Jonathan Kuminga’s agent says the restricted free agent forward is prepared to accept the Golden State Warriors’ qualifying offer unless the team improves its latest proposals.
Agent Aaron Turner told ESPN’s “The Hoop Collective” podcast on Friday that “there’s a lot of upside” to his client taking the $7.9 million qualifying offer for 2025-26 and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.
“He wants to pick where he wants to go,” Turner said. “So the QO is real for sure.”
The Warriors have presented three different contract frameworks to Kuminga, 22, the No. 7 pick in the 2021 draft, according to ESPN: a three-year, $75.2 million deal with a team option on the third season and a guaranteed $48.3 million in the first two years; a two-year, $45 million deal with a team option on the second season; and a three-year, $54 million deal with no options.
Kuminga rejected those proposals but will sign if the Warriors convert the team option to a player option, per the report.
“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. 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 and helping Steph (Curry).”
With less than two weeks until the start of training camp, Golden State has just nine players on its current roster. The Warriors are expected to sign veterans Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II once the situation with Kuminga is resolved.
Kuminga averaged 15.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game last season. He was limited to 47 games, coming off the bench for all but 10 starts, due to an ankle injury that sidelined him for two months. In 258 regular-season games (84 starts), he has averaged 12.5 points and 4.0 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
