Jonathan Kuminga never lived up to the hype after the Golden State Warriors selected him with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Kuminga is still only 22 years old though, and he’s potentially the biggest name poised to change teams on the 2025 NBA free agency market. While a return to Golden State is still possible, multiple teams are jockeying for position to land Kuminga in a sign-and-trade with the Warriors.
The Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls were named as the two most likely Kuminga landing spots, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported that Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans are also in the Kuminga derby while confirming the Bulls and Heat’s interest.
It won’t be easy to land Kuminga in a sign-and-trade because of the NBA’s arcane base year compensation rules. The speculation is that the Warriors forward will agree to a deal that pays him between $25-30 million annually over four years. Miami’s Terry Rozier and Chicago’s Coby White could be involved in a potential sign-and-trade going back to the Warriors. There’s still a lot of moving pieces.
Kuminga put up good scoring numbers this season in Golden State but again struggled with his efficiency, three-point shooting, rebounding, and general awareness on both ends of the floor. He finished this season with a -4.7 rTS%, a metric that captures his scoring efficiency compared to league average, which ranked in the 30th percentile of the league. He just isn’t a good three-point shooter yet after making only 30.5 percent of his triples on 151 attempts. Kuminga also isn’t an efficient two-point scorer, making only 50 percent of his looks inside the arc last season.
Still, Kuminga has plenty of raw scoring upside as an athletic forward who can fly in the open floor and attack the rim with power. He’s overwhelming in one-on-one situations as a quick-twitch athlete with a 7-foot wingspan and 225-pound frame. He scored 30.6 points per 100 possessions, which trailed only Steph Curry (37.1 points per 100 possessions) on Golden State.
It’s possible Kuminga lingers on the open market for a couple days if a sign-and-trade proves difficult to work out. We’ll keep you updated on the latest Kuminga rumors in this post.
