Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga gets $38.7 million contract trade update

It's not a given anymore that the Warriors get rid of Jonathan Kuminga.

The restricted free agent seemed like a goner for sure early in the playoffs, when he was getting zero minutes. But he proved his worth to Golden State after Stephen Curry's injury with a couple huge scoring games.

After all, the former top-10 pick is still just 22 years old and oozes talent.

Now, though, the San Francisco Standard has summed up what a trade might look like in terms of the dollars:

If a change of scenery is the desired route, the sign-and-trade tactic would make sense. The Warriors could sign him to a number up to $38.7 million per year and trade him to an interested team, with his outgoing salary counting as half of his average annual value. Kuminga’s contract could be aggregated with other salaries in a bigger transaction as well. 

Keeping Kuminga would likely push the Warriors into at least the first apron. There are some roster-building restrictions for teams operating in the first apron, but they’re not nearly as prohibitive as those associated with the second apron. 

Without Kuminga on the roster, the Warriors are roughly $17 million below the luxury tax. That means the $14 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception is available to them (using it would hard-cap them at the first apron). 

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That's always going to be the toughest part of trading Kuminga, given his status as a restricted free agent.

The Warriors can't actually trade Kuminga unless they sign him to a contract first. Sign-and-trades are somewhat common in the NBA, but it rarely happens with a player as unproven as Kuminga is.

To get a big star back in return, Golden State needs to give Kuminga that contract of $30 million or more to help salaries match in a deal. And that requires the receiving team to actually think Kuminga deserves upwards of $38 million per year.

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It's certainly possible to get a deal done in those circumstances, but it makes things trickier and narrows down the available trade partners pretty quickly.

Maybe that'll lead to Kuminga staying put in Golden State after all.

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