The Golden State Warriors pinpointed Al Horford as their major free agency target before July 1 even came around, with the veteran center still expected to sign despite the ongoing Jonathan Kuminga drama that’s extending towards the end of September.

Horford is an absolute must for the Warriors given their need for a starting center, yet that exact point has also brought a complication for the front office when it comes to contract negotiations with Kuminga and his agent Aaron Turner.

Al Horford’s signing is being used as leverage against the Warriors

Turner has been doing the media rounds on Thursday and Friday, providing everyone with some clarity on the negotiations and where things currently stand. In an insightful interview with ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Anthony Slater on the Hoop Collective, Turner tried to outline the sacrifice Kuminga and the camp were making in ensuring Golden State has the room to sign Horford to the taxpayer mid-level exception.

“We knew about Al Horford, had heard about what was going on with Al and to JK’s credit, he said, ‘look, I’ll sacrifice for that. Give Al the taxpayer mid-level, comes in, it helps,'” Turner said.

The Warriors are currently around $37 million below the second tax apron to which they must stay under in order to use the taxpayer mid-level exception and sign Horford. So essentially the Kuminga camp is claiming that they’re sacrificing in not expecting Golden State to go over the second apron which would then limit tthe franchise to offering Horford the veteran minimum.

This feels like a leverage play — we’re sacrificing with this so you should sacrifice something for us. The sacrifice Kuminga’s camp is after has now been obvious for days — turn the final year of the current three-year, $75 million deal from a team option to a player option. Turner has stated that not only will that deal be agreed to immediately, but that Kuminga will be fully bought in to doing his best to help the veteran core to another championship.

The Kuminga camp knows exactly how important the Horford signing is to the Warriors and are trying to use that to their advantage. Fair play. The problem with it is that Golden State are already offering more money per year than any rival team, so it’s not like they’re making Kuminga take less than what the market is suggesting.

At this point of negotiations it feels like each side is trying to cling on to any little thing to try and leverage their position against the other. This includes the Horford situation where thankfully the 39-year-old is experienced and been around long enough to be undeterred by his role in the entire saga.