Warriors very unlikely to trade young forward — for now

After the Warriors made Kuminga the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, he's had moments of brilliance but failed to lock up a starting role. He's complained about head coach Steve Kerr and his role. Kuminga understandably would like to go to a team like the Sacramento Kings, who could offer him a spot in the starting lineup and 30+ minutes per night.

The problem is that Kuminga is a restricted free agent in a summer when very few teams have space under the salary cap. That means the two teams who seem most interested in Kuminga, the Kings and the Phoenix Suns, have to figure out a sign-and-trade with the Warriors, and those offers have not been great.

Those teams can't even give Kuminga an offer sheet since they're over the salary cap. Complicating matters further are the NBA's base-year compensation rules, which state that in a trade, Kuminga's outgoing salary counts as either 50 percent of his new deal or his previous salary, which was $7.6M last season.

According to The Athletic's Sam Amick, the Kings have offered Malik Monk and a protected 2030 first-round pick for Kuminga, who would get a three-year, $63M deal. But Monk makes $18.8M next season, which would require the Warriors to include a player like Buddy Hield or Moses Moody to make the money work. That is not an appealing deal for Golden State. They're also offering less in 2025-26 than Kuminga would make with the Warriors, in the interest of avoiding the luxury tax.

Neither side has pressure to compromise, as Kuminga can still accept the team's $7.9M qualifying offer until Oct. 1. For their part, the Warriors are trying to get Kuminga to accept a deal that has both a second-year team option and no no-trade clause, so there's room to meet in the middle on some demands.

But without any teams who can give him an offer sheet, Kuminga simply doesn't have leverage, while Warriors owner Joe Lacob reportedly still really likes the 22-year-old forward. To paraphrase The Temptations, they know Kuminga wants to leave them, but they refuse to let him go. We'll see if they're too proud to beg him to re-sign.