As the Golden State Warriors have trudged through this offseason, their single biggest question mark has continually resided in the ongoing restricted free agency of young forward Jonathan Kuminga, and essentially the entirety of their offseason has revolved around their inability to either trade or retain him.
Now, however, as Kuminga appears set to return to the Warriors in the coming days, Howard Beck, on the most recent episode of The Ringer NBA Show, has made the point that the team's ability to contend this season comes down to their ability to either allow Kuminga to play a bigger role or retrieve sufficient value for him in a trade: a terrifying proposition that has no clear answer at this point.
With the way the roster is constructed, and their sheer dependence upon their aging trio of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, Golden State desperately needs another scorer, and that must come either from Kuminga or be retreived in a Kuminga trade.
The Warriors must either trade or utilize Kuminga if they have any chance to compete this season
While there were multiple teams interested in a potential sign-and-trade for Kuminga at the start of the offseason, it quickly became clear that none of those teams were going to provide sufficient value in order for these negotiations to seriously heat up. Moreover, given the questionable fit between Kuminga and the team's established stars, it was always going to be a difficult proposition to properly judge his value to the organization.
Beck, however, argues that the Warriors have no choice: "It's not so much about [the contract terms], years, dollars... His market value as a player under contract with them, who will be on the trade block the second he's eligible to be traded, has direct impact on whether the Warriors will be able to make themselves a contender again."
Kuminga, undoubtedly, could be a versatile and dynamic part of an NBA rotation were he given the proper opportunity. The issue is, as it stands, this opportunity does not exist with Golden State, and Kuminga has made clear that, as a result, he does not necessarily want to be with the organization.
Yet, at the same time, teams across the NBA have been handicapped by the new financial landscape, restricting the potential options that the Warriors have to engage in a Kuminga trade.
Therefore, almost as soon as the season begins, Golden State must begin assessing the value of Kuminga across the trade market, and, if they cannot find sufficient value immediately, they must set their sights on him becoming a regular part of their rotation.
If they fail to accomplish either of these tasks, they will essentially be wasting a dynamic young talent and will be doing a major disservice to their veteran core as their championship window continues to close.