Jonathan Kuminga's agent is great for media, bad for his client

For the second season in a row, Jonathan Kuminga has agreed on a contract late in the summer. And for the second year in a row, his agent, Aaron Turner, has provided the NBA world with something to talk about in the slowest time of the season.

Turner continues to appear on podcasts even after his client settled for a $6M deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves. His wild claims and voracious appetite for media appearance suggest Turner might be more interested in his own narrative than his clients' financial well being.

Jonathan Kuminga's agent makes unbelievable assertions

Turner made the media rounds last summer when Kuminga was negotiating with the Golden State Warriors as a restricted free agent. He repeatedly suggested Kuminga would take his $7.9M qualifying offer for 2025-26, before rejecting a three-year, $75.2M offer in favor of what became a one-year deal for $23.8M. This year, he settled for a two-year, $12.4M deal with a player option on the second year.

Coupled with Kuminga and Turner's rejection of a reported $30M per year extension from the Warriors, the net result seems to be the 23-year-old forward leaving a great deal of money on the table to chase bigger paydays. It doesn't help that Turner makes patently false claims, like that Kuminga was the Atlanta Hawks' "best player" after the Warriors traded him.

Kuminga averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists for the Hawks, suiting up for 16 of the team's 29 games. In the playoffs, he upped his scoring to 13.7 points, but grabbed only 3.3 rebounds and delivered one assist per game. Quite simply, it's very hard for a below-average offense-first reserve to  be a playoff team's best player.

Jonathan Kuminga's agent may prefer media attention to deals

Kuminga's player option for 2027-28 may mean that he's left looking for a contract for the fourth straight summer, after failing to reach a rookie extension with the Warriors in 2024. Turner seems happy to appear on any show, doing interviews with former player Chandler Parsons and Yahho's Kevin O'Connor in the past week, though he looked disheveled on Parsons' show, wearing a tattered white t-shirt.