Why the 2025-26 season will prove Jonathan Kuminga right for wanting to leave Warriors

Jonathan Kuminga’s contract talks with the Golden State Warriors have dragged on for months, and nothing about them suggests he’s staying long term. He hasn’t accepted Golden State’s offers, his agent has openly floated the qualifying offer as a real option and the forward is eyeing 2026 unrestricted free agency. The writing is on the wall: Kuminga wants out, and this coming season will prove why.

The qualifying offer and what it means

Golden State extended multiple proposals this summer. One framework was reportedly three years and around $75M with a team option on the final season. Another was two years at $45M with a team option. A third was three years, $54M guaranteed with no options. Kuminga’s camp pushed back on all of them. The sticking point? Lack of a player option and too much team control.

His qualifying offer for 2025-26 sits at $7.9M, a one-year deal that would set him up for unrestricted free agency in 2026. According to his agent, Aaron Turner, Kuminga is seriously weighing that route if no deal with player protection emerges. It’s a gamble — he’d be passing on long-term security — but it would give him leverage and freedom.

For the Warriors, it means they could be walking into the season with their most athletic young player on what amounts to a ticking clock. If he takes the QO and performs well, he’s gone in a year. If he struggles or gets hurt, both sides lose.

Why Jonathan Kuminga's role will reinforce the exit plan

The real issue is the fit. Kuminga wants to be a starter, a featured scorer and someone who closes games. On Golden State’s roster, that’s unlikely. Stephen Curry still commands the ball. Jimmy Butler was brought in to stabilize the wing. Draymond Green remains central to head coach Steve Kerr’s rotations. That leaves Kuminga, at best, as a third option offensively — an uptick in usage, but never the starring role he craves.

Defensively, he has all the tools — size, strength, athleticism — but hasn’t been consistent enough to earn crunch-time trust. Kerr has often turned to veterans over him in tight moments, and that isn’t about to change with Butler now in the mix. Kuminga is stuck in the in-between: too talented to bury, but not reliable enough to unleash.

This season will likely mirror last year. He’ll put up points, maybe finish as the third-leading scorer, but his defensive lapses and off-ball limitations will cap his minutes. The system itself doesn’t help. Golden State thrives on quick reads and ball movement; Kuminga thrives on attacking straight-line mismatches. The philosophies don’t blend.

It’s no surprise his name has been linked to teams like the Sacramento Kings, where he could step right into a starting role on a younger timeline. There, he’d be allowed to expand his scoring, learn through mistakes and develop into the kind of two-way forward he believes he can be. That’s the opportunity he isn’t going to find in San Francisco.

The 2025-26 season isn’t just another year for Kuminga — it’s the confirmation. By taking the qualifying offer or continuing to hold out for player control, he’s already signaling he’s ready to move on. When he spends another season playing the same limited role, watching crunch-time minutes from the bench, he’ll have all the justification he needs to leave.

For the Warriors, that’s a looming loss of one of their last bridge pieces to the future. For Kuminga, it’s the step toward finally becoming more than just a piece of the Curry system.