Few things have been more obvious across the NBA over the last year than Jonathan Kuminga having no long-term future with the Warriors.
But where his future will take place is entirely unclear. At some point, seemingly every team in the league has been linked to Kuminga. Trade machine screenshots involving Kuminga are about as common as postgame quotes from Warriors head coach Steve Kerr about why Kuminga has fallen out of the rotation yet again.
It’s one of the more confounding situations in the league
and one that teams have tried to take advantage of, the Lakers included.
In his latest Substack article, NBA reporter Jake Fischer revealed that LA called the Warriors this summer about Kuminga and has continued to monitor the situation in the months since.
One other team to at least mention here: The Lakers.
The purple-and-gold’s known preference at this deadline is to acquire a true 3-and-D wing with size if possible to provide some point-of-attack resistance on the perimeter as well as some shooting, but it must be said the Lakers, according to sources, did call Golden State about Kuminga during the sides summer standoff in restricted free agency I’m told that the Lakers have likewise continued to monitor Kuminga’s situation while casting a wide net try to find help on a very limited wing market.
Purely on paper, there is reason to understand why the team would go after Kuminga. He’s an athletic, 23-year-old wing who has had plenty of great flashes, including in the postseason.
In his career, Kuminga is averaging 12.5 points on 50.2% shooting from the field but 33.1% shooting from three. Over his last three seasons, he’s been a 31.4% 3-point shooter. He has, however, averaged north of 4.6 rebounds per game in each of those seasons.
The argument for Kuminga is that he’s been able to produce at this level despite clearly not being in an ideal situation. He’s been in and out of the rotation, had a coach who sometimes believes in him and sometimes doesn’t and been surrounded by veterans who aren’t above some postgame comments calling him out.
If he landed in a place where he had the support of the franchise and team, would there be an uptick in production?
On the flip side, there’s at least some rationale as to why he keeps losing the faith and trust of Kerr and the team. He’s not innocent in all of this and is prone to some truly confounding moments, like guarding a player out of bounds to help surrender a game-winning layup.
If the Lakers traded for him this year, they would get a chance to see how things went as there is a team option for next season in his contract.
In the grand scheme of things, there are worse buy-low candidates than Kuminga. He fits the idea of surrounding Luka with athletes, a formula that has worked in the past. But there are plenty of question marks as well.
The Lakers would be silly not to check in and monitor the situation. But it doesn’t necessarily mean anything is in the works now either. Answers will be coming in the month, though with the trade deadline rapidly approaching.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
