Warriors reportedly out on plans to trade Jonathan Kuminga this summer, he will be with team

As the offseason has marched on, the chances of a Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade — giving him the fresh start he seeks — seemed to fade. There were talks with the Suns (Royce O’Neale, Nick Richards and three second-round picks is the reported offer) that went nowhere. There were talks with the Kings, where the offer reportedly was Malik Monk, another player (maybe Dario Saric) and a lottery-protected first-round pick, but the Warriors rejected it, saying they want the pick to be unprotected. Talks died there.

Now, the Warriors are done with trade talks and are going to bring Kuminga into camp, one way or another, reports veteran Bay Area journalist Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard.

The word I got when I checked in with a Warriors source on Sunday: Kuminga won’t be traded this summer. He’ll be back on the Warriors’ roster to start the season. And it’ll either come when he signs the Warriors’ offer or accepts the $7.9 million one-year qualifying offer…

But several sources have indicated that the Warriors have been unenthusiastic about the general idea of a Kuminga sign-and-trade from the outset. The broad context is that Joe Lacob remains a fan of Kuminga’s and is determined to either keep the 22-year-old on the roster or get real value in return. And he’s willing to wait it out.

As Kawakami admits, this sounds a lot like a negotiating tactic — this is what you leak to put pressure on the Kings to take the protections off their pick and get a deal done. If we can all see that, so can the Kings, and they can afford to be patient and wait this out. Golden State is patient as well, despite having as many as six roster spots to fill (it currently has just nine players under contract) and with reported deals hanging out there with Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton just waiting on the Kuminga situation to resolve.

The Warriors’ standing offer to Kuminga is reportedly two years, $45 million with a team option on the second year, but they want Kuminga to waive the no-trade clause that would automatically come with this contract. Kuminga has no plans to do that, why would he give up the leverage he has in this situation? For his part, Kuminga has postured that he would sign the qualifying offer and bet on himself (a move neither side prefers but remains an option).

Kawakami made a reasonable compromise suggestion: Golden State partially guarantees the second year of that contract, say for $15 million (give or take). That bumps Kuminga’s guaranteed money up so he gets some added security, that guarantee isn’t enough to scare off a team trading for Kuminga that wants to retain him, but it also eliminates the no-trade clause (which is tied to Bird rights, which would be lost if Kuminga were traded then waived for nothing).

However, there is little pressure on either side to compromise right now, the drop-dead date for Kuminga to accept the qualifying offer is Oct. 1, close to when training camps start. Until then, expect a lot more posturing.