{"id":825665,"date":"2026-09-01T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/825665\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:30:20","slug":"kumingas-agent-continues-to-defend-handling-of-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/825665\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuminga’s Agent Continues To Defend Handling Of Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

After explaining last week<\/a> to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic why his client chose to sign<\/a> with the Timberwolves, Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>\u2018s agent Aaron Turner has continued to make the media rounds, appearing on FanDuel\u2019s Run it Back show and Kevin O\u2019Connor\u2019s Yahoo Sports podcast.<\/p>\n

\"\"Turner has faced criticism for how he approached Kuminga\u2019s free agencies in 2025 and 2026. While the agent has repeatedly stressed during his various interviews that a rumored five-year, $150MM rookie scale extension offer from the Warriors in 2024 never happened, he has acknowledged that he and his client passed on a three-year offer worth roughly $75MM from Golden State in restricted free agency last year.<\/p>\n

The last year of that contract would have been a team option, but the first two seasons (worth about $48MM) would have been guaranteed, meaning Kuminga would have been owed about $24MM this season if he\u2019d accepted Golden State\u2019s offer. Instead, he agreed to a two-year, $12.4MM contract with the Timberwolves that will pay him a little below $6.1MM this season and includes a second-year player option worth nearly $6.4MM.<\/p>\n

Speaking to O\u2019Connor (YouTube link<\/a>), Turner made a convoluted case countering the idea that he cost Kuminga money, arguing that the control the forward regained over his future more than made up for a short-term pay cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the math right now, the reality is, OK, if he would have taken the two-plus-one (offer from the Warriors), he\u2019d be $18 million down this year, but he\u2019s also secured $6.5 million for next year,\u201d Turner said. \u201cSo he\u2019s really only down $11.5 million in guaranteed money.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the two-year concept would\u2019ve had a team option. This has a player option. A lot of people will tell you a player option is (worth) between $10, 15 million. It\u2019s hard to exactly value it, but there is a big value to a player option. So, with that math, you really could say, is he even down?<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he\u2019s in a situation where he can be where he wants to be, go play basketball, enjoy playing (and) being in the moment. And if he plays well, we\u2019ll see where this ends after this year. But realistically, he has not really forfeited much. And if you think about the team option flipping to the player option \u2013 if you put a value on that like I do as an agent, the optionality \u2013 I would make an argument he hasn\u2019t forfeited anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner made several remarks during his lengthy conversation with O\u2019Connor that raised eyebrows, including insisting that Kuminga was Atlanta\u2019s \u201cbest player from the moment he showed up in terms of winning impact\u201d following the mid-season trade that sent him from the Warriors to the Hawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had the best on\/off net rating in the regular season and in the playoffs,\u201d Turner said (YouTube link<\/a>). \u201cIn their two (playoff) wins against the Knicks \u2013 these are facts, these aren\u2019t opinions \u2013 who had the best net rating? Jonathan Kuminga.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuminga\u2019s +12.2 regular season net rating as a Hawk was technically the best overall mark<\/a> among the team\u2019s rotation players, and his +8.3 net rating in those two postseason victories over New York ranked first<\/a> among the six players who logged at least 60 minutes in those games.<\/p>\n

However, Turner\u2019s framing is somewhat misleading. From February 24 \u2013 the day of his Hawks debut \u2013 through the end of the season, Kuminga was tied for fifth<\/a> among Hawks regulars in net rating, and he ranked third<\/a> among the team\u2019s rotation players in the postseason, behind CJ McCollum<\/a> and Onyeka Okongwu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from Turner:<\/p>\n

Discussing Kuminga\u2019s other options in free agency this summer on the Run it Back show (Twitter video link<\/a>), Turner said the forward seriously considered the Lakers but explained that the need to do a sign-and-trade complicated matters. A contract completed as part of a sign-and-trade must cover at least three years (with no options), and Los Angeles was offering about $12MM annually. Turner viewed that as a below-market long-term deal for a \u201cstarting-level wing\u201d and was reluctant to lock in three years of Kuminga\u2019s prime with no \u201coptionality.\u201d
\nThe Trail Blazers offered two- or three-year structures that would\u2019ve included a player option, Turner added, noting that Portland\u2019s offer was more lucrative than Minnesota\u2019s (Twitter video link<\/a>). Still, I\u2019d be surprised if the Blazers were willing to go much higher than the Wolves, given that they\u2019re operating just $8.3MM away from the luxury tax line.
\nKuminga\u2019s deal with the Wolves isn\u2019t even technically official yet, but Turner spent part of his appearance on the Run it Back show discussing the options his client could have next summer as a result of his player option (Twitter video link<\/a>). \u201cOn paper, next year for Jonathan Kuminga is a way better free agency year for him,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of teams with money, and if you\u2019ve paid attention to JK\u2019s recruiting saga over the last few years, those teams that have been trying to sign-and-trade for him \u2013 Sacramento, Chicago \u2013 these teams have a lot of money next year. \u2026 The game board is set very well for JK for 2027.\u201d The Kings, who pursued Kuminga a year ago, were cap-strapped and couldn\u2019t offer him more than the veteran\u2019s minimum this summer. But it\u2019s worth noting that the Bulls had a ton of cap room entering the 2026 offseason and used it to trade for Nic Claxton<\/a> and sign Norman Powell<\/a> rather than prioritizing Kuminga, though Turner did name Chicago as a team that had some interest in his client.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After explaining last week to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic why his client chose to sign with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,867],"class_list":["post-825665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-jonathan-kuminga"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117196739628820884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}