The most recent Golden State Warriors experiment with Jonathan Kuminga hit a road block when head coach Steve Kerr benched the polarizing, but talented, forward against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, December 7.
Golden State has wanted to deal Kuminga for some time and is expected to continue kicking tires ahead of the NBA‘s early February deadline. Kerr rendering Kuminga a healthy scratch doesn’t help boost his trade value, however. And ironically, Kerr did so against a team in Chicago that insider Mark Stein reported Thursday has re-emerged as a prominent suitor for Kuminga’s services.
“I was advised this week that Chicago should continue to be classified as a team to watch when it comes to Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga,” Stein wrote.
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“The Warriors are increasingly expected to trade Kuminga between [January] 15 — who is not trade-eligible this season until that date — and the [February] 5 trade deadline,” Stein continued. “And Chicago has certainly registered trade interest in Kuminga in the past, bringing up the 23-year-old in negotiations with Golden State on trades that never came to fruition in which the Warriors were engaged in talks of varying degrees of seriousness featuring Alex Caruso, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević.”
The question is who the Warriors could get back/might actually want from a reeling Bulls roster. Caruso is with the Oklahoma City Thunder and LaVine is now playing for the Sacramento Kings, leaving only Vucevic still employed by Chicago. His salary is close enough to Kuminga’s that the Warriors could get a deal done with relative ease.
But that may not make sense, as the team inked Al Horford in free agency to be its stretch big man. Horford, however, has not worked out particularly well and Golden State could look to make a change there.
Flipping Kuminga for Vucevic might improve the Warriors’ roster in some small increment, but it certainly isn’t a move that will rocket Golden State to contender status. Thus, it is more likely the Warriors will wait and see about the availability of players like Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Anthony Davis of the Dallas Mavericks.
Kuminga could offer intrigue to either team as a longterm roster option, while also helping Golden State put together enough salary to make a blockbuster deal for a perennial All-Star big man.
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