Golden State and the forward come together after a long and public negotiation
The Golden State Warriors and 22-year-old wing Jonathan Kuminga have finally agreed on a two-year, $48.5M contrac tafter an acrimonious and not-so-subtle series of negotiations, per ESPN’s Shams Charania:
Ending a summer-long stalemate, restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga has agreed to a two-year, $48.5 million deal to return to the Golden State Warriors, agent Aaron Turner of Verus Basketball told ESPN.
The deal includes a team option in the second year that is designed for the Warriors — or another team if and when Kuminga is traded during the upcoming season — to rip up and complete a fresh new contract after the 2025-26 campaign, sources said.
Ahead of Wednesday’s qualifying offer deadline, Kuminga chose the two-year deal over a proposal of three years and $75 million so he can maintain a higher level of control over his immediate Warriors future.
The deal comes after Kuminga’s agent Aaron Turner went on The Hoop Collective podcast and said that Kuminga would be willing to come back to the team on a Qualifying Offer, but he wouldn’t be happy about it:
I think it is important when you have a player this important as [Jonathan Kuminga] to feel good about the business so that the basketball can be the focus. If the winning didn’t matter and it was like, hey, whatever, then I would agree that how he feels is probably pretty irrelevant. But I think he’s pretty important. They won’t let them go. And if you’re going to tell somebody, “Your contract’s over with us and you have a team that wants to give you a $100 million or so in a player option and a starting role, but we’re not going to let you go and we’re not going to give you a great deal. We’re going to give you the deal we can take advantage of”… I wouldn’t ask somebody to necessarily be happy about that. I know I personally wouldn’t really be very happy about that.
The contract suggests that Kuminga is betting on himself to have a better year and increase his value around league.
Kuminga averaged 15.3 points, 4.6 boards, and 2.2 dimes last season while being pulled in and out of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr’s lineup, starting just 10 games.
Category: General Sports
