SAN FRANCISCO — Jonathan Kuminga wasn't happy. Justin Van Duyne caught him taking an extra stutter step trying to create separation against his defender and whistled him up for a travel. Kuminga fired back, asking the referee what was up with the frequent whistle. Van Duyne hit him with a technical foul.
While Joel Embiid set up for the free throw and Kuminga pled his case, Draymond Green entered the frame to put his teammate on ice. A funny sight to the outside world who may see Green only as the fire, the agitator and aggressor, but a familiar one for his teammates who know better.
"Seeing Draymond on my side just motivated me more to keep up the same energy," Kuminga said.
The Warriors' 20-24 record, their 12th seed in the West, tells us this team that once pegged itself as a title contender is spiraling down into the NBA's dumps. With a half-season left to crawl into a play-in, at least, that utter disappointment may well become reality. But these last three games — two lost by a combined two points and Tuesday's won comfortably against the contending Philadelphia 76ers — give Golden State something to hold onto.
There's a key to the shift: Green's return to the fold unlocked a better version of Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins not just technically, but emotionally.
Technically Green ties the defense together as a communicator and free safety, allowing Wiggins and Kuminga to lock in on one-on-one defense while erasing their mistakes. Green will start at center for the foreseeable future with Kuminga and Wiggins in the front court along with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (Brandin Podziemski started with Thompson out on Tuesday).
After a gutting lost to the Memphis Grizzlies B-squad weeks ago, Green demanded his teammates take pride in stoping the drive. Wiggins and Kuminga have upped their activity defensively and each with a trio of steals each against the Sixers. Wiggins can often fall into a defensive malaise, but was scrapping for loose balls, stripped Kelly Oubre Jr. and deflected an Embiid pass for Green steal. Kuminga got two of his steals reading the passing lanes and using his long limbs to disrupt.
Before Green's return, Kuminga and Wiggins were a minus-106 in 171 minutes together. In five games since Green's return from indefinite suspension on Jan. 15, Kuminga and Wiggins are a plus-43 in 106 minutes played together. As a trio, they're a plus-50 in 85 minutes.
Green's impact goes beyond defensive instruction and assured ball-handling. He's taken it upon himself to motivationally jolt Wiggins to keep him from dozing off into his malaise — and maybe to silence outside noise that he's landed on the trade block with poor performance and inconsistencies dating back to last season.
"My advice to him is you're damn good at basketball," Green said. "People are going to talk, but you're very good at this game. Trust in that. Know you have our trust. It's not that. The lack of trust is not coming from inside this locker room so who cares what anyone else thinks? What we need is an aggressive Andrew Wiggins looking to get downhill and looking up to shoot the ball with confidence.
"I know what it's like to struggle with confidence, you hit a rough patch and your confidence wanes. I know what that feels like. You try to be for him what you hope somebody would be for you."
He's also been Kuminga's vote of confidence, a hype man to balance out doubt and hesitation borne of an inconsistent role and minutes that's bled through his entire three-year career. Kuminga has found the perfect balance of body control and an ability to finish to become a feared scorer at the rim; he topped a 20-game double-digit scoring streak into a seven-game 20-plus-point streak just by getting downhill and attacking space opened by the team's shooting threats.
Unlike in previous years, there is no hesitation at the rim or second-guessing his decision to get-ball-and-go. Green's voice is in his head.
"It's great to have the leader of the team giving you that. type of confidence," Kuminga said. "It's not like we lost it, it's that every other day, no matter if we have confidence or not, he's hyping me and Wiggs up no matter what."
For Green, getting his young wings motivated is also about self preservation. Absences, injuries, age and roster incompatibility can be mostly attributed to this 20-24 record, but the identity crisis stems from a gray area between young and old. The Curry, Green, Thompson core believes they can still beat the best of them, but they aren't getting consistent help from the rest. Wiggins and Kevon Looney, in their primes, are having down years. Kuminga and Moses Moody represent a cohort of younger players still far down the learning curve to fill the gaps.
A decade ago, David Lee, Jermaine O'Neal and Carl Landry lit the trail but relied on Green, Curry and Thompson's young legs to trudge the mud. Now Green's lighting the trail, but in need of some sturdy legs to help carry them.
"You just want to breathe life into him," Green said. "Continue to make sure that he knows he has the utmost trust from us. One thing we talked about is us getting older. We had older guys ride our legs for years and because we were younger we could handle that. Now it's his turn. And he's going to carry us now. I think that's the maturation process. That's why you draft a young guy like that with the seventh pick because the roles will reverse and you start to see that. He's starting to carry us more than we're carrying him and that's what you hope to see."
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