Jonathan Kuminga rejects Warriors offer
The Golden State Warriors continue to try to retain Jonathan Kuminga, but the restricted contract basketball player continues to reject the two-year, $45 million offer they have presented to him. Kuminga’s decision is largely due to the Warriors’ insistence on including a team option for the second season and their refusal to allow him to keep the no-trade clause incorporated. His agent, Aaron Turner, presented the Warriors with several deals during a couple of summer league meetings in Las Vegas, including a three-year contract worth about $82 million that allowed the Warriors to stay below the second salary cap to use the taxpayer mid-level exception. Kuminga and Turner have used July to explore signing and trade options. The most important negotiations have been with the Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns, obtaining offers of up to four years for around 90 million dollars in total, including a player option for the last season. The Warriors have not shown interest in trade offers from the Kings and Suns for Kuminga. In recent days, they have begun to signal a plan to completely cut off sign-and-trade talks, using their influence as restricted free agents to the fullest. Their current stance is that Kuminga will be on the Warriors’ roster to start next season, whether through their two-year offer or the one-year, $7.9 million qualifying offer, whichever path Kuminga prefers. Kuminga prefers the long-term offers presented by the Kings and Suns because he believes they signify a fresh start, a guaranteed more important role, a promised starting position, and a greater level of respect and control over his career, which is partly demonstrated through the player option. Kuminga stated that he is not in a hurry to close a deal with the Warriors.This ongoing stalemate is largely due to control, and the dispute over the option is the crux of the matter. Kuminga believes that accepting the Warriors’ two-year offer with a team option, along with waiving the right to veto a trade, cedes too much control to a franchise that, in his opinion, has stagnated and prolonged his career for four seasons.
The Suns and Kings have proposed to Kuminga the defined role that has eluded him with the Warriors. Golden State coach Steve Kerr made several comments after the Jimmy Butler trade, that Kuminga’s fit alongside Stephen Curry and Draymond Green made it difficult for him to play many minutes consistently. Kuminga is more drawn to external options, while he sees Kerr as someone who has made it clear that there is no defined opportunity for him to play many minutes each night with the Warriors. The Warriors believe they have the best offer on the table for Kuminga due to the higher starting salary ($21.7 million next season compared to $19.8 million elsewhere) and the concept of the two-year team option. The deal is purposely structured to be tradeable starting January 15th, and if Kuminga’s ultimate desire is to play elsewhere, it would allow his next team to decline the team option and extend him. He would be the fourth-highest-paid player on the Warriors next season if he accepted the offer. Golden State is the only NBA team that hasn’t made any offseason acquisitions due to the lack of resolution with Kuminga. According to the collective bargaining agreement, the proposed one-year plus-one contract from the Warriors would have an inherent no-trade clause, as Kuminga’s next team would not retain his Bird rights. That would give Kuminga a level of control over his next destination in the NBA, should the Warriors decide to trade him. But the Warriors have requested that he waive that implicit no-trade clause. That negotiation is another example of the ongoing fight for control of Kuminga’s future. That’s why, despite the short and long-term financial risk, Kuminga is expressing his willingness to potentially accept the qualifying offer. He would be rejecting almost 14 million extra dollars next season, but he would be given an implicit no-trade clause and the possibility of becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer at 23 years old. Kuminga has until October 1st to sign the qualifying offer.
