While the Golden State Warriors are still firmly focused on the remainder of these playoffs, there’s also an eye to the offseason where the franchise will have a decision to make on Jonathan Kuminga as a restricted free agent.
The postseason is thus far doing little to suggest Kuminga and the Warriors will unite on a new contract, with the young forward having recently been benched for four games by head coach Steve Kerr.
Jimmy Butler’s Game 2 injury opened up a door for Kuminga to return to the rotation, but the former seventh overall pick didn’t do enough to fully take advantage of the opportunity. He even got the start in Game 3 against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, but was again benched and didn’t play a single second in the fourth-quarter as his teammates outscored the Rockets 35-22 to grab an 11-point win.
The Warriors have an obvious move to make with Jonathan Kuminga
With Butler returning from injury and playing 40 minutes in Game 4, Kuminga was again — this time less surprisingly — a DNP for the fourth time in the last six games as the Warriors took a 3-1 series lead thanks to a 109-106 victory.
Some of the attention has turned to not if Golden State will re-sign Kuminga, but what they could potentially get for him in a sign-and-trade. If the Warriors do go down that path, there’s an obvious move they need to try and pull off.
Cam Johnson has been a player that’s been on the franchise’s radar for awhile, having remained with the Brooklyn Nets despite a myriad of trade speculation leading up to the mid-season deadline.
The issue is that Kuminga’s value may have plummeted to the point where Golden State wouldn’t be able to flip him for Johnson, yet Sports Illustrated’s Kyler Fox believes it would still be a good move from a Brooklyn perspective.
“In an attempt to entice Golden State to allow Kuminga to walk, offering Johnson in a sign-and-trade would be an extremely shrewd move,” Fox wrote. “The salaries are likely to be quite similar, and Kuminga plays the same position as Johnson while being seven years younger. Not to mention, Kuminga’s ceiling is higher than Johnson’s at this point in the latter’s career.”
It’s become clear that Kuminga will never reach his potential with the Warriors, and acquiring Johnson for him would be a good outcome even if it meant giving up a first-round pick in the process.
Johnson’s elite 3-point shooting and movement would be perfect in the Golden State system, and particularly playing off the star duo of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler. The 29-year-old averaged 18.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 57 games with the Nets this season, shooting 47.5% from the floor and 39% from beyond the arc on over seven attempts per game.
Johnson is set to make $20.5 million next season which — as Fox points out — could be in the same ball park as what Kuminga is offered. Of course, all this is predicated on the Nets actually having interest in Kuminga and vice-versa, meaning there’s still plenty of hurdles to be jumped over before this becomes a legitimate possibility.
