Jonathan Kuminga's restricted free agency was the focus of the NBA offseason last year, and the problem faced by the Golden State Warriors is now extending to the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets as they negotiate with Jalen Duren and Peyton Watson respectively.
Kuminga's restricted free agency only served to solidiy his eventual departure from the Warriors, and now the Pistons and Nuggets risk the same fate if their respective stand-offs continues well into next month.
Pistons and Nuggets risk same problem Warriors had with Jonathan Kuminga
Speaking Friday on the All NBA Podcast, NBA insider Marc Stein claimed Detroit and Denver are far from the point of no return with Duren and Watson, pointing to the fact it took Golden State up until October for them to eventually re-sign Kuminga on a two-year, $48.5 million deal.
Yet Stein's colleague Adam Mares also pondered whether it could be the start of the end for Duren and Watson at their current teams, with Kuminga having been traded to the Atlanta Hawks just over four months after signing his new contract.
"He (Kuminga) did sign but begrudgingly and it just felt like a divorce was inevitable. It really extended the window of contention between him and the team," Mares said. "And I just wonder if Duren and Peyton Watson are going to be the same where, all right, we're going to agree to a number, but I immediately want out."
The good news for the Pistons and Nuggets is that they don't have a backlog of free agency moves being held up by the Duren/Watson negotiations. That was the case last year for the Warriors who had to ask the likes of Al Horford, De'Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II to wait until October to officially sign with the team.
Pistons could significantly hinder their path to next championship
The bad news, especially for Detroit, is that Duren is a far more important player to them than Kuminga was to Golden State. While the 6'10" big man was underwhelming during the playoffs, he's still coming off a career-best year where he made his first All-Star team and was named to the All-NBA Third Team.
Therefore the Pistons stand to lose a lot more by aggravating Duren to the point of desperately wanting out, and it could significantly hinder the path to their next championship around a core of Cade Cunningham, Duren and Ausar Thompson.
The Warriors know this restricted free agency issue all too well, and only time will tell if the Duren and Watson situations wind up playing out just as the Kuminga saga did over the past 12 months.
Add us as a preferred source on Google