In just over 48 hours, I will never have to write about Jonathan Kuminga trade rumors ever again. But in the meantime, here we are. The Sacramento Kings have been linked to Kuminga since the offseason, but after acquiring De'Andre Hunter and parting with Keon Ellis, the most obvious Kuminga suitor may be off the market.
Granted, few things the Kings do make sense, so maybe they're still interested in adding the disgruntled Warriors wing. But it would be pretty shocking now after they added a different wing (with plenty of questions himself) and traded Ellis, who would presumably have been of great interest to the Warriors.
Now, what would a deal even look like? Kuminga, Gui Santos, and Will Richard for DeMar DeRozan does work if you want to get really, really crazy, but that doesn't seem too likely. Side note, I kind of like that trade even though it was thrown in the trade machine on a whim — but I digress.
The Kings could be out on Kuminga after adding De'Andre Hunter
Kuminga's trade request (or demand, depending on who you ask) appears to have fallen flat around the league. That makes sense based on everything the Warriors did leading up to that demand.
As Mike Dunleavy said, "When you make a demand, there needs to be demand," which is both one of the craziest burns I've ever heard, and also very true! Teams don't feel like Kuminga would help them right now, and it's caused the Warriors to have zero leverage in potential Kuminga deals. So now, we wait.
I've been saying it the whole time (trust me, bro) that the most probable outcome in the Kuminga situation is that he doesn't actually go anywhere because no other team wants him because the Warriors have effectively tanked his value.
The nightmare situation for everyone involved is that Kuminga does not get traded, the Warriors pick up his team option for next year, and this entire cycle repeats itself next year. The Sacramento Kings appeared to be the team that would save us all from that happening, but now that might be off the table.
Now, Warriors fans might just need to hope that the Kings do a very Kings thing and still trade for Kuminga even though it makes zero sense at all for them at this point. A messy situation continues to be messy as we near a trade deadline that suddenly feels important for the Dubs.