points in 19 minutes against Atlanta in what marked his first game since Game 3 of the Clippers' first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks in April.

Suns benching starters Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic, per NBA insider Chris Haynes

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

How Andrew Wiggins, Buddy Hield, and Lindy Waters III got going in similar-but-different ways

It might seem oxymoronic to say that the Golden State Warriors pretty much run the same or similar things over and over again but also get different kinds of shots on those similar actions. But a nifty thing about the Warriors' sets is that outcomes aren't as similar as the initiation that preceded them.

Their win against the Memphis Grizzlies on the first night of a back-to-back — without Steph Curry due to injury management and without Jonathan Kuminga for half of the game due to a gnarly ankle sprain — was an example, despite the fact that without Curry on the floor this season, the Warriors have been:

Outscored by 94 points

Have been worse by 18 points per 100 possessions on offense

Follow@unstoppablebaby on Twitter for all the latest news on the Golden State Warriors.