The Warriors and Kuminga remain locked in a contract standoff with time running out
Golden State Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga are heading toward a showdown as both sides can’t agree on a new contract with just days remaining before a crucial deadline.
The 22-year-old swingman and the Warriors haven’t budged from their positions, with Kuminga now seriously considering taking the $7.9 million qualifying offer instead of Golden State’s current proposal.
Why? It’s all about control of that second year.
“Golden State, sources say, is not open to amending its stance on the second year of the two-year, $45 million offer it has extended,” NBA insider Jake Fischer reported Sunday.
“The Warriors are insistent that Year 2 is a team option; Kuminga would naturally prefer a player option.”
Kuminga’s camp hasn’t been sitting idle. They pitched a three-year, $82 million deal to the Warriors, but the team quickly rejected it, according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
While Golden State has “welcomed” sign-and-trade possibilities, they’re playing hardball there too. The team doesn’t want to include Buddy Hield or Moses Moody in any potential deals.
Both the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings showed serious interest in acquiring Kuminga.
During those discussions, offers for Kuminga reportedly reached nearly $90 million over four years with a player option, per ESPN’s Shams Charania and Slater.
The Kings even put a specific offer on the table: a three-year, $63 million deal for Kuminga, with veteran guard Malik Monk and a lottery-protected 2030 first-round pick going to Golden State.
That wasn’t good enough for the Warriors, who want that pick completely unprotected.
The Giddey Connection
There might be another solution brewing. Golden State has shown interest in a creative double sign-and-trade involving Kuminga and Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey, who’s also a restricted free agent.
“I can report that there have been multiple teams that have reached out to Josh Giddey’s representation about having interest in [him],” Fischer said last week during a Bleacher Report live stream.
“Golden State is one of them. Golden State would be interested, depending on how the machinations would go, in some kind of Josh Giddey-Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade, to my understanding.”
But this potential deal faces its own hurdles.
“The Bulls have been telling teams that they don’t want to talk sign-and-trade,” Fischer noted.
That said, Chicago hasn’t completely ignored Kuminga in the past.
“They made outreach to Golden State early in the offseason about Kuminga, they’ve talked about Kuminga in various trade conversations with the Warriors in the past when Golden State was checking in on Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso and other things,” Fischer explained.
The clock is ticking. Kuminga’s qualifying offer deadline is October 1st, giving both sides just days to figure this out.
