Shannon Sharpe left baffled as Jonathan Kuminga's shocking benching backfires in Warriors’ crushing loss

Despite being a key rotation piece for the last two seasons, Jonathan Kuminga found himself sidelined in the Golden State Warriors' biggest game of the season. Following this shocking decision from Steve Kerr, one analyst shared his thoughts on the former lottery pick not seeing the floor in such a crucial game.

Caught in the thick of the Western Conference standings, the Warriors found themselves in a heated matchup to close out the regular season. Facing off against the LA Clippers, both teams were fighting for seeding and trying to avoid the play-in tournament. Even though so much was hanging in the balance, Kerr opted not to play Kuminga.

While on his Nightcap podcast, Shannon Sharpe opened up on Jonathan Kuminga not playing in the Warriors' regular season finale. He was so baffled by the move that he thought the young forward was injured.

"I'm trying to figure out is Kuminga hurt?" Sharpe said. "Why wouldn't you play Kuminga? He's probably the most athletic guy on their roster." (27:00)

Later on, Sharpe touched on how a situation like this could have a negative effect on a young player like Jonathan Kuminga. Still in the early stages of his career, having such an undefined role could hurt his confidence and hurt his relationship with the team and coaching staff.

"Kuminga's not playing, that's hard," Sharpe continued. "You've been playing then all of sudden the coach tell you at shootaround you may or may not play but stay ready. He's a young guy, he's not guys like Lou Will, he's not like a Jamal Crawford that knows I'm going to come off the bench X,Y and Z." (45:05)

This situation just adds another wrinkle to Jonathan Kuminga's history with Kerr. Last season, he openly called out the coach and stated he doesn't think he'll reach his full potential under him.

After suffering an overtime loss at the hands of the Clippers, the Warriors now find themselves in the Play-In Tournament. They'll square off against the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday, with the winner securing the No. 7 seed.