The Phoenix Suns are the latest team to have interest in restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but any potential sign-and-trade between themselves and the Golden State Warriors has to factor in the latter's strong pursuit of veteran center Al Horford.
Speculation has been flowing on what the Warriors could possibly get from the Suns after reports of their interest in young forward emerged from NBA insider Jake Fischer of The Stein Line on Thursday.
Warriors can't jeopardize Al Horford signing in a Jonathan Kuminga trade
The first aspect to note is that any sign-and-trade hard-caps Golden State at the first apron. As a result, they can theoretically take back $7.5 million more in a trade thanks to being under the first apron.
For example, if Kuminga gets a $25 million per year deal from the Suns, the Warriors would be able to take back about $20 million. This would account for base year compensation rules that allows them to only take back half the salary ($12.5 million) + the extra $7.5 million they can absorb.
But while theoretically possible, in reality that can't happen. Making a Kuminga trade that returns Golden State around $20 million in salary puts them about $5 million from the first apron, with multiple signings still needed to fill out the remainder of the roster.
Doing this would prevent their ability to use the taxpayer mid-level exception, and therefore jeopardize their Horford signing given he's long been slated to get that from the Warriors.
Golden State are obviously across all the mathematics involved in this and aren't going to put the Horford signing in danger as a result. There's a reason why the 39-year-old hasn't been officially signed yet -- because his deal, and other signings the Warriors want to make, are tied to what they do with Kuminga.
Because of this, and if we're assuming the Suns aren't going to offer closer to $30 million per year, we can essentially rule out many potential trade scenarios. This idea of a Grayson Allen AND Nick Richards deal is practically impossible, while Warrior fans can basically rule out the shocking thought of Dillon Brooks landing in the Bay.
Of course, this can change if Golden State were open to including other salaries like the mid-tier contracts of Moses Moody and Buddy Hield. However, it's debatable whether the Suns have enough for the Warriors to relinquish Kuminga, let alone if they have to add another rotation piece to the deal just to make the contracts work.
This is not to say that a Kuminga sign-and-trade can't be done, but the Horford piece of this is certainly a factor. For what it's worth, the Warriors can re-sign Kuminga to a $20-25 million contract and bring Horford in on the TPMLE, so long as they stay under the second tax apron.