Jonathan Kuminga's ongoing free agency stalemate is rearing up some disasters of the past for the Golden State Warriors, perhaps most notably their initial draft mistakes that saw them select James Wiseman, Kuminga and Moses Moody across the 2020 and 2021 period.
Yet while that may always be at the front of mind not just for Warrior fans but others who may be enjoying their misfortune, there's a missed trade opportunity that's also coming back to bite the franchise as time passes.
The Warriors were unwilling to trade Jonathan Kuminga for Alex Caruso
Part of the frustration among Golden State fans right now is the fact that the front office had four years to trade Kuminga before reaching this situation, having had multiple opportunities to turn the young talent into a more win-now ready player.
One of those opportunities centered around Alex Caruso prior the 2024 mid-season trade deadline, only for owner Joe Lacob's affinity with Kuminga to potentially get in the way of a deal with the Chicago Bulls.
"Lacob has remained a staunch Kuminga supporter and vocal believer in his long-term future. He voiced an unwillingness to include Kuminga in a proposed trade from Chicago for Alex Caruso a couple of seasons back," ESPN's Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported on Monday.
Lacob and the Warriors took a gamble on Kuminga's upside and it backfired terribly, leading them to a current stand-off where they'll probably have to double-down on the young forward again just so they have another opportunity to trade him for something of value.
The Oklahoma City Thunder wouldn't make the same such mistake when they had an opportunity to deal a young player whose fit at the franchise was becoming questionable. Josh Giddey had moments of significant production in his couple of years, but as soon as the Thunder saw him played off the floor at times in the 2024 playoffs, they dealt him to the Bulls in a straight swap for Caruso.
The rest, as they say, is history. Caruso would go onto help the Thunder to this year's championship -- his second after a title with the Lakers in 2020. His stature as one of the league's best role players took another step, including drawing headlines for his effective (though not always legal) defense on 3x MVP Nikola Jokic during Game 7 of the second-round.
The Warriors still sit with an uncertain Kuminga situation, bringing with it the pain of what could and should have been which includes the thought of Caruso joining Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and company in the Bay Area.