It’s been three weeks and 10 games since Jonathan Kuminga took the floor for the Golden State Warriors. But with the fifth-year forward eligible to be traded in one week on January 15, one of Kuminga’s
suitors from his summer of restricted free agency remains interested in acquiring the out-of-favor former lottery pick.
Anthony Slater reported Wednesday that Kings general manager Scott Perry reached out to his Warriors counterpart, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., as recently as last week about trading for Kuminga. Perry wants to add “positional size and defensive versatility,” both which are an open question when it comes to Kuminga, but compared to Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, Kuminga is basically Amen Thompson.
The interest is reportedly mutual, assuming nothing has changed since Marc J. Spears reported that Kuminga wanted to go to Sacramento back in July. The problem remains finding a group of players that the Warriors actually want to make the salaries match. The teams could make a trade where Malik Monk headed to the Kings in exchange for Kuminga, with Sacramento throwing in Keon Ellis as a sweetener, but the Warriors seem intent on not taking on bad long-term money, which is what they reportedly consider Monk’s two years and $41.8M salary from 2026-28 to be. The Warriors could soften that blow by including Buddy Hield and his $19.8M from 2026-28, while taking on second-year guard Devin Carter.
The biggest problem remains the Warriors’ lack of interest in the majority of the Kings’ roster, no offense to our old friend Dario Saric and his expiring $5.4M deal (he’s played only 41 minutes in five games this season). The Kings might be the worst team in the NBA and they’re easily the worst team that was actually trying to win games this year. Still, Perry appears to believe his bargaining position has improved since the summer, as he claims the conditional 2030 pick he was offering may no longer be on the table.
Could Kuminga still land in Sacramento? Yes, but it would almost certainly require at least one more team, maybe one who values expiring deals, or Ellis, or is being blackmailed by Kings owner Vivek Ranadive. The owner may be the key factor.
Ranadive lobbied hard for former general manager Monte McNair to trade for DeRozan, and reportedly had McNair up the offer so that the trade would go through in time for Ranadive to introduce DeRozan during a Summer League game. That might be why San Antonio still holds swap rights for the Kings’ first-rounder in 2031, even after they acquired De’Aaron Fox for another Ranadive favorite, Zach LaVine.
It’s not the only player or coach associated with the Warriors, where Ranadive was once an minority owner, that the Kings have gone after. Former Warriors coaches Luke Walton, Alvin Gentry, Mike Malone, George Karl, and Mike Brown are five of the eight head coaches Ranadive has hired (and fired) since taking control of the Kings in 2013, while he fired former Warriors head coach Keith Smart. The Kings have also traded for Harrison Barnes, hired Leandro Barbosa as an assistant, signed Seth Curry, traded for Dario Saric, and acquired former Warriors Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, JaVale McGee, Justin Holiday, Kent Bazemore, Anthony Tolliver, Dennis Schroder, and Glenn Robinson III in the Ranadive Era. Of course he wants Kuminga!
Do the Warriors want to avoid trading Kuminga to their rival up Highway 80? At this point, it’s hard to imagine they care that much about the miserable Kings, but teams can also be unpredictable when they’re light years’ ahead. The most important part of this news is that there is still a market for Kuminga, even if it consists of a single team.
