It's September 7 and three of the summer's top restricted free agents remain unsigned. By all accounts, there has been no real movement in weeks for Bulls guard Josh Giddey, Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, and Sixers wing Quentin Grimes, but we're still expecting resolution at some point this month, prior to the October 1 deadline for restricted free agents to accept their qualifying offers.
As those standoffs drag on, we're taking a closer look today at what "compromise" contracts might look like for Giddey, Kuminga, and Grimes.
These aren't necessarily the contracts we expect them to eventually sign. There's no guarantee that one side or the other will budge from its current position -- either the team or the player may have to cave sooner or later, rather than the two sides meeting somewhere in the middle. In the case of Nets guard Cam Thomas, for instance, signing his $6MM qualifying offer wasn't a "compromise," but it was how his free agency ultimately concluded.
In our view, the proposals below represent fair resolutions for both the player and team, leaving both sides feeling like they came out of the negotiations with a reasonable outcome.
Let's dive in...
Grimes one and kuminga one make sense
Bulls are already overpaying for giddy
Those other guys werent playing 10mpg in playoff games
He’s a role player worth closer to the mle than this offer
Bulls original offer was smart. Even moving up on that is typical bulls
@bjboss
I disagree on 23 yo Giddey. It takes time to adjust to a new team.
Giddey played REALLY well for the Bulls starting in January, putting up 16.2 ppg on 47.5%/42.6%/80.5% splits with 8.9 rpg and 7.3 apg as the 3rd scoring option behind White and Vuc. Grimes and Kuminga were nowhere close to that level.
He deserves to be paid based on that, not on what happened to him with the Thunder.
Disagree
You’re trying to win titles
Paying role players like a star is how you get stuck
1. There’s really no evidence that the Bulls are trying to win a title
2. Top tier superstars/allstars ge $50 mil+ (there’s 14 of them this season). Stars, long term vets (like McCollum), and the overpaid (see Quickley, Jerami Grant, Jordan Poole) in the NBA get paid $30-50 mil/yr (another 44 players).
There are a lot of guys making between $20-30 mil who aren’t stars, they’re role players. So the Bulls paying him above $20 mil is market.
link to hoopshype.com
How man role players playing 10mpg on good teams get that much money?
OKC was stacked with good players, so due mainly to his mediocre to poor defense the coach reduced his minutes, but he still avgd 25 min in the reg and 18 in the playoffs (starting 8 of their 10 playoff games).
I linked the salary list, see for yourself.
How many of your listing signed pre aprons meaning the comp is meaningless?
@bjbossman
Giddey started, played major minutes, and played well in OKC’s first 2024 playoff series vs. NOLA. He stopped making his threes in the Dallas series, and since SGA was the primary ball-handler, Giddey didn’t have a ton of value when he wasn’t making shots, which is why his playing time got reduced.
With the Bulls, he’s the primary point guard and (so far at least) he has been a more effective shooter than he was at OKC. He’d definitely be playing more than 10 MPG if Chicago were to make the playoffs!
Also, as @NBA is OK noted, $25-27MM per year isn’t really star-level money. Even this season, $25MM is only about 16% of the cap. That percentage would be even lower in the later seasons.
Making those were pretty apron deals, making them meaningless
Bulls should stand their ground. That’s what he’s really worth
Other teams doing bad deals is not their problem
Amazing reply to 1 btw
I legit LOL’d because of how true it is
Luke, I think you would make a great player agent. :)
I can’t see the teams compromising this far.
If Grimes takes his QO, the Sixers save a ton of money in a non-contention year by avoiding the tax entirely. I don’t think they have much incentive to budge off their position.
The role players you cited as comps are two way guys, and we’ve recently seen the market crater for scoring guards who aren’t elite at creating for others and can’t play D.
With Kuminga, I think the compromise is guaranteeing the second year of the deal. Still allows the Warriors to trade him next summer. I don’t think Kuminga has the leverage to get the second year player option, especially from Golden State, who is generally anti-POs unless it’s on a discounted contract (not even Steph gets one).
Based on the article the QO puts them into the tax
Around the mle seems like an easy compromise for everyone
You view Grimes as a guy who can’t play D? We disagree on that point. I don’t think he’s as good as NAW or Nembhard on that end, but he’s solid, though I don’t think he really showed it for a Sixers team in tank mode while doing so much on offense.
Also, if Grimes signs his QO, it would put the Sixers over the tax line by nearly $7MM. I’m not sure how hard Philadelphia will try to avoid the tax this year — they haven’t actually paid it since 2022, so there’s no repeater concern for a while, and the penalties in the first couple brackets are lower now than they have been in the past.
Good point on Kuminga. That would accomplish the same things I mentioned in the article for both sides (Kuminga gets more of a guarantee; the Warriors get the favorable cap hit and the ability to trade him) while giving the team the added bonus of having next offseason to trade him.
Great points.
I could see some value from the Sixers’ perspective in their being able to get out of the tax entirely with a small trade – sending out Kelly Oubre and getting no salary in return, for example – and that’s achievable if Grimes takes the QO.
But the long-term figure you suggested makes sense. Cap will continue rising and he’ll be moveable at that number throughout the life of
the deal, especially now that teams can use their MLE to acquire players via trade.