Kuminga's Free-Agency Freezeout Spotlights Warriors' Miscalculation

Jonathan Kuminga is still a free agent, and it's looking increasingly like he'll have to settle for a much smaller contract than he wanted.

The most likely end to this saga is a contract with a starting salary between his veteran minimum of $2.8 million and the taxpayer mid-level exception of $6.1 million.

Some Warriors fans are using this free-agency wait to bolster their belief that he's overrated, that Steve Kerr was right about him, etc.

But perhaps the more important takeaway is Golden State's front office looks even more wrong for gambling its present and future on him for so long.

Kuminga's Atlanta Stint and 2026 Free Agency Confirmed His Place in NBA Hierarchy

Kuminga's career averages with the Warriors were 12.5 points in 22.1 minutes per game.

His averages with the Hawks: 12.3 points in 22.1 minutes per game.

Kuminga had the most consistent playoff role of his career with Atlanta and averaged 13.7 points in 26.0 minutes. His defense was better than ever, but his rebounding and playmaking did not improve.

The Hawks declined his team option, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Kuminga's market has been surprisingly slow. It's not often that 23-year-old wings become UFAs.

It seems likely that Kuminga's agent was seeking too big of a salary. Teams pivoted to cheaper alternatives with their spending power, and that's why he'll now have to settle for something so low. But even acknowledging that, the bigger picture is that the league doesn't value Kuminga as much as he'd like, and some of the reasons are obvious.

Kuminga's perimeter shooting has not improved, and though his defense is decent, he's never gone into PJ-Tucker-max-sacrifice mode on that end. If he tapped into a defensive-stopper-first mentality, he could become the star role player Kerr wanted him to be with the Warriors.

Warriors' Miscalculation

Kuminga just finished his fifth season. If he was going to be a star, he would have shown it by now.

It's not happening.

After Kuminga was reportedly among the Warriors unhappy about his playing time and role in the 2023 playoffs, the Warriors passed on trading Kuminga for five transaction cycles.

As I wrote here, among the players they reportedly wouldn't trade Kuminga for included OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam and Alex Caruso.

Team governor Joe Lacob recently explained how he felt about Kuminga to Tim Kawakami.

"I do not view Jonathan Kuminga as a mistake," Lacob said. "I think we may have made some mistakes in how would we handled it and how he handled it, maybe he made some mistakes, and obviously that's well documented and we had to move on."

It's fair to say Kuminga was not the biggest bust of the 2021 draft, but the only objective conclusion about the entire Kuminga tenure was that it was a mistake.

The fact that he's still a free agent shines light on how far off Lacob and the Warriors front office was in their projection of Kuminga's career.