While Jonathan Kuminga’s restricted free agency still awaits resolution, ESPN’s Bobby Marks believes the Warriors have the upper hand in any ongoing negotiations with the 22-year-old wing.
The longtime NBA executive gave his perspective on the Kuminga saga during an interview with 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” show on Wednesday afternoon.
“I mean listen, [Kuminga] has got no leverage. The only leverage he has right now is to sign the qualifying offer at $7.9 million and then try and go out in free agency next offseason,” Marks told Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “When you look at the landscape of the league right now, it took [the Milwaukee Bucks] waiving Damian Lillard and paying him $25 million [per year] over the next five years just to create cap space.
“The only team out there that has cap space is [the Brooklyn Nets], and I don’t see them putting [in] an offer sheet [for Kuminga]. Of course there’s the sign-and-trade mechanism, but that requires cooperation from Golden State as far as what salaries they would want to take back in a deal here.”
One of the biggest issues the Warriors face is that Kuminga’s situation impacts how aggressive Golden State can be in free agency due to the uncertainty surrounding how much cap space a deal for the young wing could eventually take up. Still, Marks believes whatever deal gets struck will be on the Warriors’ terms.
“If he’s going to be on a long-term contract, it’s basically going to be on the terms of the Warriors in terms of what that number could be,” Marks explained. “What happens with Kuminga dictates what your flexibility is also with what you have, whether it’s your tax mid-level exception or maybe the full exception here.
“But if you’re trying to bring back Kuminga and you’re also trying to get big — a player like Al Horford, for example — your threshold as far as a new contract is 16, 18, maybe could you get closer to 20 [million dollars]? That’s probably where your walkaway number would be.”
Kuminga isn’t the only player in a tough spot, as Marks highlighted a handful of other names who are in a similar situation navigating restricted free agency during an offseason when cap space is at a premium around the league.
“He’s in a boat with a bunch of them, Josh Giddey, Quentin Grimes, Cam Thomas, there’s a list of other restricted free agents who basically are in the same situation,” Marks said.
“The market tells you it’s not a good time to be a restricted free agent. That’s what the market tells you. I think Memphis is a little bit different because of where they were financially; they could do that. I think Golden State’s payroll, they’re OK right now, I think they’re 16 or 17 [million dollars] below the luxury tax and $24 million below the first apron. If they were where Memphis is, they probably could be a little bit more aggressive.”
Kuminga averaged 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in 47 appearances during the 2024-25 NBA season.
While it remains to be seen what the ultimate resolution will be, Kuminga’s situation figures to be the most important domino to fall in Golden State’s offseason.
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