At this point, you can't blame Jonathan Kuminga for waiting until he receives an offer he likes — or decides just to sign a one-year qualifying offer. Whether fans actually want Kuminga back (and if he or the team even want) is still up in the air, but the Warriors' strategy of digging their feet in... and then moving them just a little... is exactly why Kuminga should squeeze every last dollar out of this stalemate.
The most recent deal on the table from the Warriors was a 3-year, $75 million contract with a team option in the third season, according to Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of ESPN. For the record, that's an extremely fair deal for Kuminga. It guarantees him about $50 million, and if he plays well in those two years, he gets one more year at that number and then hits unrestricted free agency at 25.
Kuminga has no reason to give in to Warriors right now
Again, it's hard to blame Kuminga for turning that down (which he's doing because he and his agent believe any deal with a team option should be around $30 million AAV) because the Warriors, despite insisting they can't budge on these numbers, keep budging a little bit.
There have been a few offers on the table; 2-year, $45 million with a team option, 3-year, $54 million fully guaranteed, and now this 3-year, $75 million offer with a team option. The value of the contracts is slowly creeping up, as is the annual salary.
According to Slater and Charania, Kuminga and his agent are "willing to dip down into the $20 million per year range" for a contract with a player option instead of a team option, and frankly, it's hard for me to think the Warriors won't eventually cave and give that deal. If the two options here are a one-year qualifying offer which allows Kuminga to be an UFA next year, and something in the range of 3-years, $60 million with a player option in the final season, I assume the Warriors would pick the second option.
Everyone knows the team doesn't actually want to give him a qualifying offer, because no team wants to give their RFA a qualifying offer. Except the Nets, apparently, but who knows what they're ever doing.
The Warriors' willingness to offer that 3-year, $75 million deal may have dug their grave, because now Kuminga knows the team is willing to pay him $25 million a year — a number he'll apparently go well below if he gets that player option. And that feels like leverage. Right now, any bit of leverage feels massive in a stalemate that is now running dangerously close to the opening of training camp.