Warriors just made the Jonathan Kuminga situation so much worse

The Golden State Warriors just made the entire Jonathan Kuminga trade situation so much worse. During a recent press conference, Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy was asked about Kuminga’s trade request, and he had this to say: “I’m aware of that. In terms of demands, when you make a demand there needs to be demand on the market, so we’ll see how that unfolds.” (Video via Anthony Slater of ESPN)

Now, the actual quote is not nearly as bad as the one making the rounds on social media, which cuts off the statement after the second ‘demand.’ That makes it sound like Dunleavy is revealing to the world that Kuminga doesn’t have a market. That wasn’t what happened.

But it’s also not not what happened, if that makes sense.

Warriors just made the Jonathan Kuminga situation even messier

Obviously, the quote floating around social media isn’t completely fair to what Dunleavy said. But he did, in fact, say those exact words, and the ones that followed didn’t soften the blow that much.

Did Dunleavy come out and directly say that there is no market for Kuminga? No. But he also didn’t say that there was one, and the fact that he mentioned the trade demand in the same framework as having to find interested suitors is less than ideal.

He just turned an already messy situation into an even worse one, and it is bound to make the entire Kuminga trade request situation even more difficult to deal with.

First and foremost, Kuminga and his camp will almost certainly be upset with this quote. Telling the entire league that there’s no trade market for him, or even inferring that could be the case, is a tough look.

And it also makes it seem as though the Warriors are completely fed up with Kuminga. (That may be the truth, but that doesn’t mean it should be broadcast to the entire world.)

On top of that, by effectively saying that there isn’t an amazing market for a Kuminga trade, the Warriors have indirectly hurt his trade value. If teams around the NBA know that most teams aren’t interested, they won’t be willing to give up as much in a deal.

Again, a lot of teams probably already knew the market was small, but that doesn’t mean Dunleavy had to say it publicly.

The best course of action in this scenario would have been for Dunleavy to say that he and the Warriors were working with Kuminga privately to resolve the situation. That’s all he had to say. But that’s not what happened.

Now, yet another quote about the situation is going viral on social media, and it can only make the situation even messier.