The Golden State Warriors continue to work through Jonathan Kuminga’s future as a restricted free agent, with a likelihood that they’ll have to bring back the young forward on a short-term contract.

Kuminga’s fit with the Warriors has been a constant talking point for years and is a primary reason as to why many thought player and franchise would be parting ways this offseason. While that will remain the case should Kuminga return, there’s also an element of value that the 22-year-old could provide in addressing a big regular season problem that Golden State will be faced with.

Jonathan Kuminga can help offset an “ancient basketball team”

Speaking recently on his podcast, Zach Lowe of the Ringer outlined the issue of having such an old team throughout a regular season and how that could impact Golden State’s hopes entering the playoffs.

“If Al Horford, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Steph Curry are four of your starting five and four of the six most important players on the team, you have now become an ancient basketball team,” Lowe said. “And ancient basketball teams don’t tend to excel over 82 games, which means you’re going to be entering the playoffs, I mean, as either a play-in team or a road team in the first-round of the playoffs.”

This is certainly an issue for the Warriors who are looking to add a 39-year-old Al Horford to the veteran trio of Stephen Curry (37), Jimmy Butler (will be 36 by opening night) and Draymond Green (35).

For all his weaknesses and inability to fit into Steve Kerr’s system, Kuminga is a natural scorer in a way Golden State’s other young players (Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Quinten Post etc.) simply aren’t. We saw that in the second-round of the playoffs where Kuminga averaged nearly 25 points on over 55% shooting against the Minnesota Timberwolves once Curry went down with a hamstring injury.

The Warriors can’t escape the advanced ages of their key players and the fact they’ll need rests consistently throughout the regular season, but Kuminga does present as a solution who could still give them some hope of generating offense in such scenarios.

We’ve seen this previously, including last season when Kuminga had 33 points and seven rebounds to lead Golden State to a 99-93 victory over the Houston Rockets with Curry and Green on the sidelines.

If Kuminga does re-sign with the Warriors, his long-term fit is still going to be dictated by his ability to play effectively alongside the veteran core. Yet the value of having him in nights where they’re resting or playing limited minutes shouldn’t be totally ignored given their ages and what’s an increasingly gruelling regular season schedule.