The Golden State Warriors are the only team in the NBA that hasn’t made a signing this offseason. That’s because they are waiting on a resolution with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga.
As Shams Charania explained Thursday on NBA Today, there isn’t any indication that the stalemate is going to end any time soon, as he spoke with Kuminga at a workout in Miami that morning.
“He did tell me that he is in absolutely no rush to do a deal with the Warriors right now, and he’s not accepting their current offers,” Charania said. “He added that he wants to continue exploring options with his agent Aaron Turner, whether that’s continuing conversations with the Warriors or sign-and-trade options that are available to him.
“I’m told the Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings are two teams that have made concrete offers to the Warriors over the last week or so,” Charania added. “They’re two of the more aggressive teams with Kuminga, and they’re also offering him the opportunity for significant minutes and a starting caliber role in their lineup. Those are two things that he wants more than anything.”
Kuminga is the latest restricted free agent to struggle to find offer sheets from outside teams to help them create some sort of leverage with their current team. The Warriors have no reason to up their offer without the risk of Kuminga signing an offer sheet elsewhere, and there’s no one with the cap space to just make that happen. That means Golden State has to agree to a sign-and-trade, and Charania said, they’re not interested in anything the Kings or Suns are offering right now to make a deal work.
It feels like both the Warriors and Kuminga overplayed their hands and are now waiting for the other to blink. Kuminga thought he could get the kind of contract he seeks from Golden State or someone else. Golden State thought someone would want Kuminga enough to trade them an asset or player they value strongly. As of now, neither is willing to admit they were wrong and put an end to this saga, and the result is the Warriors’ offseason remaining in limbo — with Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton expected to sign whenever a resolution is reached with Kuminga.
The only real pressure point left for Kuminga to press is becoming the first high-caliber restricted free agent to sign the qualifying offer and roll the dice on playing out one more year in Golden State before becoming an unrestricted free agent. That would give him the ability to go anywhere, but there’s plenty of risk involved in that move as well.
For one, not securing your long-term future always brings in the risk of an injury derailing your career and limiting your future earning potential. Beyond that, this is a very different NBA landscape than in the past, and few teams have cap space to offer the kind of money he wants in a new deal, even if he’s unrestricted. That means a sign-and-trade may still be required to get him the terms he’s seeking, and while the Warriors lose a ton of leverage in that situation, it still gives them some control over what happens.
That makes the qualifying offer the last resort, and there’s still at least a month or two left before we’d reach that point. In the meantime, we’ll wait to see if one of the parties involved gives in on their current stance, or if this stalemate will continue until closer to training camp.
