Jonathan Kuminga And Moses Moody Have Made It Abundantly Clear That They're Tired Of Steve Kerr's Shit

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For years now, pretty much every fanbase outside of GS has been waiting for the eventual demise of the Warriors dynasty. A run like what we've seen these last 10 or so years doesn't happen all that often and frankly its been enough already. Am I still salty over 2022? Yeah, so what? Sue me. 

The good news for people like me and fans everywhere who are ready for this run of dominance to finally be over is we're starting to see the cracks. Draymond Green can't stop losing his mind and getting suspended, the play of Klay Thompson certainly isn't at the level we've grown accustomed to, the Warriors' defense which was truly the backbone of their success is just 20th in the league, and even though Steph Curry is as good as ever, he clearly can't do it alone.

Then of course there's the youth movement. When the Warriors were going into the 2021 NBA Draft owning the 7th and 14th pick, the debate at the time revolved around if the Warriors should cash in those picks for some win now players to help maximize the title window, or maybe shift gears and go with more of a youth movement. Ultimately the Warriors decided 

In the immediate short term, you could make the case it worked. The Warriors won the title in 20222 (again, sigh), but the two young picks (Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody) were essentially non factors. One could say the Warriors got the best of both worlds in that they still found a way to compete and win a title with that core AND got to have two young guys on the roster who they could continue to develop. All gravy right?

Not quite.

In the NBA, things move quickly. At some point teams usually have to pick a direction when it comes to their roster construction. You either invest in your youth movement, or you invest in your veteran group. As your young guys have more seasons in the league, they're going to want to play and develop. Instead of picking a lane, the Warriors continued to try and play both sides, giving Draymond his $100M extension, they extended Wiggins for 4/109M, they didn't move off Klay before he was up (and will potentially extend him) all while both Kuminga and Moody had to deal with inconsistent minutes and an undefined role.

Fast forward to 2024, and it's starting to look like both players have had enough of Steve Kerr's shit. It's no surprise that immediately following the Warriors 18 point collapse to the Nuggets last night where Kuminga was benched for the entire 4th quarter despite playing well, we're getting leaks like this

Add in the fact that the Warriors are just 16-18 and sit in 11th in the West, these are usually the times when stuff like this starts to come out. It's one thing to not play the young guys while you're atop the West and winning titles. But when the vets aren't even playing well and the team kind of stinks? Of course, that's when guys are going to start to get restless, they hit up Shams to get the ball rolling about a month ahead of the trade deadline and off we go with rumors and drama. This isn't unique to the Warriors, it's just how the NBA works nowadays. The only problem for GS is these are clearly not random rumors with no substance. Kuminga is literally saying these things himself 

The question now becomes, what do the Warriors do? Do they fire Steve Kerr? Do they maybe try and get something for an expiring Klay? Or, do they finally decide now is the time to give up on the youth movement and trade Kuminga and Moody for win-now players to maybe try and squeeze one last title out of this core?

What makes that tough is what trade is out there that will get the Warriors back into contention? You have to figure the Warriors are going to want a haul of assets for their young players, but given how unproven they still are what's a realistic return that moves the championship needle given they don't have high salaries? You're most likely going to have to pair them with one of your vets if you have hopes of bringing in elite talent (which comes with a high price tag), and at that point are the Warriors even any better? If you want to move one of the vets, well who is going to overpay for the privilege of potentially bringing in Klay as a rental? Are there teams around the league begging to bring in Draymond Green at the moment given what his contract still looks like plus all the other bullshit?

As you can see, it's quite the pickle for GS to figure out. 

One thing we know is that the young guys are clearly done with Steve Kerr's bullshit and definitely hate his guts. It's pretty obvious that Kerr is loyal to his vets above all else, even if it's not the best thing for the team moving forward. 

The easiest path is probably to just ask Steph Curry what he wants and then just do that. Because at the end of the day, he's the only Warrior that truly matters. If GS fumbles their next move when it comes to this situation, who knows maybe Steph will finally say enough is enough and it's time to bounce. It's unlikely, but then again that's the path we currently see stars around the league take when it looks like things are about to go south pretty quickly.