{"id":120537,"date":"2025-08-30T09:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T09:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/120537\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T09:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T09:40:07","slug":"nba-free-agency-should-warriors-offer-jonathan-kuminga-more-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/120537\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA free agency: Should Warriors offer Jonathan Kuminga more money?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For weeks now, Jonathan Kuminga has been threatening to take the Qualifying Offer<\/a>. He\u2019s repeatedly rejected the best offer on the table from the Golden State Warriors, which is reportedly two years and $45 million, with a team option for the second year. He has no chance of signing outright elsewhere, as no one can absorb the money he\u2019s trying to make. And it sure doesn\u2019t seem like a sign-and-trade is in the works.<\/p>\n

Which means Kuminga is left with just two options: sign a new deal with the Dubs (which has a million different iterations), or sacrifice millions of dollars to take the Qualifying Offer, and re-enter free agency next offseason without restrictions.<\/p>\n

I believe Kuminga\u2019s flirtation with the Qualifying Offer, which he can sign anytime between now and October 1, is earnest, and not just a negotiation ploy. But the more I think about it, the more I realize just how bad it would be for Golden State if the fifth-year wing goes in that direction.<\/p>\n

In the short term, Kuminga taking the one-year, $7.9-million deal would be good for the Dubs. They\u2019d get to retain a player they still like (despite all the noise), without having to pay him the price he deserves. But if Kuminga takes the Qualifying Offer, it essentially assures two things: 2026-27 will be his final year in a Warriors jersey, and Golden State won\u2019t get anything of note for him in a trade. The Dubs can live with either one of those realities, but not both of them.<\/p>\n

No, the Warriors need Kuminga on a larger contract, and we\u2019ve seen proof of this concept before. When Kevin Durant decided to leave, the Warriors executed a sign-and-trade for D\u2019Angelo Russell, a player they otherwise would have had zero interest in; there were even reports that the Warriors may have met Russell\u2019s initial contract request with an increased salary, so as to facilitate a trade for a star. A few months later, Russell\u2019s contract was used to trade for Andrew Wiggins, and a few years later, Wiggins\u2019 was used to acquire Jimmy Butler III.<\/p>\n

In that regard, the Warriors need Kuminga. They still believe that he has a chance to turn into a foundational player, and if he doesn\u2019t, then they need to have a star-priced contract to build a trade around, or else they\u2019ll be met with a highly disappointing return.<\/p>\n

So why don\u2019t they simply offer him more money, or at least the security he\u2019s craving? Keep the financial terms, but tack on a third year and remove the team options. Would it really be so bad to re-sign Kuminga for three years and $70 million without any way out? The Dubs aren\u2019t going to have financial flexibility anytime soon anyway, so the only one really hurt by an overpay is Joe Lacob, who is probably the highest on Kuminga of anyone in the front office.<\/p>\n

But of course, it\u2019s not quite that simple. The lack of league-wide interest in JK this offseason might have the team a little scared that he wouldn\u2019t be tradable down the line. And overpaying just because is not a precedent that owners like to set with their GMs, nor one that GMs like to set with agents. And while it\u2019s easy to armchair GM a good contract, there\u2019s a decent chance that Kuminga would still have no interest in the framework laid out above.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also quite possible that the Warriors are just playing hardball. They have a lot of leverage knowing that Kuminga would be sacrificing eight figures this year if he took the Qualifying Offer, with no guarantee that he\u2019d be able to make it up next summer. Even if they\u2019re comfortable paying him more, they could be waiting until he\u2019s closer to having his back up against the wall to see if he blinks before they up their offer.<\/p>\n

We probably won\u2019t have a resolution for a while, and there are legitimate reasons for that. But there are also legitimate reasons for thinking the Warriors should just pull out their big kid checkbook and offer Kuminga a better deal. They need him more than they\u2019re letting on.<\/p>\n

8 Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For weeks now, Jonathan Kuminga has been threatening to take the Qualifying Offer. He\u2019s repeatedly rejected the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99,75059],"class_list":["post-120537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-warriors-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}