Before he was injured, Jonathan Kuminga was already facing a demotion. He went from starting for the Warriors to a bench role. He’s apparently not happy in the Bay again. But that’s a problem for when he does return. He has missed the last four games with bilateral knee tendonitis. A knee injury to put it simply. Tonight’s NBA Cup group stage game against the Portland Trail Blazers will be his fifth missed straight game. And he’s doing his best to shorten his timeline.

Amid all the negativity surrounding Kuminga and his head coach, Steve Kerr had a bit of positive news. He told the media ahead of the game that he “hopes” Jonathan Kuminga can practice on Sunday.

A little sign of his return is that Kuminga is on the practice court already. Kerr confirmed that as they speak, he’s getting on-court work in right now.

Kerr confirmed that JK had not scrimmaged since he got injured. If he returns to practice with the team on Sunday, they will evaluate his return. But for now, that date’s up in the air.

Anyone keeping up with Dub Nation would probably be surprised that Kerr sounds enthusiastic about Kuminga’s return. If unnamed insiders are to be believed, the problems between the head coach and the young forward from last season have cropped up again.

A bench role is reportedly waiting for Kuminga when he’s back and it’s seemingly taking a mental toll. The situation is bad enough that Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler publicly sympathized with him.

Jonathan Kuminga’s displeasure obvious to anyone with eyes

When he was in the starting lineup at the beginning of 2025-26 season, Jonathan Kuminga was averaging 17.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game and shot 41.4% from 3-point range. His productivity dipped to 9.6 points and turnovers increased to 2.7 across five games. Steve Kerr was not going to extend that and benched Kuminga. That seemingly brought war flashbacks from a year ago.

“He feels like the scapegoat again,” an unidentified source told reporters. They claimed that Kuminga told Kerr to coach him harder, Kerr did, there was a bit of improvement before the knee injury sidelined him.

Being sidelined may have caused those feelings to fester. The friction didn’t have to play out in public for everyone to notice. Besides the unnamed team source, even JK’s teammates spoke about it.

Draymond Green defended the team’s side, explained why Kuminga had to be benched, and claimed, “I know because everyone loves a good drama, everybody is saying he’s being the scapegoat. There is no scapegoat. We’re 13 games in.”

On the other hand, Jimmy Butler empathized for good reason. Kuminga and Kerr’s disagreements last year ran parallel to Butler’s displeasure with the Miami Heat, Pat Riley, and Erik Spoelstra. “Can you just imagine being in a place where — like, I get it — are you wanted here or not? That’s the worst feeling, man,” Butler said. “I had to deal with it at the later part [of my tenure] in Miami. It’s like, damn, I’ve been here. What are we talking about? It’s a s—ty place to be in. And no matter what you do, you don’t feel like you’re doing right.”

Kuminga might be trying to prove he’s worth an upgrade by jumping into oncourt workouts. Or he may have heard that despite the ‘scapegoat’ situation, he’s the biggest trade target. Come January 15, teams across the league are likely to make a bid for him and he could be a major asset to any team.