Kerr, Spoelstra, Lue Top List Of NBA’s Highest-Paid Coaches
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is the NBA’s highest-paid head coach, with an average annual value of $17.5MM on his current contract, according to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. Erik Spoelstra of the Heat and Tyronn Lue of the Clippers round out the top three at $15MM per year, Badenhausen adds.
While Kerr is the highest earner among head coaches in the short term, his deal with Golden State expires at the end of the 2025/26 season, whereas Spoelstra (eight years) and Lue (five years) signed longer-term extensions in 2024, so they’re assured of far more overall guaranteed money.
After that top three, there are several coaches in the range of $11MM annually, per Badenhausen: Doc Rivers of the Bucks, Ime Udoka of the Rockets, Joe Mazzulla of the Celtics, and Rick Carlisle of the Pacers.
The Knicks‘ Mike Brown is the only other coach with an average annual value of at least $10MM, with Mavericks coach Jason Kidd coming in at $9.5MM per year and Lakers coach JJ Redick at $9MM annually.
Interestingly, while Spoelstra, Kerr, and Lue are three of the NBA’s four longest-tenured head coaches, the other member of that group – Billy Donovan of the Bulls, the league’s third longest-tenured coach – doesn’t crack the list of top 10 salaries shared by Badenhausen.
Details on the other 20 NBA head coaches’ contracts aren’t included in Badenhausen’s report, but he notes that the lower end of coaching salaries is approximately $4MM per year. Presumably, that figure applies only to coaches who have the title permanently, rather than assistants who have received in-season promotions and are serving as interim replacements, such as James Borrego in New Orleans or Tiago Splitter in Portland.
For what it’s worth, the NBA’s estimated average salary for players in 2025/26 is $13.87MM, so just three of 30 head coaches are earning more than an average player in the league.
Jonathan Kuminga Trade Speculation Grows After Sunday’s DNP
Jonathan Kuminga has dropped out of the Warriors‘ rotation again, and sources tell Anthony Slater of ESPN that the team plans to explore trade offers in the upcoming weeks.
Kuminga didn’t get off the bench in Sunday night’s win at Chicago, even though Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Al Horford were all unavailable. That came one night after Kuminga shot 1-of-10 in 22 minutes at Cleveland, with coach Steve Kerr choosing to play Gui Santos ahead of him in the fourth quarter of a tight game. Green was seen talking to Kuminga late in that contest in an effort to calm him down, Slater adds.
“Happens to everybody pretty much, other than the stars,” Kerr responded when asked about not playing Kuminga. “Guys come in and out of the rotation, depending on who’s available, how the team is playing.”
Kuminga’s five seasons with Golden State have featured an ongoing drama about his playing time and his fit with the team. He’s coming off a summer-long contract battle as a restricted free agent where he didn’t receive an offer sheet from a rival team and the Warriors quickly abandoned any intentions for a sign-and-trade deal.
The standoff extended into the start of training camp before Kuminga accepted a two-year, $46.8MM contract with a team option for the second season. Kuminga and his agent spoke out against the team option during negotiations, but sources tell Slater that Kuminga felt forced into accepting the offer. They also say the months of talks “generated bitter feelings on both sides.”
Kuminga appeared to have moved past the contract distractions as he opened the season as the team’s starting power forward and helped the Warriors win four of their first five games. Kerr declared him to be an entrenched starter, but things changed quickly. The team stopped winning, and Kuminga was removed from the starting lineup after 13 games. Knee tendinitis forced him to miss the next seven games, and he hasn’t shot well since returning, going just 12-of-40 from the field.
Kuminga said he talked to Kerr before Sunday’s game and was told the team is moving in a different direction.
“I’m not really sure (how long it lasts),” Kuminga said. “But as long as things are working out there and we winning, I don’t see the point of switching anything, changing. Whenever my number get called, I’ll be ready.”
Because of the circumstances of his contract, Kuminga is among a small group of players who aren’t eligible to be traded until January 15. Kuminga fits into that group because he re-signed with his previous team, he got a raise exceeding 20%, his salary is worth more than the minimum, and his team was over the cap, using Bird or Early Bird rights to sign him.
League sources tell Slater that the probability of Kuminga being moved before the February 5 trade deadline is strong. The Suns and Kings expressed interest in sign-and-trade deals over the summer, but both teams’ circumstances have changed since then.
Slater notes that Kuminga’s situation is unlikely to improve before the deadline. After picking up a pair of much-needed road wins over the weekend, Golden State will have four days off before hosting Minnesota on Friday. That will give Curry and Green time to recover from their injuries, leaving fewer opportunities for Kuminga.
“I don’t have any problems,” Kuminga said. “I’m going to work out every day, stay ready, because you never know how these things works. I believe in my game and feel good about my game. I just got to be a professional. Things happen. It’s happened before.”
And-Ones: NBA Schedule, Breakout Players, Cap Room, More
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has advocated in the past for shorter regular seasons, is beating that drum again this fall with soft tissue injuries on the rise around the NBA, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN. Kerr said he’s “very concerned” about the increase in injuries, pointing to an increased pace of play and a relentless schedule as two factors he believes are contributing to the trend.
“The pace difference is dramatic,” Kerr said after Tuesday’s game vs. Orlando. “This team tonight has really upped their pace compared to last year. I think across the league everybody understands now it’s just easier to score now if you can beat (the other team) down the floor, get out in transition. But when everybody’s doing that, the game’s are much faster paced, and everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everyone can shoot threes.
“… We have all the data,” Kerr continued. “Players are running faster and further than ever before, so we’re trying to do the best we can to protect them, but basically have a game every other night and it’s not an easy thing to do … (The medical staff) believe that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage, it’s all factoring into these injuries.”
Kerr said the NBA has done a commendable job of trying to reduce back-to-backs and instances of four games in five days, but points out that it has resulted in teams rarely getting more than one day off between games, which results in little recovery time and almost no opportunities for practices.
“We literally have not had a single practice on this road trip. Not one,” Kerr said after the fifth game of a six-game trip. “We’ve gone a week, or longer, eight days, not one practice. It’s just game, game, game. So not only is there no recovery time, there’s no practice time. What was different back in the day — you did have four in five nights, which was not great, but then you’d have four days before your next game. So you’d take a day off, and you’d actually have a couple good practices and scrimmage. So there’s no easy answer here.”
Kerr isn’t alone in believing that playing fewer regular season games would benefit the players — Knicks forward Josh Hart agreed with that sentiment on Thursday, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post relays. However, both Kerr and Hart acknowledged that it would be very difficult to actually implement that change due to the loss of revenue that would occur..
“Do I think there’s too many games? Yeah,” Hart said. “Conversely, will (team owners) and the league and players take a pay cut to not do that? I don’t know. It’s easy to sit there and say that we play too many games — which we do — but conversely, we’re also blessed to be able to benefit greatly from it.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- In a pair of stories for The Athletic, Fred Katz takes a look at some of the NBA’s most improved players so far this season, while John Hollinger zeros in on several of the league’s breakout players. Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pistons center Jalen Duren show up on both lists, with Hollinger suggesting Duren appears to be on track for max or near-max money when he reaches restricted free agency next summer.
- Previewing the salary cap landscape for the 2026 offseason, Keith Smith of Spotrac projects that six teams will operate with cap room, led by the Wizards with over $80MM in space. We conducted a similar exercise earlier this month, noting that the Wizards, Jazz, Nets, and Bulls are best positioned to go under the cap, while several other teams – like the Lakers and Clippers – are in the “maybe” category depending on what happens with certain free agents and player options.
- A panel of ESPN’s NBA insiders takes an early look at potential trade-deadline needs for eight NBA teams hoping to contend this season, including the Pistons, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, and Knicks. In the view of Bobby Marks, the Pistons are better positioned than any other Eastern Conference playoff team to make an in-season move, given their cap flexibility, movable contracts, and extra draft picks.
Warriors Notes: Horford, Kornet, Green, Markkanen, Lineups
The fact that Al Horford accepted a two-year, $11.7MM deal this summer to join the Warriors inspired some jealousy among multiple teams that had hoped to land the veteran center themselves, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
“Horford was one of the best signings in the league over the summer, it broke our hearts because we wanted him badly,” an Eastern Conference executive told ESPN. “And they got him for $5 million.”
As Anthony Slater of ESPN reports, team sources say that Horford was Golden State’s “absolute 1A” target during the offseason. The team also had interest in Luke Kornet, but he signed a lucrative contract with San Antonio that was out of the Warriors’ price range, so the team was thrilled that the taxpayer mid-level exception was sufficient to land Horford.
“(General manager) Mike (Dunleavy Jr.)’s been looking for a player like him his entire time here,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “Not just a pick-and-pop guy, but a legitimate big, who can make Draymond (Green)‘s job easier, who can make Steph (Curry)‘s job easier. It’s really hard to find those guys.”
Horford is expected to be inactive on Friday on the second end of a back-to-back as part of a plan to limit his workload in his age-39 season, Windhorst notes.
We have more on the Warriors:
- Within an in-depth story about Horford’s arrival and the Warriors’ approach to roster-building, Slater points out that the organization continues to balance a long-term view with a win-now philosophy, as its decision to re-sign Jonathan Kuminga instead of signing-and-trading him showed. “That’s one of the beautiful things about having this organization,” Green said. “We’re not sitting here like, ‘Yo, give away everything because we don’t give a f–k about what this thing looks like in 10 years.’ We do. And so I think it’s only fair to Mike that he’s given a future, too. It’s important to do it the way that we’ve done it. We found a good balance to where we can compete and possibly win now and yet still have that flexibility and resources for the future.”
- As Slater details, that resistance to going all-in was on display last year when Green discouraged the Warriors from giving up a massive package of young players and draft picks in a trade for Jazz star Lauri Markkanen. “I’m a big fan of [Markkanen’s] game,” Green said. “But I think if you want to do something so huge you better be certain that this is THE move. You usually don’t win those things against (Jazz CEO) Danny Ainge. I look at history.”
- Assistant coaches Terry Stotts and Chris DeMarco convinced Kerr to use a bigger lineup of Curry, Green, Horford, Kuminga, and Jimmy Butler down the stretch on Thursday vs. Denver, according to Slater. The group helped erase a fourth-quarter deficit and secure the victory in overtime, posting a +47.1 net rating in eight minutes on the floor together. “Where we going to score?” Kerr said. “That was my biggest concern. Could we execute [offensively]? But [Stotts and DeMarco] reminded me we have Steph and Jimmy, and they’ll find a way to score. … It was really fun to watch a group that’s never played together close a game against one of the best teams in the league.”
Warriors Notes: Stephen Curry, Kerr, Podziemski, Seth Curry
It’s becoming more common for NBA stars to keep playing effectively after their 40th birthday. That’s still nearly three years away for Stephen Curry, and the Warriors star told Mark Medina of EssentiallySports that he plans to take care of his body so there will be a choice to make when the time arrives.
“All I’ll say is that I just want the option and if I’m at a legitimate ability to be able to play,” Curry said. “I don’t know if it’ll make sense or if I would want to, whatever the case is. But if I can make the decision and the decision is not made for me, that’s a big, big point.”
Curry is still at the top of his game as he enters his 17th year in the NBA. He was a second-team All-NBA selection last season and an All-Star for the 11th time. He appeared in 70 games, averaging 24.5 points in 32.2 minutes per night, and remains one of the league’s most feared long-distance shooters, connecting at 39.7% from beyond the arc while leading the NBA in three-pointers attempted and made.
Intense offseason workouts are among the secrets to Curry’s longevity. His trainer, Brandon Payne, told Medina that this summer focused on strength training and speeding up his decision-making process.
“A lot of it is the foundational work that I’ve put in since I started,” Curry said. “One, I still love it. I’m blessed with being with a team around me that has helped take the spirit that I’m trying to put into it and give me the framework that keeps the body limber and loose and the injury prevention stuff. The rest of it is a toughness to get out there and do the work. I still love and want to keep it going.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Steve Kerr ponders his future with the organization in an article by Anthony Slater of ESPN that examines the coach’s long, successful relationship with Curry. Kerr, who’s entering the final year of his contract, said he wouldn’t choose to leave Golden State for another coaching job. “Management and ownership would have to want it to continue,” he said. “I would have to want it to continue. Steph would have to. I’m not finishing my contract and saying, ‘All right, I think I’ll go leave for such and such job around the league somewhere. That’s not happening.”
- Brandin Podziemski left Friday’s preseason finale in the first quarter with an injury, Slater tweets. He suffered a left hip contusion in a first quarter fall and had to be helped to the locker room by trainer Rick Celebrini. However, he was able to return to action in the second half, suggesting he should be fine for the start of the regular season (Twitter link).
- Seth Curry, who was waived Saturday as the Warriors made their final roster cuts, can’t return until November 11 at the earliest because the team can’t fit his prorated veteran’s minimum salary under its second apron hard cap for the first few weeks of the season. That’s why he didn’t see any playing time during the preseason, per Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle. “Because he got here late and just because of the nature of everything, I’m trying to see other people as well,” Kerr said. “I’m not worried about Seth. He’s not worried about it. He’s coming along nicely.”
Warriors Notes: Starting Lineup, Moody, Kuminga, Podziemski
Warriors coach Steve Kerr is intrigued by the starting lineup he used in Wednesday’s victory over Portland and wants to see it in action again before the preseason ends, according to Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). After going with a small-ball approach in the preseason opener while bringing Al Horford off the bench in his Golden State debut, Kerr made Horford a starter against the Trail Blazers along with Stephen Curry, Moses Moody, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.
“That could be a really powerful combo,” Kerr said. “I didn’t have a great sense of it after the game because I was thinking so much of our turnovers and our lack of focus at times during the first half. But looking at the tape, it was a lot better than I expected for those first seven minutes or so.”
Kerr likes having more size on the court to start the game, especially with Horford, who shoots well enough from three-point range to give everyone else plenty of room to operate. The group only played together for a little more than half of the first quarter before Kerr began making substitutions, and the veterans rested in the second half.
“You can tell with all the different lineups, we know that there’s still going to be a lot to work on in terms of the chemistry and just the certain combinations,” Curry said. “That’s part of the journey of training camp. But I just like the vibe and the intentionality that we’re all coming with, understanding that we need to get off to a good start. And trying to make that happen.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- That starting group won’t be together on Sunday when Golden State faces the Lakers, Gordon adds. Kerr said Saturday that Butler has an excused personal absence for the game, while Curry and Horford will be held out. Green will start alongside Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Jonathan Kuminga and Quinten Post, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link).
- Moody was set to undergo an MRI on Saturday for a calf issue, Slater tweets. Kerr said it’s believed to be minor, but the imaging is being done as a precaution.
- Kuminga and Podziemski come from different parts of the world and had polar opposite experiences as children, but they find themselves in the same position of competing for larger roles with the Warriors, observes Bruce Jenkins of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). Kuminga, who grew up in the Congo, tends to be calm and peaceful while looking the part of an NBA star, Jenkins states. Podziemski is much more of an extrovert after years of having to prove himself against elite competition.
Warriors Notes: Kuminga, Kerr, Podziemski, Horford
Jonathan Kuminga‘s restricted free agency saga was finally resolved on September 30, when the 23-year-old forward re-signed with the Warriors on a two-year, $46.8MM deal. Despite the lengthy negotiations and a contract that could make him a prime trade candidate, Kuminga tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape he’s “at peace” with his situation and doesn’t feel any anxiety about the future.
“I don’t think about things like that. I let the day just tell us what’s going to happen,” Kuminga said. “But when it comes to future stuff and things like that, no. I don’t worry about things like that. I just try to get better. You never know with this life. It’s the NBA. One day you’re going to be here. One day you’re going to be somewhere else.
“The biggest thing about it is just to work and just get better every day and be a winner. No matter where I’ll be, no matter if I’m going to be here or they might ship me somewhere else. I just want to get to wherever I’ll get, or be here and just be involved and win and impact right away. That is my biggest concern. I’m at that point now where I’ve got a couple years in now. So, I know what’s right and what is not right.”
Kuminga acknowledged some frustration with the way his role has fluctuated during his time with Golden State and said he doesn’t plan to bring the topic up with head coach Steve Kerr. For his part, Kerr still believes Kuminga can be an important piece for the Warriors, according to Spears.
“It’s been an interesting fit,” Kerr told Andscape. “He’s made it pretty clear that he wants the ball and an opportunity that a lot of his cohorts get and people that were drafted near him. And we weren’t able to offer that. We were a championship team. We won the title his rookie year (2021/22) and have been in the mix the last few years. So, it’s been tough. I respect the fact that he is competing and fighting in a set of circumstances that maybe isn’t ideal for him. But the thing I keep telling him is he can play a role for us, absolutely, with his size, speed and athleticism.
“He can play an important role on a very good team. He just turned 23 (on Monday). He has plenty of basketball ahead. One day, hopefully, he will look back on this as a valuable time in his career. But I know he’s frustrated. He’s made it very clear publicly. I don’t mind that, but I want him to embrace the idea that he can be a part of something special.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- As he enters his third season, guard Brandin Podziemski hopes to take major strides in multiple aspects of his game, writes Nick Friedell of The Athletic. In order to do so, Podziemski knows he’ll have to do a better job of regulating his emotions. “There’s a next step in evolving emotionally, and as a leader,” Podziemski told The Athletic. “Having confidence from your teammates is one thing, especially the vets, but them trusting you in big moments that could define their career. Could add another piece to their career. For them to have trust in you is a different thing, and you got to earn that over time, and I think that’s a goal of mine going into this season.”
- Veteran center Al Horford has quickly developed impressive chemistry with two-time MVP Stephen Curry, Friedell adds in another story. “It’s a level of awareness that I’ve never really had to think about before,” Horford said of playing with Curry. “But when I’m on the floor with him, the whole mindset is trying to make the game easier for him. And for me, that is either getting him the ball, or setting a good screen, or doing anything that I can to make sure that our offense moves and flows. He’s such a smart player that it’s easy to play off of him. And sometimes he’ll kind of tell you what to do. He passed me that ball, but I knew that he was gonna cut, so I guess that’s the unspoken (chemistry) he’s talking about right there. He expected me to pass the ball and I did.”
- Erik Spoelstra is expected to be named the new head coach of the United States’ men’s basketball team. Kerr believes USA Basketball made a great choice, per Kenzo Fukuda of Clutch Points (Twitter video link; hat tip to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports). “Spo’s an incredible, phenomenal coach. Watching him the last two summers, getting to know him up close… Spo was the perfect choice.”
Warriors Notes: Horford, Kuminga, Melton, Dunleavy
Now that his contract with the Warriors is finally official, Al Horford was able to shed some light on his free agency decision during an introductory news conference on Wednesday, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Horford told reporters that he didn’t feel ready to retire and that Golden State seemed like the obvious place to go if he had to find a new team.
“It’s a great opportunity to compete and to win at a high level,” he said. “When I think about the Warriors, I think about (Stephen Curry) and Draymond (Green) and Steve Kerr and seeing Jimmy Butler here. What he did in that second half of the season last year after the trade and how they’re playing. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to leave Boston, but if there was the place, that was this one, and it happened and I happened to give this opportunity, so I jumped at it.”
When free agency began at the end of June, Horford never imagined that his next contract wouldn’t be signed until October. He reportedly committed to the Warriors early on, but nothing could be completed until the team resolved its standoff with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga.
“It was definitely a very odd offseason, just kind of waiting and waiting and seeing what’s going to happen, seeing what’s going to take place,” Horford said. “So just my whole focus was on my training and preparing myself and making sure that I was in the best place for when the season started.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Kerr isn’t concerned that Kuminga might create a distraction in the locker room after having to accept a team option in his new two-year contract, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. Kerr said he contacted Kuminga “quite a bit” during the summer, and they’ll have a conversation about how things worked out when he reports to camp. “I’ve known JK for four years now,” Kerr said. “He’s not that guy to come in and tear a team down.”
- De’Anthony Melton isn’t upset that the Warriors traded him to Brooklyn last December after he suffered an ACL tear early in the season, relays Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter video link). “Business is business,” he said. “I probably would have traded myself too.” Melton added that he decided to return because he enjoyed his brief experience with the team and he likes the medical staff.
- It took a long time to assemble, but general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. is gleeful about his current roster, notes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “We’ve got everything signed, sealed, delivered roster-wise and (we’re) pretty excited about this group, about this season,” he said. “(We) feel like we made some really good additions and obviously have some really good key returning players as well as some young guys that we think will be able to take a step. The main thing here is the team we put together, we feel like will be in the mix this season.”
Steve Kerr Doesn’t Anticipate Contract Extension Talks Until After Season
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has only one year left on his contract but doesn’t plan to talk about an extension until after the season, Anthony Slater of ESPN reports.
“I don’t anticipate any negotiation during the season,” Kerr said. “Who knows — maybe it all comes up at some point, and they come to me. But I’m not the slightest bit concerned about it. I don’t think about it. I just think it makes perfect sense for all of us [to wait].”
Kerr is entering his 12th season as Golden State’s head coach but states he hasn’t lost his fire to pursue more championships with the organization.
“I love my job,” Kerr said. “I love what I’m doing every day. I can’t wait to get to the building. Hopefully, I’m here for another few years. But I think it makes sense for the organization and for me to see where this thing is at the end of the year — where they are and where I am. Hopefully, that means we run it back, we keep going with this group, that’d be awesome. But I like the fact we can do it how we want it.”
As Slater notes, the team’s three aging star players — Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green — all have two years remaining on their current contracts. Curry and Green remain staunch Kerr supporters, according to Slater. Though there’s no guarantee Kerr will remain beyond this season, the fact that he wants to remain with the Warriors along with the brass’ strongly support, it would be a huge surprise if he’s not coaching there again next season.
Kerr is currently working off a two-year, $35MM extension he signed during the 2023/24 season.
“I’m very comfortable going into the season with a year left,” Kerr said. “I’m so aligned with [general manager] Mike [Dunleavy] and [owner] Joe [Lacob]. We talked about this — there’s no reason for discussion or concern. This is kind of a point in our relationship where let’s just see how it is at the end of the year.”
Warriors Made New Offer To Jonathan Kuminga, But Stalemate Continues
The Warriors made a new contract offer to restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga last week, hoping to end the standoff that has prevented them from completing other offseason moves, sources tell Anthony Slater and Shams Charania of ESPN.
Golden State’s latest proposal is a three-year, $75.2MM deal with a team option in the third season, according to the authors’ sources. It includes $48.3MM in guaranteed money over the first two years, which Slater and Charania point out is nearly equal to the annual salary that restricted free agent Josh Giddey received last week in his new contract with Chicago. They add that the major difference is that Giddey received four guaranteed years with no options on either side, while Kuminga would most likely be a trade asset under his next contract rather than part of the team’s long-term future.
The offer is an increase from the two-year, $45MM contract that was presented to Kuminga and his representatives earlier this summer. That deal also included a team option on the final season and a demand that Kuminga waive his inherent no-trade clause.
The authors describe the Warriors’ insistence on those provisions, even in the new proposal, as a “major part” of the prolonged standoff. Their sources say Golden State’s only offer without a team option was for $54MM over three years, which brings the annual salary down to $18MM.
Kuminga has been requesting a player option to give him more control over his future, sources tell Slater and Charania. He and agent Aaron Turner have been willing to accept a yearly salary in the $20MM range as a tradeoff, but they believe agreeing to a team option should bring Kuminga’s salary up to about $30MM per year. The Warriors consider a player option to be a “nonstarter,” according to the authors.
The latest proposal from Kuminga and his agent is described as a “souped-up version” of Golden State’s qualifying offer, which is also still on the table. Kuminga would receive more money than the $8MM QO that was tendered in late June, but it would be a one-year deal that makes him an unrestricted free agent next summer and allows the Warriors to shop him as an expiring contract heading into the trade deadline. It also creates the possibility that Kuminga could spend another full season with the team and start negotiations fresh next offseason.
General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. turned down that idea, the authors state, as owner Joe Lacob is reportedly unwilling to accept any deal that puts the Warriors at risk of losing Kuminga next summer while getting nothing in return.
Lacob has been a strong believer in Kuminga ever since he advocated drafting him ahead of Franz Wagner in 2021, according to the authors. Sources tell them that Lacob refused to part with Kuminga in a proposed trade with Chicago for Alex Caruso two years ago, and he remained a vocal supporter even when the forward was removed from Steve Kerr‘s rotation last season. But sources tell the authors that Lacob has never intervened with Kerr on Kuminga’s behalf and has allowed the coach to make his own decisions about who gets on the court.
Kerr has indicated that Kuminga would see ample playing time this season if he opts to re-sign, according to Slater and Charania’s sources. However, Kuminga’s camp has pointed to comments that Kerr made during the playoffs — stating that Kuminga isn’t a natural fit alongside Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler — and they suggest that staying with Golden State might not be the best move for Kuminga’s career.
Before the Warriors shut down the idea of a sign-and-trade, they received offers from the Suns (who intended to pay Kuminga about $80-88MM over four years) and Kings (three years at $63-66MM), who were both willing to give him a player option and make him their starting power forward.
However, the Warriors weren’t satisfied with the return in the proposed deals, which reportedly would have brought Royce O’Neale and second-round draft compensation from Phoenix or Malik Monk and a protected first-rounder from Sacramento.
With training camp starting in two weeks, the authors state that Kuminga’s best hope is for Lacob to intervene, either to give him the financial compensation that he wants or ease his pathway to another team. The Warriors have several moves on hold that can’t be completed until the Kuminga situation is resolved, so a final decision will have to be made soon.