The Jonathan Kuminga to Los Angeles storyline refuses to die, and it should. Free agency is basically over, training camp is around the corner, and the Warriors forward still doesn’t have a home.
Here’s the deal on the table. The Lakers have reportedly offered Kuminga a sign-and-trade package worth around $45 million. Kuminga wants north of $20 million per year on a shorter deal. Golden State retains his rights and has to sign off on any move.
The Lakers are the loudest suitor because Kuminga wants to be there. The problem is arithmetic. LA already spent its cap space on its top targets, meaning any Kuminga deal has to be constructed through matching salaries and trade exceptions that don’t currently line up with what Golden State wants back.
One NBA executive told reporters this week that Kuminga is not likely to shake out any new offers for a sign-and-trade at this point. Teams have already told him what they’d pay, and the money is spent elsewhere. The market has spoken, and it’s quieter than his camp expected.
The Warriors have no incentive to do the Lakers a favor either. Bob Myers, Mike Dunleavy, and the front office spent all summer holding the line on Kuminga’s value because they believe in the player. Sending him to the Lakers for a package built around role players and second-round picks accomplishes nothing.
So where does this end? Kuminga’s best path is probably signing his qualifying offer with Golden State, playing out the season, and hitting unrestricted free agency in 2027. That’s not the outcome he wanted in July, but it’s the one that preserves his upside.
The nightmare scenario for Lakers fans is watching this drag into September, seeing Kuminga eventually take a one-year deal somewhere, and realizing LA never had a real shot. That’s exactly where this is heading.
Verdict: No trade. Kuminga stays in Golden State on a short-term deal, and the Lakers move on with the roster they already built. The moment to strike passed in early July, and no amount of leaked Woj tweets is bringing it back.
Rob Pelinka will get credit for not overpaying to force a fit that never made sense on the court. Kuminga is a bouncy, athletic scorer who needs the ball in his hands. The Lakers already have LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves competing for those touches. Adding another primary creator would have created more problems than it solved.
The bigger loser here is Kuminga’s leverage. He entered restricted free agency expecting a max-adjacent deal. He’s leaving it with a qualifying offer and a shrinking market. Sometimes the smart play is taking the guaranteed money in year one and betting on yourself in year two. This looks like one of those times.
Watch the Warriors quietly work out a two-year deal with a player option before the end of September. That’s the resolution. It just isn’t the one anybody in Los Angeles wants to hear.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
