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Jonathan Kuminga of the Golden State Warriors drives against John Collins of the Utah Jazz.

Restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga is trending towards accepting his qualifying offer, which will be bad news to the Golden State Warriors, ESPN’s Anthony Slater reports.

The Warriors and Kuminga have re-engaged discussions, but the gap between the two camps has remained the same.

“Well, there’s been renewed conversations between the two sides,” Slater said on ESPN’s “NBA Today” on Aug. 15. “There’s dialogue, but as you all know, talking doesn’t necessarily equal movement. They’ve shared contract concepts and opinions about the whole thing between each other this last week, dating back to last weekend.”

Slater added Kuminga doesn’t want to be a “pawn” for the Warriors, whose current offer is designed to get traded midseason.

“Kuminga wants more of a player-friendly deal, more of a signal that he’s a building block, not a trade asset,” Slater explained.

The 22-year-old forward does not want to sign the Warriors’ standing offer of two years, $45 million with a team option and a stipulation to relinquish the inherent no-trade clause.

Kuminga will only change his mind if the Warriors offer a three-year deal or give him a player option on the second year of their standing offer.

“That’s something he’d be interested in,” Slater said. “But as of now, the Warriors have been hesitant to do that. And because of that, Kuminga is signaling to those around him that he’s very willing and prefers the qualifying offer over the two-year, $45 million deal. And that’s dangerous for the Warriors. They can try to call his bluff, but right now it seems to be trending towards the qualifying offer.”

Worst Case Scenario For Warriors

If Kuminga accepts the $7.9 million qualifying offer, he will become an unrestricted free agent after next season. The Warriors will not be able to get a significant value at that salary range and no team will trade for him if they know they can get him without as a free agent next summer.

ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks is projecting at least 10 teams — Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland, Utah and Washington — to have significant cap space next offseason.

The Bulls have a known interest in Kuminga. But the Bulls and the Warriors have no interest in a double sign-and-trade involving Kuminga and Josh Giddey, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints.

The Bulls want to have both players as their foundational pieces.

They are also not inclined to give up Coby White for Kuminga.

“If the Bulls are to pursue Kuminga, they won’t be getting rid of guard Coby White to do so, sources said. It has been made clear the Bulls hold no interest in trading White, and it’s also unlikely Golden State would pursue veteran center Nikola Vucevic in a sign-and-trade for Kuminga,” Siegel previously reported. “As a result, players like Ayo Dosunmu and Jalen Smith loom large as potential assets Chicago can offer up for Kuminga.”

Kuminga Sign-And-Trade Offers Rejected

However, the Warriors do not want to give up Kuminga without a significant return.

They had already rejected offers from the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns.

The Suns have offered the Warriors Royce O’Neale, Nick Richards and all their available second-round picks on top of the four-year, $90 million offer to Kuminga. On the other hand, the Kings initially offered Devin Carter, Dario Saric and two second-round picks before improving it to Malik Monk and a protected first-round pick on top of their three-year, $63 million offer to Kuminga.

Alder Almo is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy.com. He has more than 20 years of experience in local and international media, including broadcast, print and digital. He previously covered the Knicks for Empire Sports Media and the NBA for Off the Glass. Alder is from the Philippines and is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey. More about Alder Almo