The relationship between Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors, and Jonathan Kuminga has been frosty at best over the last year or so. 

Kuminga has wanted a bigger role and showed flashes of being a key piece in the Warriors' rotation, but inconsistencies in his play and playing time have led to questions from him and the staff.

Aside from nine minutes against the Phoenix Suns on December 18, Kuminga has not played since December 6th.

Speaking to reporters, Kerr was asked about Kuminga's role.

"I'm disappointed for him that things didn't continue to go the way they did the first couple of weeks. At the same time, it was going to be tricky to start JK, Jimmy (Butler), and Draymond (Green) at two, three, and four. Anybody can see that's a tough combination based on five-man combinations, with shooting."

"Sometimes, Steph can offset every spacing obstacle in your way, he's that good. In the modern NBA, it's tough to do that and we recognized that. We gave that lineup several weeks and eventually, the weaknesses of that lineup were exposed, and that's why we went in a different direction," he said.

Kuminga started the first 12 games of the season, leading to the Warriors getting off to a 6-6 start. He came off the bench in the 13th game, and then did not play for seven games. 

Elaborating on his thinking regarding the starting lineup, Kerr said, "The starting lineup, it was tricky coming into the season because I liked the way we finished last year with Draymond at the five. That was a 30 game run for the stretch run. We were able to start small and we did great. 23-8, I think."

"I didn't want to play Draymond at the five for 82 games. Coming into the season, I don't think I was sure how I wanted to start. I like both Moses [Moody] and BP [Brandin Podziemski] in the starting lineup last year."

With Kerr already having players in mind for the starting lineup, it didn't bode well for Kuminga's chances to find his way in.

"If I was going to start big, which we've committed to with Quinten [Post], we could only pick one of those. We picked Moses for the on-ball defense. Now, we've got some good fortune with health to stabilize our bench. I'm not exactly sure what I expected. You just roll with what you believe, and you try to help your team through the bumps in the road."

After months of trade rumors and a stalemate throughout most of the offseason,  Kuminga signed a two-year, $48.5 million extension in late September. 

Kuminga was in and out of the rotation at the end of last season, and then only got into the playoff rotation when Steph Curry went down with an injury. 

Kuminga averaged 20 points and shot 42% from three in a five-game series loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.