The Golden State Warriors are well aware of where they stand with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, a 22-year-old combo forward averaging 20+ points per game when he plays 30+ minutes per game. Gone are the days in which they could convince themselves that the opportunity to win a championship alongside a couple of the greatest players would keep his desire for individual glory at bay. After all, Kuminga already has a ring, the Warriors winning it all in his rookie season. Despite his inexperience, Kuminga even started in three games and scored 17+ points in three games in his first taste of the playoffs.
With that in mind, Kuminga has resisted Golden State’s series of team-friendly offers this offseason. Looking to be treated like the building block that they propped him up to be in 2023-24, he wants to be paid like it. Knowing this, the Warriors are finally starting to budge in their negotiations.
Warriors Increase Their Offer To RFA Jonathan Kuminga
“Late last week, (Warriors general manager Mike) Dunleavy offered Kuminga a three-year, $75.2 million deal with a team option in the third season,” per ESPN insiders Shams Charania and Anthony Slater. “That’s $48.3 million guaranteed in the first two seasons…”
However, there’s still the “subliminal understanding that the contract is more trade asset than commitment to a partnership… (as) Dunleavy and the Warriors are requesting the same structure as their previous proposal on the two-year, $45 million framework — a team option on the second season and a waiving of the inherent no-trade clause.” As a result, though the Warriors have pushed more money to the middle of the table, Kuminga hasn’t really received any more assurance that he’s part of their long-term future.
Just as with the two-year, $45 million contract that they proposed to Kuminga, “their unwillingness to budge on the team option in those specific two offers is a major part of the holdup.”
Respect Is Key
Looking from the former seventh overall pick’s perspective, why wouldn’t he be resistant to agreeing to the Warriors proposal? Instead of making the final season a player option, a very common sign of respect, they’re telling him that they might not even want him two years from now.
In fact, Kuminga and his representation “have spent much of the summer requesting a player option as part of their preferred deals… showing a willingness to dip down into the $20 million per year range for it. Yet, a Golden State team with an owner that claims to want him on the team for a long-time “have also viewed a player option as a nonstarter.”
All of which begs the question: Why would Kuminga be jumping to play for an organization that doesn’t completely believe in him, especially when the Phoenix Suns (four years, $80 to $88 million) and Sacramento Kings (three years, $63 to $66 million) are offering him secure contracts with player options and the starting power forward job?
Alternative Offers
Notably, the Warriors have offered Kuminga a contract that’s devoid of a team option. However, it would be for “three years and $54 million fully guaranteed… an average of $18 million per season,” per Charania and Slater. Compared to the $75.2 million offer, he would lose $7 million per year by accepting that deal. That’s without him getting the ability to control his own future in the third season, which he would accept around $20 million annually for.
It’s nearly half of the $30 million annual salary that Kuminga’s camp believes “a team option deal should cost.”
In a desire to find common ground, Kuminga and agent Aaron Turner have suggested that he signs a ballooned one-year contract that allows him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. In return, the Warriors would be able to use his expiring contract at the trade deadline. As Charania and Slater note, this option “would serve as a bridge deal that gives both sides the ability to examine another year together, but also a much more trade-friendly salary number as opposed to the qualifying offer, which has an Oct. 1 deadline.”
Dunleavy declined, hesitant to lose Kuminga for nothing next season, despite the fact that’s actually the exact position he’s already in.
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