Warriors Owner Breaks Silence on Jonathan Kuminga Future Amid Jimmy Butler Trade Rumor
Jonathan Kuminga‘s future could be decided over the next two months after the Golden State Warriors swung a win-now trade to acquire veteran point guard Dennis Schröder at the start of the trade season.
Kuminga is averaging 21.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists since Warriors coach Steve Kerr expanded his role five games ago when he decided to bench Draymond Green in favor of the 22-year-old forward.
This December, Kuminga is shooting 49.1% from the field and 40% from the 3-point line.
“I’m very excited — 20 points tonight,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard following the Warriors’ 143-133 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on December 15. “I think he’s been playing pretty well. He’s been doing better, he’s getting better. He’s contributing a lot to our success. There’s nights you could say he’s been our second-best offensive weapon. He’s a good player. We like him a lot.”
But Kuminga’s breakout stretch this season has yet to translate to consistent winning for the Warriors. They have lost four of their six games this month as they fell to eighth place in the Western Conference with a 14-11 record after a strong 12-3 start.
The Warriors have until before the February 6 trade deadline to decide whether Kuminga will be part of their future or he’ll be the centerpiece of an outgoing trade package to acquire another win-now talent.
“I’m not going to speculate on that,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard when asked how tough it would be to trade him if it comes to that.
Jimmy Butler Trade Rumors
With the Miami Heat open to listening offers for six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler, the Warriors were one of the four teams he preferred to go next should a trade happen, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Warriors, however, did not jump into that opportunity right away.
“We’re in a time zone here of maximizing our window with Steph [Curry], Draymond, and Steve as our coach,” Dunleavy told reporters on a Zoom call on December 16 following the Schröder trade. “For the most part, I feel good about this team, particularly on the defensive end, and now we have a player that we think could create and generate more offense for us. I want to evaluate and see, but we’ll always be looking at stuff.”
The next 25 games of the Warriors will decide the fate of this roster, especially Kuminga, and that of Schröder as well.
By making the Schröder trade before December 16, the Warriors can aggregate his salary in a potentially larger deal down the road for a star like Butler.
“Trades are hard. I’ve made this comment before,” Lacob told Kawakami. “This one (Schröder trade) was available for us at the right time, and hopefully another one, might be two. … Obviously, if we keep losing, I’m going to want to … do something else.”
Jonathan Kuminga’s Restricted Free Agency
There is still a good chance Kuminga stays in the Bay area past this season as he is an unrestricted free agent after this season.
If he stays past the trade deadline, the Warriors would have the right to match any offer sheet Kuminga can get from other teams in the offseason.
Two rebuilding teams — Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards — loom as a threat to lure Kuminga in the offseason as both teams will have the most cap room.
Kuminga was “aiming for” a $35 million annual salary during the extension talks with the Warriors, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. However, the Warriors weren’t willing to go above “around $30 million.”
“I can’t go into details of all that,” Lacob said of the contract talks. “Of course we like him. We do have him under contract. He’s playing for us this year, and we have restricted free agency coming this summer. So it’s not like we really lost anything here. We get another chance to see him progress and … see how good he can be this year.”
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