The Golden State Warriors continue to patiently plot a path with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, and may have just drawn the upper hand from the Sacramento Kings in trade discussions surrounding the former seventh overall pick.
The Kings officially completed their acquisition of former Warrior guard Dennis Schroder on Tuesday, absorbing the 31-year-old into a trade exception previously made available by Kevin Huerter's departure last season.
The Kings just gave the Warriors the upper hand on Jonathan Kuminga
The sign-and-trade for Schroder while keeping Malik Monk means that although Sacramento still have the full mid-level exception available, they are hard-capped at the first apron which significantly reduces their power to acquire Kuminga in a subsequent move.
As Brett Siegel of Clutch Points outlined on social media, it appears difficult for the Kings to acquire Kuminga without matching salary, something that in itself is difficult given the Warriors can only take back 50% of the contract due to base-year compensation rules.
This addition of Schroder by way of a S&T will hard cap the Kings at the first apron.
— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) July 7, 2025
SAC is currently around $182M, about $14M below the first apron, and they still have their full MLE.
It is looking unlikely that Jonathan Kuminga is a legit option without matching salary. https://t.co/W3EnH75P1V
While there's been so much speculation over trade discussions between Golden State and Sacramento on the young forward, there's been little reporting over exactly what kind of contract offers have been presented to Kuminga.
Now they're hard-capped at the first apron, the Kings have no ability to offer Kuminga a contract that would put pressure on the Warriors to make a decision whether to match or not. Even despite the on-court fit concerns and the undesirable situation all parties find themselves in, it's extremely difficult to see Golden State not matching a deal anyway unless the only team with cap space -- the Brooklyn Nets -- were to come from nowhere with an enormous deal.
Sacramento reportedly offered Dario Saric, Devin Carter and two second-round picks to Golden State for Kuminga last week, but that deal was quickly shut down and would have been part of a larger three-team deal involving Schroder and Monk.
In a sign-and-trade scenario, Sacramento can only take back $7.5 million more than what they're sending out. That means that while a Saric and Carter combination still works, it would require Kuminga to take a deal that makes him less than $17.8 million next season. Even if Golden State for some reason were happy to proceed with the trade, is Kuminga really going to accept that low a salary?
In other words, the Kings just made it more difficult for themselves by acquiring Schroder without sending out another salary, potentially leaving Kuminga in a situation where he has to return to the Warriors on a deal the franchise is comfortable with.