What is Jonathan Kuminga's value? NBA execs weigh in

A maximum-salary contract for Kuminga would’ve been worth roughly $43M per season on a four-year deal or nearly $45M on a five-year deal. While it’s clear that the Warriors weren’t willing to pay that price, agent Aaron Turner tweeted this week that Kuminga also never received or turned down an offer worth even $30M annually.

Appearing on "The Hoop Collective" podcast on Friday with new colleague Brian Windhorst, Slater — now employed by ESPN — essentially confirmed as much.

According to Slater, while the two sides had plenty of conversations about a new deal, the Warriors were hesitant to put a concrete offer on the table for Kuminga last fall because he would have been subject to the poison pill provision in 2024-25 if he had signed an extension and they wanted to keep their trade options open.

“I think Jalen Johnson getting five years, $150M gave a target,” Slater said. “… I’m of the belief — and I’ve been told — that (Kuminga’s camp) would’ve taken five for $150M if it was ever on the table. It wasn’t on the table.”

Nine months later, after an up-and-down season in which Kuminga was limited to 47 appearances and saw his numbers drop in several statistical categories, the consensus around the NBA is that the now-restricted-free-agent’s current value is well below $30M per year.

Fred Katz of The Athletic polled 16 sources who work in rival front offices to ask them what they believe a “fair” contract for Kuminga would look like. Their answers, according to Katz, ranged from $17M-$25M in average annual value, with Kuminga’s biggest fan in the group advocating for a five-year, $125M deal.

The majority of the respondents, Katz writes, expressed that a three-year deal would make the most sense, with many of those rival staffers suggesting a third-year player option and a few of them likening Kuminga’s situation to that of Jalen Green in Houston. The former Rockets guard signed a three-year, $105M rookie-scale extension with a third-year player option last fall and was traded to Phoenix earlier this month just as that deal took effect.

“It feels like a Jalen Green-type deal that keeps him tradable,” one team official who suggested a three-year, $70M contract told Katz. “Definitely less than he probably wants, but the player option gives him some options.”

“If I’m the agent, I’m trying to get a short-term deal so I can get out of there and get somewhere else but still make some money in the meantime,” another respondent said.

As Katz writes, it’s not out of the question that Kuminga would accept his $8M qualifying offer, which would line him up to reach unrestricted free agency in 2026. But that would represent a risky path for both the 22-year-old and the Warriors, who could badly use a player earning a salary in the $15M-$25M range for trade purposes. Currently, Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green — who aren’t considered trade candidates — are the only Golden State players with cap hits exceeding $11.6M in 2025-26.

“If he takes the qualifying offer, the Warriors are f—ed from a team-building standpoint, because they need to get him on a deal where they can trade him,” one executive said. “That’s the key for them.”

In case you missed it, we relayed several of the latest rumors on Kuminga’s restricted free agency in a pair of stories on Thursday.