Who could have seen this coming? Oh, everybody? Right. Everybody.
Jonathan Kuminga officially "demanded" a trade on Thursday, which feels weirdly more intense than if he "requested" a trade. I'm not sure why ESPN's Shams Charania decided to use demand in this instance, but I digress. Jonathan Kuminga does not want to be a Golden State Warrior, and it's hard to blame him with how the front office has handled, well, everything about his situation dating back to last year.
Heading into the offseason, it felt like Kuminga already had one foot out the door — his relationship with the team, coaching staff, and front office all seemed strained, and the Warriors giving him a long-term contract was a longshot. After painful contract negotiations, the Warriors brought back Kuminga on a two-year deal with a team option for year two. No one seemed particularly happy with the arrangement, but the Warriors at least had Kuminga on the roster to eventually trade and acquire assets in return.
But lately, the Warriors haven't even been playing Kuminga, and his trade value is in the gutter. Why even sign him in the first place, then? Why not trade him in the offseason when other teams actually wanted him?
It's hard to believe that whatever is unfolding in front of us right now was "the plan."
Warriors backed themselves into a corner with Jonathan Kuminga
Signing Kuminga to a contract always felt like a ploy to trade him during the regular season, but why keep him on the team at all if he's not going to be part of the rotation? Kuminga is getting DNP-CD recently, so he's now not helping the team, not providing any trade value, and definitely not making a case to stay on the team long-term.
That's not to say he's fully faultless in this situation (Kuminga hasn't played very well in the minutes he has gotten) but overall, the blame here falls on Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Joe Lacob. Steve Kerr probably doesn't get off scot-free, either, but it was never a mystery how Kerr thought about Kuminga — he doesn't like him as a player!
Were there any conversations between the front office and coaching staff when the team signed Kuminga in the summer? Like, Hey Steve, we're bringing back Kuminga but we want to trade him, can you at least play him a little bit so other teams are interested when he becomes eligible to trade?
Now it looks like the Warriors brought Kuminga back just so other teams couldn't have him in some sort of backwards spite signing against the Sacramento Kings. Got 'em, I guess?
The silver lining here is that all parts of this saga appear to be, mercifully, almost over. We will be free!