Forward Jonathan Kuminga is prepared to take a qualifying worth $8 million if he can’t secure the player option he covets in other offers. ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported the news.
Golden State has presented three key frameworks for a deal. The first is a three-year, $75.2 million deal with a team option for the third season. That makes $48.3 million of the contract guaranteed.
There is also an offer worth $45 million over two years with the second year being a team option. Another framework is a three-year, $54 million fully guaranteed deal with no options. Kuminga has believed to have informed the Warriors that changing the team option to a player option is all that’s required for him to sign one of the first two deals.
“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.”
Kuminga averaged 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 47 regular season games last season.
What Next In Warriors-Kuminga Stalemate
With the Warriors holding firm on not including a player option and Kuminga unwilling to consider a team option, signing the qualifying offer may just be the only conclusion remaining between these two parties.
That would harm the Warriors both in the short term and the long term. Kuminga would undoubtedly feel slighted and not be as incentivized to keep the team’s priorities top of mind next season. He would then look to leave in free agency and the Warriors would be left having not redeemed any kind of return for the seventh overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Golden State also had the 14th pick in that draft and selected Moses Moody. Kuminga’s departure would only magnify the error in not selecting the likes of Franz Wagner, Alperen Sengun, Trey Murphy III and Jalen Johnson.
Kuminga is believed to have a Jalen Green or Johnson type deal in mind. Green agreed to a three-year, $105 million deal last summer. Johnson, meanwhile, re-signed with the Hawks for $150 million over five years.
“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.
