The Warriors are the only team that hasn’t made a roster move since free agency began, and they’re probably stuck until the Jonathan Kuminga situation is resolved, cap expert Yossi Gozlan explains in his Third Apron column (subscriber link).
Golden State is believed to have deals in place with Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton, but those signings can’t be finalized while Kuminga is still on the market. If the Warriors use their taxpayer midlevel exception, they will become hard capped at the $207.8MM second apron. That creates an opportunity for a team to open up cap space and make an offer to Kuminga at close to $30MM per year, which Golden State wouldn’t be able to match.
Gozlan views a sign-and-trade as the best outcome for both sides, but he adds that if the Warriors wind up re-signing Kuminga, they’ll likely want to keep his salary in the $22MM to $23MM range. That allows them to use the MLE and add three more players on minimum contracts while remaining below the hard cap.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- After a strong Summer League performance, it looks like rookie Nique Clifford will be able to help the Kings right away, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Clifford was a First Team All-Summer League selection, and team officials believe he’s versatile enough to handle either guard spot as well as small forward. Anderson adds that Isaac Jones and Devin Carter also showed that they’re ready for larger roles, while rookie center Maxime Raynaud will enter camp with a chance to become the primary backup center.
- What’s next for Lakers forward LeBron James as he enters his 23rd NBA season? Marc Stein tackles that topic in his latest Substack article, speculating that the 2025/26 season will be James’ last with the Lakers but not his last as an NBA player, though he makes it clear that’s more of a “gut-feel read” than hard reporting. Stein adds that he thinks James has some “genuine curiosity” about the idea of playing in Dallas, even though he and his family are “extremely settled” in Los Angeles.
- Jared Butler‘s new one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Suns is a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 deal, but doesn’t include Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has learned. That suggests Butler likely won’t be playing for Phoenix’s G League team if he doesn’t earn a spot on the regular season roster.
Kuminga isn’t worth this drama. How does this payout in GS? Either you get him for what YOU wanted him at and he’s unhappy about it. Or you over pay and you’re unhappy about it. Horford and Melton are nice pieces to this team. With Kuminga and those two seems more unlikely the further this goes on. And Kuminga bring in no hurry doesn’t help.
I saw the other day GP2 cap hold $17 mil. Is Golden State waiting until that guy has no option anywhere else and then signs for the minimum in Golden State? Couldn’t they do more in renouncing his rights? Not to mention Gary could try looking after himself a little better. Not just me, but others on here have also thought the Warriors have been guilty in the past of playing guys like Moody and Kumingas dollars down. Not the first time, they didn’t want to pay Gary yet, ultimately ended up paying him though. I don’t think the franchise is without blame here. Kuminga will get a decent contract in my opinion.
Cap holds only matter to a team using cap space. The aprons dont care about the cap hold they only care about the players once they are under contract.
Cheers, I did notice this on trade machine just now. Still comes off the cap though or not? Just doesn’t effect the aprons.
Yeah you have to renounce cap holds if your under and want to use more but have FA your not planning to bring him back.
You get him on a 2+1 at like 23/26/30, and he knows he will get a year and a half with the new team that wants him enough to trade for him to prove he is worth the contract he wants when he opts out after making 49M. He knows at that point that he is auditioning from the start of the season till mid dec through the deadline for a team to want him as a main piece. The better he performs the easier to get where he wants to go.
You just cant really do much until dec 15th with BYC making any trade super imbalanced, and limiting GSW to a 12M player coming back, which isnt a salary slot many good rotation players make.
Kuminga has nothing to do with this. Warriors let it get here. They control his rights especially with new CBA. Kerr and Warriors have wavered on Kuminga cause his shooting has been inconsistent. They could have moved him long ago. Thunder moved Giddey cause they didn’t believe. Knicks moved Quickley cause they didn’t believe. Warriors made their own bed.
23m$ on a contender is better than 30 on a pretender
That you Davey….can’t blame the man for setting himself up. Not like the Warriors have helped his career. You’d give up $7 mil per year wouldn’t you?
False. $7m more for the same job, is just $7m more.
What? So $23m is better than $30m per? OK. What’s false here? And do the math over 3 or 4 yrs. You as crazy as Davey, Giants and Aristotle. Finish primary school?
The Warriors have Known for two years they didn’t want Kuminga. All Kerr did was kill his value last year. Instead of moving him. They have dragged this on. Then Jimmy comes and relights the contender fire. So now they need value for Kuminga. A player they have been dogging for last two yrs. DAM
Kuminga saved their Aaa with a solid playoff showing. And some teams had to be impressed. Yet instead of moving him after season or at draft. While the playoffs was still fresh in everyone’s mind. They let this become a Telenovela. And try and make Kuminga look bad …….. another DAM
I have been saying it for two YEARS now.
They blew it with Wiseman and are now blowing it with Kuminga. They let it get here to RFA. Now can’t sign anyone till they settle Kumingas money first ……..
So now he is suppose to help you. How ??
Taking less money only means less value coming back in a trade ….. so again another DAM
Jared Butler played well last yr. Suns should give him a good look. I think they got him cheap.