Jonathan Kuminga‘s agent, Aaron Turner, told ESPN that Kuminga is prepared to take the $7.9 million qualifying offer unless the Golden State Warriors improve their current offers.
“There’s a lot of upside,” Turner said in an interview with the Hoop Collective podcast. “He wants to pick where he wants to go. So the QO is real for sure.”
The Warriors have presented Kuminga with three separate frameworks, as ESPN reported earlier this week. The most lucrative is a three-year, $75.2 million deal with a team option on the third season. It guarantees Kuminga $48.3 million in the first two seasons.
He is also being offered a two-year, $45 million deal with a team option on the second season and a three-year, $54 million deal without options. Kuminga, to this point of the negotiations, has declined everything put in front of him. He is requesting the Warriors turn the team option into a player option and he will sign it.
The Warriors have declined to put a player option in any offer to Kuminga.
“If (the Warriors) want to win now, if you want a guy that’s happy and treated fairly who is a big part of this team, we believe, moving forward, you give him the player option,” Turner said. “You do lose a little of that trade value (giving that up). But if it’s about the here and now, you give him that. You don’t get a perfect deal, but you get a pretty good deal and he gets to feel respected about what he gets and we all move on and worry about winning, helping Steph (Curry).”
The Warriors are the only NBA team this summer who have not signed a free agent. Less than two weeks until training camp, they only have nine players on their roster. The expectation is they will sign veterans Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II once the Kuminga domino falls, but the negotiations have been in a three-month gridlock.
If Kuminga signs the qualifying offer, he’d be relinquishing more than $40 million in guaranteed money over the next two seasons, but it would grant him his unrestricted free agency next summer and give him an inherent no-trade clause — a hefty price to control his own destiny.
“If JK wants to take it, it does have upside, right?” Turner said. “We’ve talked about that. You’re not getting traded. You’re gonna have unrestricted free agency (next summer). People are gonna say, ‘Well, Aaron, there’s not gonna be 10 or 12 teams (with cap space).’ Fine, there’ll be six teams with cap space for the clear-cut under-35 top wing on the market. So there’s a lot of upside.”
Kuminga has spent the summer exploring his market, including the big-picture opinions from those outside the Warriors’ organization. The Sacramento Kings (three years, between $63 and $66 million) and Phoenix Suns (four years, between $80 and $88 million) have been most aggressive in pursuing Kuminga. They haven’t been able to put together sign-and-trade offers to entice the Warriors to give up Kuminga. But they’ve clearly had an impact on his mindset.
“He’s gotten a chance to hear from other teams,” Turner said. “You know, Sacramento, he’s spent some time with them, got to meet (general manager) Scott Perry, (head coach) Doug Christie, the Suns and what they’ve offered him. There’s been other teams, too, maybe planting seeds for (2026 or 2027). But they’re saying, ‘Hey, we want you to be you. We don’t want you to change anything. We want to put the ball in your hands. We want to give you a huge opportunity to play.'”
Turner contrasted that to the Warriors. He said that Kuminga isn’t averse to returning to the Warriors, but Kuminga would be suppressing his personal ambitions and that sacrifice should matter in contract talks.
“I don’t think it’s about not wanting to be on the Warriors,” Turner said. “Having repped guys on all different teams, it is as first class as you get. I mean, everything there is awesome, from the facility, how they treat the guys, it’s, like, amazing. But, these other places are offering him opportunities to start games, finish games, know your role. ‘We don’t want you to change anything. Continue to develop and spread your wings.'”
Kuminga would return to a likely bench role with the Warriors, behind a Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Horford frontcourt.
“No guarantees he starts any games,” Turner said. “He may, but we don’t know. Finishing games, night to night, who knows? It depends if Steve (Kerr) has a combination he likes and it’s working. Maybe he sticks with it. Maybe he doesn’t. You’re going to have to not have the ball as much. You’re going to have to stay away from developing certain parts of your game, or wanting to lean into certain parts of your game, especially shooting any type of mid-range jump shots, which is something JK does work on. But in the Golden State offense and the role he’s in, that’s not gonna be a big shot that he’s really gonna be able to take much.”
So Turner said his messaging to the Warriors through this entire process has been to sell the contract and not the basketball situation if they want Kuminga to be on board.
“You’re gonna have to sacrifice your game from where other teams would his fifth year,” Turner said. “In addition to that, he might get traded. He knows that. We know that. They know that. I mean, we went in exploring all options. Myself, Mike Dunleavy, can we find a sign and trade that works? Can we duck around this base compensation rule, that only allows them to bring back half the money? But (Kuminga) knows it’s a real thing he may get traded. I really can’t find where I’ve seen a free agent at, you know, $20 million or above, where you sign and go, you know, I know there’s a very good chance he gets traded.”
Warriors owner Joe Lacob flew to Miami to meet with Kuminga in August in an attempt to resolve the contract dispute, but it continues to drag deep into September.
“(Kuminga) said this in the meeting with Joe (Lacob). ‘I’m all in to help Steph. Let’s send him out. We should be focusing on winning right now and I’m fine with that.’ But, again, you have to take a little bit of the hit.”
The hit to the Kuminga side is the Warriors giving him a player option on either the two-year or three-year contract offers. They’d also be willing to sign the two-year deal with the Warriors in that $45 million range if they let him keep the inherent no-trade clause, allowing him a say in where he plays next.
But the Warriors haven’t relented on that, either, requesting Kuminga waive the no-trade clause. Turner has said Kuminga would be willing to do a team option deal if the Warriors move the per year number up toward $30 million or take the current deals on the table if they include a player option. If not, they are threatening to take the qualifying offer, which would tank his trade value.
“Two years from now, if you want to keep him, you’ll have his bird rights (even if you give him a player option),” Turner said. “You treat him good and you show him the plan, then maybe you keep him. (The player option contract) is not perfect, but I don’t think anybody can get everything they really want. If you ask JK, he wants Jalen Green‘s deal. He’s not getting that. He wants Jalen Johnson‘s deal. You’re not getting that. If the Warriors, we feel like, pick the front end (of the contract), if that number needs to be lower to stay under a second apron, (it’s a) player option. Or if it’s about really controlling the back end of the deal, move the number up, shake your roster up and you can have a team option. Or, the hybrid model, let him keep his no-trade clause.”
