The Suns have expressed “exploratory interest” in a sign-and-trade acquisition of Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
After buying out Bradley Beal and using the stretch provision to gain some cap flexibility, the Suns contacted both Kuminga’s representation and the Warriors regarding a potential transaction. However, the Suns — who dropped under both tax aprons via Beal’s buyout — still face major obstacles in pulling off a deal for Kuminga.
Golden State wants some level of first-round draft compensation in any Kuminga trade and the Suns are lacking in draft capital, Fischer writes. The current Suns roster also doesn’t appear to feature the type of player that would interest the Warriors front office.
Phoenix’s interest in Kuminga stems back to the February trade deadline when the Warriors sought a potential trade for Kevin Durant.
It’s not out of the question that Kuminga could remain with Golden State, but one side or the other would have to blink. Agent Aaron Turner has held numerous discussions with Warriors officials in Las Vegas this month trying to secure a contract that pays at least $25MM in average annual salary, even in the short term, according to Fischer. The Warriors have been reluctant to meet that price in a long-term agreement.
In terms of other possible destinations for Kuminga, the Kings have seemingly shown the most interest but Kuminga’s camp has also held out hope for a potential sign-and-trade with the Bulls. That scenario has yet to materialize, as Chicago has its own concerns about trying to re-sign restricted free agent and starting point guard Josh Giddey.
The Suns would very much like to trade your valuable player for their magic beans…
They have some first round picks to trade but Grayson Allen would be a great add for Warriors if they got him and a couple of firsts for Kuminga. They just gonna end up overpaying Kuminga and not paying him. They really messed up the way the Bulls did by not trading Patrick Williams for Jerami Grant when Lonzo got hurt. Would have helped the team immediately and PWill is a certified bust. Kuminga isn’t a bust but the Warriors treat him that way lol
They have some guaranteed bad 1sts. All the picks they have left are the worst of like 3 picks where they have swapped down or traded every one they have. They may have just gotten one fresh pick that they cant trade, but could swap in 32′.
F*** Grayson Allen that dude has done some Dillon the villain level cheap shots that have injured guys. I dont want your dirty player that hits airborne guys thanks.
Nobody wants Grant. You could get him right now for Williams since his contract is just as bad but at least he is younger with some upside left. Grant is going to do nothing but get worse from here.
There’s hardly a better place for Grayson Allen than alongside Draymond Green, he could mentor him on how to conduct himself on the court.
Every single time Green hard fouls a guy in the last 7 years he grabs dude and holds him up. Even the nut shots arent going to put a guy on the IL, and that was almost 10 years ago now. He doesnt ever play like he wants to intentionally hurt someone. Allen and Brooks constantly are blind side hitting vulnerable players in the air.
There is a very big difference between pushing physicality as much as the refs will allow, and breaking some dudes arm so he misses 2 months. Brooks has caused multiple players to miss time with his cheap fouls, and literally spent the entire playoff series trying to intentionally hurt Stephs hand with non basketball contact. There is really no comparison with that BS.
That’s funny I don’t remember him holding Nurkic up when he spinning back fisted him in the face, or when he stomped on Sabonis’s chest. Although I have to give him credit he did hold Gobert up while he was choking him credit to Draymond there for not letting him fall while choking him.
Grayson Allen leaves them about $10 mil short in salary matching. So they would have to include both Grayson and O’Neale in the trade. Those guys are good rotation pieces to get back, but they have nowhere near the all-around game and potential that Kuminga has.
Highly unlikely but possible
Third team offer a promising young and a First and take the Suns package
Suns could include Green or Brooks
Same as Kings
Third team takes Carter and Saric and offer Young and First
What would you guys think about sign and trade Josh Giddey if that’s even possible? It would be double sign then trade lol
I think Giddy is a very good player but does he fill a position of need for the Warriors? Plus I think he wants $30 million…
Just thinking out loud and wondering what fellow basketball fans thought?
Cue Luke Adams in about 10 minutes saying, Gary you’re crazy that’s not even allowed lol
I’m a Bulls fan and the team is foolish to not have him signed already. They have 14 players under contract and are $38M below the tax line. They could start his contract at $35M and have it descend and maybe have a team option on the end of it so it remains a tradeable contract if he doesn’t get better or remains the same. Front office and coach have had 2 contract extensions and are projected to be one of the worst times while coaches who have won championships have been fired twice from jobs during the same timeframe they have been empowered. Very disheartening being a Bulls fan this decade.
Kuminga would have been nice but team drafted Esengue who plays his position and have Matas who also plays that position. Don’t need a Kuminga now. Need a center and Sorber was right there for the taking. Just like Haliburton was there when Patrick Williams was drafted in 2020 when a PG was the biggest need. :(
@ MikeMB…tells me bulls are upto something else. Are Chicago interested in Simons for Vuch. Bulls do need a big but this is Jerry we’re talking about here. Trade for Anfernee Simons, resign he and Giddey. Sounds so Bulls.
I don’t think you can actually do it bc of the base salary rule… like you give Giddey 30M but can only take back 15M as the bulls… it makes literally no sense and is probably a rule to prevent a S&T for a superstar.
Yep there it is. Scratch that someone delete my comment will ya. Makes no sense. Can’t sign a guy for 30 and bring in 15 even though the rule applies to both guys. Both guys sign for 30 but the only count is 15. But coming in the count is 30. Thanks, philly.
It counts as 1/2 for both sides lols…
S&T hard caps you at the first apron. Giddy wants 30M. GSW would be HC with 10 players and no money left if they give him less than he wants. GSW are 25M ish below the 1st apron, and have already committed to giving Horford the 5.7M TPMLE Im pretty sure. It works for GSW to send out Kuminga in a ST but only if they take back a guy already under contract.
Also with both players you have BYC, so for both teams the outgoing counts as 1/2 the incoming. Both teams would have to reroute half the value of the eventual contract to 3rd teams without taking anything back.
Glad you’re here chap. When Luke’s not around, you always come through with explaining the cap stuff very well.
Thanks because I don’t get that stuff at all. And even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to write it out with any logic. Thanks bro.
For sure. It only keeps getting more complicated too now that you have to keep track of all the things that can HC a team, and which apron they stick you at.
I have thought about doing sports business classroom with Nekias since I think it would be fun to be a cap guy for a team sorting out how to make supposedly impossible trades work.
Horford is looking elsewhere now. There’s no guarantee he signs with the Warriors.
Thats not what all the reporting has said. There have been reports of other teams showing interest that always mention that its widely believed that he has a done deal with GSW. If another contender wanted to give him 3x the money it might convince him, but most contenders dont even have the TPMLE left.
@ Kmid….unlikely but my God Horford on the Nuggets for one last crack would be real good. I’d take Denver over OKC.
Either Royce or Allen would be the piece going out… maybe a 3rd team?
Gotta remember base salary rule right? He gets 25M, only send out half that.
The only way it works if a 3rd team is involved that wants a Allen or Royce.
Never know, Royce is only 10 and 11M not bad… Allen making 18 and 19 is a lot for a short sharp shooter with below average defense. Like a short Robinson.
Warriors can only bring back $12 million so Allen is out. Royce doesn’t fit teh warriors with another small player. So you do need a third team that will send the warriors back something they like.
Allen is better than Duncan Robinson, he just doesn’t get the same hype because he’s been traded around versus playing on the Heat
PHX would have to match the full 25M or whatever they are giving him on the contract so its both outgoing to get 25M, with at least one getting rerouted to a 3rd team with space or an exception.
Warriors keep trying to get a good player back but the most obvious trades are bad money/good cultural fit in Golden State + picks in exchange for Kuminga.
Carter, Saric and a good 2nd from Sac
or
Anderson, Love, and either two 2nds or a lotto-protected first from Utah
If one of these trades allow the Warriors to finalize Horford and Melton, I’d say do it now.
They’d be very old but they’d have 13-14 players who all know their role and know how to play.
None of those packages have anything of value. If your not getting value just sign him to a 2+1 and trade him later.
Melton and Horford have already waited this long, so Im pretty sure those are done done. Of course if you wait long enough they may eventually walk, but I think they know that GSW isnt controlling the timing of this. If they were going to lose them they would have already before most of the league already used up their flexibility.
If the Kings added a 1st rounder instead of a 2nd rounder it could go through. Saric and Carter are bench players that do not make it a good deal but a bad deal.
Saric is a healthy scratch on a last place team. That dude is done. He became un playable in GSW after about mid season, and lasted like 6 weeks with DEN before he was perma benched in which time the team was losing his min by staggering margins.
I would rather pay Richards the super small 2nd round contract for the next 4 years than get Carter for 3 on a mid 1st deal. I dont think he is better enough than Richards to warrant the extra money.
Not sure why that Kings trade proposal keeps being brought up when its a horrible trade for teh warriors. i rather let him walk and save the money than take on 2 contracts not worth much. keegan Muarry straight across is a better deal for both teams.
I would do it for Keegan in a heart beat. Might even give some additional assets in that deal. I think Keegans shooting comes all the way back playing off Steph, and he is a very good perimeter defender with the length to switch on bigger players.
Yeah I would rather have the full MLE and BAE available after letting him walk than Carter and a 2nd.
carter can’t hit 3s is his problem. He had 1 good year in college but nothing else. Yesterday he was 1 for 6 from 3s. That is why Kings is trying to trade him. It would be better signing GP2 for 1 year than Carter.
Ive really liked Richards in summer league to fit the GPII role, hopefully without as much time missed.
Richards has a nice shot. Could see him coming off the bench on teh second team.
I’ve always loved the Kuminga/JGreen duo but RN we got a thrilling quarterfinal game bw France & the host Greek team at the FIBA U20 Eurobasket tournament. Plenty of 2026 NBA draft potential on both sides. 7’1 Dayton Flyers big Amaël L’atang just put France up 3 w/ 7:30 left in the game… link to m.youtube.com
Grand Canyon University pg Evan Boisdur just missed a crucial layup for France then compounded it with a bad foul. Tough game so far for the leader of this French team
Neoklis Avdalas is definitely one of the best players in this tournament. He’ll be one of the best freshmen in the ACC next season at VaTech. His 3 straight buckets have Greece back tied w 3mins left. Mickael Pietrus’ nephew has scored on the last 2 possessions for France
Greece is 12-24 at the ft line after Avdalas appropriately splits his pair. They hold a 1pt lead w 100 secs left
Avdalas’ 10th assist on a beautiful p&r retakes the lead for the home team w 40secs left…
Fresno St big Wilson Jacques split his fts & tied the game but Avdalas just gave France a gift turnover that they turned into the go ahead layup. Avdalas then bricked a good look for trey & France escapes with a big W & heads to the semis
Warriors refuse to play Kuminga and refuse to pay Kuminga. But they swear he’s worth some of your best assets!
They played him till he got hurt. He was shooting .44/.17/.74 when he returned from injury, and was super ineffective while the team had zero margin for error with the standings. It makes sense why he stopped playing as much in what were all elimination games. They would pay him, but either him or his rep is asking for way more than GSW or the rest of the league think he is worth. His fit is bad but his talent is real. He just dropped 24PPG in a second round playoff series, so no your not going to give him away for nothing.
The combo of no teams with any space, and BYC make trading him super complicated, which is why the most likely thing is he takes a reasonable deal thats shorter and they bring him back till at least dec.
> They played him till he got hurt. He was shooting
> .44/.17/.74 when he returned from injury, and was
> super ineffective
Somewhat deceiving as they changed the way they used Kuminga completely when he returned. They ran no actions for him, and asked him to go to the corner, instead of the wing.
I mean his jump shot from 3pt and mid range was just broken when he returned. He was rusty and is a super rhythm based shooter. He usually starts most seasons slowly and then finds his 3pt shot and both ups the volume and make rate.
While ignoring the 2 games in Jan his 3pt shooting went:
.17
.32
.35
hurt
.15
.18
He then knocked the rust off and when he returned to playing in the playoffs he made .40%
The whole Warriros/Kuminga saga has been a fiasco from the start. Drafting a guy who everyone knew was very raw and not ready to play significant minutes on a team that supposedly had immediate championship aspirations was the first mistake. Everything the Warriors have done with him since has been detrimental to him as a player and his value as a trade-able asset (to their detriment). This like the Wiseman blunder has Joey Light-years’ fingerprints all over it.
A lot is on him. The coaching staff has told him what they want. If he does the defensive things he is told he will play 25+ MPG no matter how he is shooting.
He wants to be a star and is super focused on working on his iso mid bag instead of the stuff that will earn him playing time and trust.
Hes 22, but if he would get out of his own way he would already be a crucial part of this team.
Also he has had a couple unfortunate injuries in the last 3 seasons that came right when he was playing his best basketball and earning his starting min.
Has any team even offer a real asset for Kuminga? So far only back up players been offered for him in rumors. Not even a 1st round pick. Warriors are holding out for useable players and a draft pick and nobody offered anything so far.
They either need a real pick package, or a rotation player that fits the needs. Otherwise its just better to keep him 4 months since they need matching for a real trade later anyways. Like if Im not getting something to put in a package for a star then I would rather have Kuminga as part of my matching and a young talent in the package.
same here why trade for nothing?
They offered Kuminga $30 million at the beginning of the season. He also played 24 minutes a game. So, they were willing to pay and play him.
The Suns have no one that would help GSW
What players do they have that make money work? Allen makes 16.8m, so it won’t work because Kuminga would have to be paid 34 in the first year for that to happen.
It would have to be someone among Royce O’Neale (10m), Nick Richards (5m), or someone they drafted this or last year – Dunn (2.5m), Ihodaro (2m), Fleming (2m). I’d imagine Phoenix would like to keep those young first and second-year guys, and they’re all forwards, Phoenix needs those. And considering William’s availability issues, they probably want to keep all 3 of Maluach, Richards and Williams on the roster.
So it would have to be O’Neale plus picks? Would GS want that? Yet another undersized player in his 30s. Or O’Neale + Dunn + some picks.
Royce O’Neale & a 2nd sounds about right. Don’t really matter what GState wants. Their leverage has been steadily decreasing since they drafted him & now if they want any value at all for him they gotta take what they can get.
Your joking right? A ton of rebuilding teams would love to take a flier on the talent Kuminga has already shown. The only way his value gets tanked is if you sign him to the stupid max he wants.
Kuminga has no leverage because the QO isnt really an option. If you sign him to a good contract where teams like the price he gains value.
All of this is also ignoring the fact that the main thing holding this up is that he is an RFA with BYC to worry about, so any trade is super complicated, right now. Its mostly because there are very few players making 12M or less who are available that GSW would want in their rotation. Its mostly guys on rookie deals that make the range of money his matching would be, and if they are good they arent available.
Wembys money works, right? Oh right.
Also none of those players that are younger can shoot. If your trying to fit a forward with mediocre 3pt shooting into your rotation Kuminga is just better than the guys in PHX.
ONeal +Ighodaro + the 27 first essentially worst of Cavs or Minny feels right on par in my eyes for value
But that puts JK at 25 mill and past apron 1 for Phx so undoable- They (Phx) would need to further clear like 4~5 mill for proper clearance (In a separate trade)
*Phx could clear that with a Green for Rj Barrett trade thats been rumored (Tor would have to send Agbaji to a 3rd team to be valid )
Lotta moving parts but Id be open to ALL of it if Phx
At this point, Kuminga is probably better off signing his qualifying offer of 7.98M for this year, so he become an unrestricted free agent next year. Then he will have freedom to go wherever he wants.
You tear an ACL on that and you get nothing next year compared to what you would make on a 2+1. The risk of the QO is just to high. He is a above the rim player that does almost everything in the lane. Missed 3 months with an ankle turn on a dunk attempt this season. The risk is why almost no one has taken the QO in years.
i read one report saying they are offering a 1 year deal with a player’s option for next year.
Im guessing it ends up being around 3/75M with a 2=1 structure that may be a little back loaded. He wants more, but nobody’s going to give it to him.
Could be a 2 year deal with a opt out on third if he thinks he can get more than $25 a year.
To be fair, if Kuminga takes a qualifying offer, it won’t be any different from what Coby White is doing. 25-26 will be Coby’s contract year; an injury or just a bad year performance-wise will hurt him seriously. I think Austin Reaves is in the same situation. So were many others in the past.
So while saying that it’s super risky for Kuminga and Giddey to take a QO is not false, one could put an asterisk pointing to many others who were in that situation, and they were not criticized or seen as “dumb” for going down that road.
@ Chapman….could just pull the modern classic and be hurt majority of the season then walk for nothing.
I’ll preface by saying I don’t fully understand the caps, aprons, etc. But, from what I can tell, Phoenix could offer Kuminga right around $20M/yr on a contract, and stay just under the second apron. The Warriors would have to at least match that to keep him. It doesn’t seem like they want to spend that much on him. Why wouldn’t Phoenix just make the offer? Best case, they get him, without surrendering any assets. Worst case, Golden State is forced to pay more than they want to. Either way, it forces the Warriors hand, and lets the Suns either get their guy, or move on. Sign and trade seems like they have to pay the money AND lose assets. Where do I have this wrong?
RFA offers have to be done with cap space not apron space, so they would have to shed like 88M in salary to get below the cap enough to make him an offer. They are currently 58M above the salary cap according to Spotrac.
Sign and trades cap you at the first apron so they would need to shed quite a bit of salary to make him anywhere close to the 25M he wants. They are 8M below the 1st apron HC right now with 12 players. So you need enough money below the 1st apron to give Kuminga the deal he wants, and you need at least 2 more players to hit the roster min which will cost 4.4M for 2 vet mins. They need to drop 22M below where they are now, and GSW can only take 12M incoming so PHX needs a 3rd team to absorb at least 10M in contracts. PHX would then be HC for the rest of the year with no money left.
Thanks for the information. I knew there had to be something I was missing. It’s all so damn complicated.
Yeah BRK are the only ones who have space to make an offer now. Although UTH and DET can create space if they want to as well. Its why Horford cant be signed yet, because if you sign him and create a hard cap one of those teams just offers 1$ over your HC and your not allowed to match anymore.
Everybody gave Myers a hard time but the warriors are worse now.
I mean I like most of the trades Dunleavy has made. Podz and TJD have both been 2 of the top 5 most valuable players in their draft despite going 19/57. Post was a 1st year rotation piece as well being drafted in the 50s.
Myers also had a younger version of Steph/Dray/Klay, and a CBA that allowed tax teams to sign players to TPMLE and aggregate salaries and stuff.
This is what happens when you dont trade your franchise player who makes the highest salary in the NBA for assets, and instead ride off into the sunset with the best player in franchise history never playing for another team…
Whenever I read these comments about the Kuminga situation, I wonder what team are people watching.
The Warriors were 17th in ppg last season. They were 16th in 3pt percentage despite having one of best 3pt shooters in NBA history.
The Warriors were 28-7 after they traded for Butler, while he was injured. Teams no longer double teamed Curry.
So, why would Kuminga automatically get major minutes when the team is playing its best ball. Kuminga needs to fit into that to make it work.
For me is the fact that he is inconsistent. Some games he looks like a star and other games you barely even notice he is playing. I am hoping he can just play consistent all the time.
From one dumpster fire to the next one.