The Jonathan Kuminga saga has been flaring up in recent days with several reports from NBA media, but the latest from The San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami doesn’t offer much optimism for those hoping that Kuminga will be heading anywhere outside of the Bay Area this summer.
Per Kawakami, who has been plugged into the Warriors for years, the chances of Golden State agreeing to a sign-and-trade are slim at this point.
The word I got when I checked in with a Warriors source on Sunday: Kuminga won’t be traded this summer. He’ll be back on the Warriors’ roster to start the season. And it’ll either come when he signs the Warriors’ offer or accepts the $7.9 million one-year qualifying offer.
While Kuminga wants to come to Sacramento, the Warriors aren’t particularly enthusiastic about Sacramento’s offer of Malik Monk and a conditional first round pick. The Warriors would also need to find a way to ship out Moses Moody or Buddy Hield in order to make such a deal work for them as well, likely to a third team. Further, Kawakami reports that Warriors owner Joe Lacob is still a fan of Kuminga’s and would like to see him either return or be traded for real value. Clearly the Warriors don’t feel that what the Kings are offering qualifies as “great value”.
It’s a tough situation for both Kuminga and the Warriors to be in, but both sides have dug their heels in. The Kings, for their part, don’t seem inclined or desperate enough to up their offer, and I hope they maintain that position. This Kings team should not be sending out unprotected first round picks at all given their history, especially for a non-star player. Kuminga may grow to be a future star, but that’s not guaranteed and the Kings need to minimize their risk however they can. Sacramento’s current offer seems fair, but the Warriors are also right to think that it might not necessarily move the needle for them when there’s a chance they could keep Kuminga in the short term and figure it out later.
Restricted Free Agency has always been tough for players, and it seems even tougher today with the new CBA rules putting hard caps on certain situations. We’ve yet to see any of the NBA’s premier restricted free agents sign new deals, whether that’s Kuminga, Josh Giddey or Cam Thomas. Teams are being more cautious with their spending, and there aren’t many teams with the cap space or willingness to throw out offer sheets to potentially pry one of these players away. We’ve rarely seen Restricted Free Agents take their one-year qualifying offers but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that this year, whether it ends up being Kuminga or someone else. Nevertheless, there doesn’t seem to be a quick resolution coming and this might not be resolved until we get closer to the October 1st deadline for Kuminga to decide on taking the qualifying offer or not.