Kings stuck in ‘staring contest’ between Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga
Almost a month after free agency began, the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns are caught up in a “staring contest” between Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors.
ESPN’s Shams Charania addressed the standoff on Thursday’s episode of “NBA Today,” saying the Warriors haven’t budged despite receiving “concrete offers” from Sacramento and Phoenix.
“The Warriors’ entire offseason has been essentially on pause for one player, and that’s the restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga,” Charania said. “They have wanted to figure out his situation before making their other offseason moves.
“I saw Jonathan Kuminga this morning at a workout in Miami. He’s in good spirits. He had a good workout. He did tell me, though, that he is in absolutely no rush on doing a deal with the Warriors right now and he is not accepting their current offers. He added he wants to continue to explore options with his agent, Aaron Turner, whether that’s continuing conversations with the Warriors, but also sign-and-trade options that are available to him in the marketplace.”
That’s where the Kings and Suns came into the conversation.
“I’m told the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings are two teams that have made concrete offers with the Warriors over the last week or so,” Charania said. “They’re two of the more aggressive teams with Kuminga. They’re also offering him an opportunity for significant minutes, a starting-caliber role in their lineup, and those are two things that he wants more than anything.”
Kuminga, 22, is a 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward who entered the NBA as the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA draft. He averaged 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 47 games last season, but he missed 31 games with an ankle sprain and returned to a reduced role after the Warriors made a blockbuster trade for Jimmy Butler.
“So where this is at,” Charania said, “the Warriors do not want anything, though, that is available to them, that is being offered to them in sign-and-trades, and on the other hand with Jonathan Kuminga, he is not ready to move forward with taking any of the Warriors’ current offers. He’s not in a hurry to do a deal there yet, and so 24 days into the offseason, it’s a staring contest between these two sides that could continue much longer than just this month.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM.
