Charles Barkley Blasts Warriors As "Mediocre Team" For Mishandling Both Curry And Kuminga

At the moment, there is arguably no player with a more complicated relationship with the Warriors front office than Jonathan Kuminga. The season-ending injury to Jimmy Butler has left a void that badly needs to be filled, but at the same time, an uncomfortable question persists: Had Butler not gotten hurt, would Kuminga even have an opportunity to see more action on the floor?

The dynamic between Kuminga and the Warriors organization (including, and most especially, head coach Steve Kerr) has far-reaching implications. If you asked Charles Barkley, however, one of Kuminga’s teammates bears the brunt of this painful situation.

“The biggest loser in the whole thing is Steph [Curry],” Barkley said on “Inside the NBA” this past weekend. “They were not contenders, and now Steph is gonna finish the last part of his career on a mediocre team.”

Sir Charles added that there’s no hope of Kuminga mending fences with the team that drafted him in 2021. “That relationship is over…They don’t want Jonathan Kuminga. If they wanted him, they would have taken up his rookie thing, and they wouldn’t have given him a hard time [in negotiations].”

While the Warriors made no major moves this past offseason, they were still a hot topic of conversation as reports of their negotiations with Kuminga entered the news cycle. For a time, pundits were confidently proclaiming that the 23-year-old was on his way out of the Bay Area when it became apparent that he and the front office were not seeing eye to eye on a contract extension.

However, the impasse prior to the 2025–26 season might as well be ancient history as the Warriors find themselves in dire straits. With Butler out for the rest of the season, Golden State can either commit to giving Kuminga more minutes (and, by extension, a bigger role on offense) or they can promptly pull the trigger on a deal that will ship Kuminga in exchange for a player that can also provide immediate help.

The Chuckster is right when he points out that Curry doesn’t have several years ahead in his playing career, and if the Warriors don’t play their cards carefully, the cornerstone of their 2010s dynasty will have a not-so-happy ending to his storied career.