Jonathan Kuminga is now considered a flight risk after the Golden State Warriors and the fourth-year forward failed to agree to a contract extension before the season started.
According to Bleacher Report’s NBA insider Jake Fischer, Kuminga is generating interest from a big market team in the East that will have a massive cap room next summer and all the playing time the Warriors forward desperately craves.
“There have already been rumblings of Brooklyn [Nets] potentially willing to throw a big offer sheet at Jonathan Kuminga,” Fischer reported on October 25 during his weekly Bleacher Report’s “NBA Insider Notebook” live stream.
ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks projects the Nets to have $70 million in cap room, which will be more than enough to slot in Kuminga and another rising star to kickstart their rebuild.
Kuminga’s name has come up in past trade talks between the Warriors and the Nets, according to Fischer. But he quickly added the Nets are not as desperate compared to the New York Knicks‘ relentless pursuit of Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, which led to successive massive trades this offseason.
“I don’t think the Nets are a team that’s like pounding the table trying to get Jonathan Kuminga, but I’m just piecing together all the dots on the board to see where he could get that money from. And clearly, the Nets have that in their history.”
Fischer pointed to the Nets’ offer sheets to Tyler Johnson, Allen Crabbe, Donatas Motiejunas and Otto Porter Jr. during the 2016 NBA free agency, three years before they made a splash on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
A Nets move could also be a homecoming of sorts for the Congo native who played high school basketball in New York and New Jersey.
Warriors’ Wait-And-See Approach
Even after Kuminga took off in the second half of last season following a sit-down talk with coach Steve Kerr, the Warriors, according to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole, were still unwilling to make Kuminga their second-highest-paid player after Stephen Curry.
“No one else on the current roster has a contract that exceeds $30 million in 2025-26, and Kuminga and his representatives, according to sources, sought a deal well beyond that amount. A deal that would have had considerably more impact on the payroll than those lined up for four-time All-Star Draymond Green and 2022 All-Star Andrew Wiggins,” Poole wrote on October 21.
The Warriors are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Kuminga. They wanted to see another leap from the No. 7 pick of the 2021 draft class this season before making a heavy investment.
Restricted free agency, which means the Warriors have the right to match any offer sheet Kuminga receives next summer, afforded them some leverage in Kuminga’s situation.
“Not much has changed in regards to our hopes for his future with this team,” Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said of Kuminga, per ESPN’s Kendra Andrews. “Sometimes these things get done, sometimes they don’t… [We] Hope to get something done in the offseason.”
Jonathan Kuminga ‘Not Concerned’ About Lack of Extension
Kuminga, along with Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey, are the only players in the top seven selections of their draft class who did not get an extension this summer.
Detroit’s Cade Cunningham (No. 1), Cleveland’s Evan Mobley (No. 3) and Toronto’s Scottie Barnes (No. 4) received rookie max extension deals. Houston’s Jalen Green (No. 2) and Orlando’s Jalen Suggs (No. 5) each got a $30 million annual salary in their respective rookie extension contracts.
Kuminga had a lackluster start to a critical season — scoring just 10 points on a 3 of 9 shooting performance in a foul-plagued 20-minute stint — during the Warriors’ 140-104 Warriors’ blowout win over the Portland Trail Blazers on October 23.
He maintained the failed extension talks do not bother him at all.
“I’m not really concerned about it,” he told The Athletic after the win. “I’m just concerned about coming out here and performing every other day. I ain’t really thinking about that. The time came and nothing happened. So I’m not very concerned about it much anymore. I can just be me and not think about it. I’ve been through so much. A lot of people don’t know me, don’t know what I’ve been through. There’s not too many things that can break me.”
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