According to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Jonathan Kuminga wants to join the Sacramento Kings, and they have promised him a starting role, but the situation is set to put the Golden State Warriors in an ugly position.
“He wants to go,” Spears said on ESPN’s NBA Today. “And the Kings are offering a starting spot. Okay. At power forward—next to Keegan Murray, next to Sabonis. He's talked on a Zoom call with Scott Perry, as you know, the GM, B.J. Armstrong, the assistant GM, and also with their head coach. He wants to go there. But I think the issue is, first, the Warriors don’t like the pick.”
Sacramento’s potential trade offer just isn’t good enough.
Should Warriors trade Jonathan Kuminga to Kings?
The Kuminga sign-and-trade saga has devolved into chaos, and it seems as though it’s barrelling toward an ugly finish, as neither side wants to budge on their position.
Sacramento has supposedly promised Kuminga a starting role, and they want to put him next to Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis in the starting lineup. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave the Warriors with much to ask for in a deal.
Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reported that the Kings are unwilling to include Murray or Keon Ellis in a potential Kuminga trade, which leaves the Warriors with the likes of Devin Carter and DeMar DeRozan as return options. Neither of those is very good.
Carter is a fine young player, but he would put the Warriors in a similar position to the one they are in with Kuminga: A timeline based around contending, but the need to develop a young player.
Meanwhile, DeRozan is a fine player, but he doesn’t fit the Warriors’ play style. Plus, adding him next to Jimmy Butler would be a bit too redundant.
So, what could the Warriors ask for? Perhaps asking for Malik Monk could be an interesting middle ground, as he would be a nice sixth man for Steve Kerr to deploy off the bench.
But past that, there isn’t much left in the Kings’ rotation for the Warriors to pick off. And if they don’t want Monk, which it sounds like they may not, Kuminga’s situation with the Warriors is only going to get worse.
He wants to go to the Kings so he can start and earn developmental minutes. The Warriors don’t want the package the Kings are willing to send back.
From here, it seems as though things will inevitably get worse.