After a strong return in a dominant victory over the Sacramento Kings last Thursday, it’s been more of a struggle since for Jonathan Kuminga following his 31-game absence with a severe ankle sprain.

It was always going to take some time for Kuminga to find full fitness and rhythm, particularly when he’s having to re-integrate to a far different team to the one he left when he suffered the injury on January 4.

Steve Kerr is having to make tough decisions on the Warriors rotation

The problem for the Warriors is that they cannot afford to give Kuminga the time and leeway required to work through mistakes and return to his best. They’re in a fight to secure a top six spot in the Western Conference standings, and could now officially fall to seventh if the L.A. Clippers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.

It’s that aspect that undoubtedly went into Steve Kerr’s mindset against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, with the head coaching sensationally benching Kuminga for the entire fourth-quarter of the 124-115 loss.

Kuminga had made an impact in the first-half with a team-high 16 points, but was otherwise a game-worst -18 in his 22 minutes as Kerr explained his decision-making during the post-game press conference.

“JK did a good job in the first-half, and then in the second-half I just went with the guys who I felt gave us the best chance,” Kerr said.

In a game where they were without the offensive firepower of Stephen Curry, you would think Golden State could have done with Kuminga’s scoring late in the game. The former seventh overall pick averages the third-most points on the team behind Curry and Jimmy Butler, yet there was no room for him on the floor as Kerr went predominantly to a lineup of Brandin Podziemski, Gary Payton II, Moses Moody, Butler and Draymond Green.

The fact Kuminga couldn’t earn a single second of fourth-quarter playing time is a pretty damning assessment of where he’s at individually in comparison to the team. This was always going to be the concern upon his return, and now he and the Warriors only have 11 games left to figure it out before an expected playoff run.

All of this comes ahead of Kuminga’s restricted free agency in the offseason. The more we have games like this where he isn’t in closing lineups or playing fourth-quarter minutes at all, the more everyone will be wondering how on earth the Warriors could consider paying him in excess of $100+ million during the summer.