As the Warriors look ahead to training camp, Jonathan Kuminga doesn’t have an extension in place or a secure spot in the starting lineup, writes Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard. After displaying signs of stardom over his first three NBA seasons, the 21-year-old is hoping for a breakthrough this year. The contract situation is out of his hands, so he’s focused on proving himself on the court.
“I’m not thinking about that right now,” Kuminga said about earning a starting spot. “But I’m working toward it. The goal is me being a full starter. So I’m not even worried about what’s going to happen, because I know how much work I’ve put in. And I know once I step on that floor, things are going to change.”
Kuminga started 46 of the 74 games he played last season, but he only averaged 26.3 minutes per night. Coach Steve Kerr has been up front with Kuminga about what he needs to do to solidify a starting role, Kawakami adds. That includes making better decisions with the ball, playing at a faster pace, and improving his 32.1% three-point shooting.
Draymond Green is set as the Warriors’ power forward, so Kerr wants Kuminga to adapt his game to become more effective as a small forward.
“I’ve always been a small forward, my whole life,” Kuminga said. “And I don’t have a position at this point, because I feel like … when I go back in the summer, I work on everything. Because I’m a small forward, but I could play any position, so I never just define myself as small forward. I’m definitely confident, and I just can’t wait to go out there and show people what I’ve been working on and stuff. I mean, it’s always my thing to just work on certain things and get better. And I feel like shooting threes, I’ve gotten so much better shooting.”
Kawakami states that the lack of a fully defined role has probably prevented Kuminga from landing a rookie scale extension already. The sides have until October 21 to work out an agreement, but it’s possible the Warriors will wait until next summer and look to re-sign Kuminga as a restricted free agent.
“I haven’t really got into it that much,” he said. “I don’t want to step my foot off track. I’m focusing on how can I be great? How can I help something? The better you play, the more you do things, everything’s going to open up itself. So I’m not worried about things like that because I know who I am, I know myself. At the end of the day, it’s just having an opportunity, a chance to go out there and prove. And just waiting for the moment. It’s God’s plan, so I’m not even tripping or thinking about it day to day. Whenever it happens, it’s going to happen.”
Kuminga added that he would “love to” remain with Golden State long-term if that’s what his future holds. He believes any differences with Kerr were resolved when they met in the middle of last season to discuss Kuminga’s complaints about playing time.
Kuminga is also aware of the offseason trade rumors that had him possibly going to the Clippers as part of a package for Paul George or to the Jazz in exchange for Lauri Markkanen. Kuminga takes the fact that he didn’t get dealt as a sign of confidence from general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr.
“I feel like Mike believes in us,” he said. “There’s not too many people who are going to believe in young players, but I feel like Mike believes in the young guys he drafted, the young guys he’s been around and watched their process, how they’re growing and how they’re going to fit with some of the vets we have. I mean, it’s a blessing to still be here. I’m always thankful to be around and Mike having trust in us.”
I’d be waiting if GSW too. This is a volatile bunch. Young guys whinging about court time, Dre bringing his WWE tactics on a nightly basis. Steph relied on for 50 a night. In the head of Kuminga, he’s the second and third option on the Offensive end. Kuminga going all Cam Thomas this season lol. These sensitive warriors fans talking about Boston’s payroll are in for a nice surprise this time next season. How much you paying kuminga and Moody?
You make a lot of good points. Yep I think the payroll is going to have a lot of questions that need to be answered this preseason and next summer.
But I think the answers will be trade Moody trade Wiggins trade Gary payton. Sure they’ll bring that money back but hopefully as one guy. Hopefully a stud. We’ll see how it goes.
It could be a long year if they don’t find that stud but then I’m hoping they rely on defense. That could be there calling card this season and help them make the playoffs?
I actually rate moody but anyway, each to their own. Dude plays both ends and plays hard. Can stretch the floor and doesn’t need volume shooting to chip in 15 this night, 20 another. Dude hustles. That sounds like and looks like a guy to me you want playing next to Steph. Kuminga is going to be all about him this yr. Can see that coming a mile away. Why not pull the trigger this off season? Why wait for next? Steph isn’t young for an 82 game season man.
nrg82 , stop reading the the Boston sports press so you don’t get depressed like all the other Celtics fans. Yes, the new Celtics ownership must break up the team to avoid losing hundreds of millions. But, as the man said, “don’t be sad it’s over, be glad it happened.”
Unlike Boston, Warriors fans don’t need to worry about their team being broke. (Celtics were $85M in the red this last season, this season will be twice as bad.) Warriors have $400M more in annual revenue than the mid-market Celts, which means nobody will be worried about how overpaid Warriors players are.
Get used to the reality that NBA dynasties are a thing of the past…except for the teams with really deep pockets.
The Warriors do need deep playoff runs to support the truly obscene payrolls. They make something like 13M per playoff games, and then of course get higher rates for regular season ticket packages when theyre good.
Chapman , , the Warriors don’t need to play a single playoff game to have considerably more revenue (and profit) than any other team, as demonstrated by last year, when they lost in the first game of the play-in. See the lihe link.
link to statista.com
That’s because they make an average of about $800 per fan for a single game. (The average is deceiving because the high-end that skews upward.) You’re right that the guy make way more on playoff tickets, though. And winning pushes up the price of all tickets.
This is the crux of the NBA’s punitive multiplier tax: the Warriors would o try herwise be able to pay > $250 million more in salary than any other team.
The Clippers’ new arena will improve their revenues a lot. Dallas Cowboys have achieved the same advantage in the NFL via their stadium. Two pre-requisits: a few billion to build the deluxe facility and an affluent fan base.
(Celtics were $85M in the red this last season, this season will be twice as bad.)
Aristotle, you’re throwing around false information. “This last season” the Celtics were not 85M in the red, they were right around breaking even. That 85M in the red is projected for the 2024-25 season with the 225M is projected for 2025-26.
I pointed this out the following day after our last interaction in the Grousbeck Family Payroll article.
The writer for it used the phrase “this season” when pointing out that 85M number but should have typed “this upcoming season” meaning 2024-25.
Boston’s total revenue from your statista link says 443M for 2023-24. They had 188M in player salaries, a luxury tax bill around 48M and their offcourt operating payroll was just over 200M. That adds up to not far below your 443M in your link.
Two things that no one is mentioning about Boston’s income in the near future are:
1. Everyone is completely ignoring the additional revenue that they’re likely going to see from winning the Finals like additional merchandise sales, ad revenue and likely ticket hikes. Every NBA champ earns more money after winning, how much? That remains to be seen.
2. Boston’s offcourt operating income over the past four seasons has been:
46M in 2020-21
137M in 2021-22
88M in 2022-23
200-210M in 2023-24
Knowing how much their luxury tax bill will be over the next season or two, Ownership will likely attempt to lower that offcourt operating income like they did after the 2021-22 season.
Will it be enough to put a major dent in their expected 85 & 225M salary debts? That also remains to be seen.
Regardless, again, the 85M in the red number that keeps getting pointed to here in this site is for 2024-25 not last season where they won the Finals.
erikthredd , good to hear from you, and thanks for the info. If the writer of the article meant 2024-25 by “this season”, and not 2023-24, when describing the Celtics’ $85M loss, then, as you say, it’s less likely that new ownership will reduce spending before the end of this season. But it doesn’t change the near cetainty that new ownership will reduce salary obligations before 2025-26, or otherwise lose > $200M, and considerably more than that in 2026-27.
As of 2020, with TV and streaming in place, the critical requirement to real profitability for sports franchises is to own a deluxe sports/entertainment venue, which, effectively, double their gate. The other sources of revenue you mention are minor in comparison.
The reason the Celtics may sell for $5B is not based on their current financial, but the potential revenues that would derive from a $2B investment in a new sports/entertainment center. Based on the reports, the Grousbecks don’t have the means or inclination to pull this off, but the new ownership would.
With the right new ownership, Boston and the Celtics could have such a facility in 5 years. In the meantime, they’ll need to dispose of some players.
No one is really arguing the point that Boston will absolutely need to roll back on their salaries payroll in the near future.
Wyc talked with a local sports reporter recently and mentioned that he knows that they’re going to lose money over the next two years but they’re looking at it as a 2yr window. Wyc’s vibe wasn’t coming off as someone that is worrying to much about this.
They know the situation that they put the team in financially and they feel good that there are paths to cut payroll considerably when needed. Like I mentioned in that Grousbeck article last weekend, the Horford (24-25) and Porzingis (25-26j come off the books after those two seasons and would save a crap ton of tax money, especially KP.
One thing that will affect the sale price is the team doesn’t own the arena and IIRC they just re-upped their lease agreement for another 10-12yrs. The next ownership group may want to eventually move to their own place but they’ll need to get out of that lease agreement.
There really hasn’t been much new news on who may buy the team, the names being thrown around are Jeff Bezos (not likely) and the Fenway Sports Group who own the Red Sox. A large portion of our fanbase are praying that it’s not the FSG for obvious reasons.
Making a educated guess, I expect the powers that be in Boston keep the band together for this season and regroup a year from now.
I know that the sports media and fans are painting a dire picture regarding the C’s future but their front office knows what they’re doing, they’re going to retool the team around the Jays who are both still pretty young.
“so you don’t get depressed like all the other Celtics fans.”
Yeah, Celtics fans are super depressed.
Troll better or don’t troll at all.
Claydagoat , this is a Warriors thread, and I’m a Warriors fan. I’m responding to a troll. I avoid trolling threads for other teams.
BTW, yes Celtics fans have the best team in the NBA, and should be happy. But I’m being factual that the biggest Celtic topic at the moment is the likely impact of new ownership on the roster.
Warrior fans are not worried about payroll like it used to be. Besides Curry, Green and Wiggins the payroll is not that high and tradeable players if they need to get down. Only $140 million tied up next year while your celtics have $226 tied up next year in payroll. $85 million less is a huge amount. Not sure why you brought up payroll?
If Curry, Dray and Kuminga play top 3 mins on the team, GSW will go far this season. If Podz plays more mins than them, they will struggle again.
I agree. With Klay saying you gave my spot to him, kuminga saying why can’t I start like him, Moody loosing minutes to a lesser player, a rookie starting with veterans (with no real C on the roster)
Kuminga should try to be sixth man of the year
Podz starts and it’s over. Time to go home GS. Poor Curry.
Have always been a Kuminga guy. Freakin 21yrs old. I still see a very good 2way player. His day is coming. Need him at 34 mins by all star.
I have always been a Wiggins guy also. I’m not going to judge. I know he’s had rough waters for awhile. Wiggins still has something. I think you get the most from him. By trading him to Raptors. Go back home and honor your father. Do it for that sole Canadian team. Warriors can get Quickley out of it. It would be great for both teams. Curry can mentor Quickley.
Jonathan Kuminga is going to have to show that he’s worked on the things he needed to this off season. They’re stated in the article above.
If not then match the offer someone else signs him as a restricted free agent. Hopefully it’s a reasonable rate or the new team will be stuck paying JK that big money.
Gary , this would not be a Warriors thread without you bashing Kuminga and Davey bashing Podz. Lol
If you’re both right, do we have a shot at Cooper Flagg?
I’m hoping JK worked on his game this summer because he has potential to be very good.
The player I bash is Moses Moody. I don’t think he has a shot to be more than a guy off the bench. He just doesn’t have it, and that’s just my opinion of course.
Moody has it physically but doesn’t have it upstairs. I don’t think he’s mentally strong enough to get over the hump and do what it takes to become an NBA starter. Maybe on a crummy team he’ll get you 15 points but you’ll never know it. It’ll be the quietest 15 per game in the league.
Nothing against the person I just need Killer Instinct out there and do everything it takes to win. No jogging when you need sprinting. No watching when you need boxing out. Etc.
Al, you still haven’t given up on James Wiseman though.
Nope ….. wish Thibs would have signed him.
His stats are better than IHart lol.
Al , Wiggins would probably love to go home to Toronto. But it seems like another hometown kid, RJ Barrett, beat him to I try, right.
Wiggins is at end where RJ is at beginning. Both can bring Toronto back. I just think going home is best for him now. Works for everyone.
@ Aristotle. You don’t get the Boston sports press in Australia. We have some ways to go to catch up with what you guys have paid in taxes pal. I’m not the best at mathematics but I see Boston 5th in payroll for the 24/25 season and Golden state a monstrous 2 million and change behind in 7th. You want to talk to me about Boston losing money lol. I don’t care, it’s not my money. You guys are still paying the price from the KD days buddy. And when we do retool, we’ll still have two all star stud wings in their prime, don’t cry for me. Unlike Golden State. When the time comes for the rebuild we’ll cash in on Tatum and Brown when we are 100% curtain we’re done. You guys need to pay kuminga etc etc next season and you aren’t a title threat so you tell me who’s wasting money here.
nrg82 ,. When you say you don’t get American sports press in Australia, that explains your posts. Here it is in a nutshell:
link to statista.com
Warriors don’t need to worry about, as you put it, “overpaying” because they could double their current payroll and still be profitable.
Aristotle,do you live in Australia? No remark on it, just curious.
erikthredd , Warriors season ticket holder (share with a friend) for almost 30 years. I live in Palo Alto. I’m assuming you’re in Boston?
Gotcha. I’m about 20mins away from Boston in North Andover,MA.
Hah, I know it well.
Now what do we want to argue about next?
Erikthreddd , as a kid, in Vermont, I grew up watching every televised Celtics game. Earliest memory, still vivid, of Cowens beating Westphal in 1976.
I still somewhat remember my first C’s game, it was against the Knicks right before Bird came to town. Our seats were way up in the nosebleeds, literally one row from the top and my steam at was right up against this huge concrete column. My only lasting memory from that day was Boston won and it felt like it was 100 degrees in our section.
Those Bird years and the Celtics/Lakers rivalry were just so much fun and got me to really love this game.
I also got to give a shout out to the Warriors for that trade that ultimately gave Boston,Parish & McHale. ;)
*Seat* not steam.
@ Aristotle. You said Boston sports press now American sports press. Very different. We get the national American press not the local stuff. Again, it’s not my money just like any profit the warriors make isn’t yours.
Love HoopsRumors as with so many diverse opinions, someone might even be right, although injuries are hard to predict.
Poor guy seems a tad conflicted. Says several times that he’s a small forward and that he’s always been a small forward but doesn’t define himself as a small forward. Or maybe he just doesn’t know what the word define means.
These kids don’t know anything anymore so don’t hold it against him
ericthredd , this is no fun, we agree on everything.
FWIW, I suspect the free market will take care of everyone’s best interests.
The new ownership will have pockets deep enough to finance a new arena…because only that class of owner will value the team highly enough for the Grousbecks to sell. I don’t know anything about commercial real estate in downtown Boston or of city politics, but this step is in any major city’s best interests.
Having private equity control an ownership group is a double-edged sword, though. It’s strictly dollars and cents from the get-go.
There was also talk of the (Steve) Wynn Group as a potential buyer but IDK if that was just someone throwing out another name. They recently opened a newly built Hotel/Casino near Boston but if they were a buyer they would need to find another location for a potential arena.
That’s kind of been the rub on this topic, finding the best spot in the area that could accommodate building there but also easy access for the fans to get in & out for games.
Current C’s c-owner Steve Pagliuca has also mentioned that he’d like become a potential majority owner but apparently there are rumors though that he’s looking to buy a soccer team overseas. That would probably mean his funds would be tied up elsewhere to be able to make a competitive offer for the C’s
Wyc has stated publicly that he’d like to find a buyer and then stay on as governor over a four year turnover transition sort of like Mark Cuban intended but that’s not likely to happen. You’d expect the new buyer would like to take over the decision making immediately.
As a fan I could only hope that the next owner is as much of a C’s fan as Wyc & Pags have been for all these years.
Interesting info! Paglucia certainly has the right profile. At 69, I’d worry about his age, though, because there’s a lot of heavy lifting to do in the next 5 years.
IMO, the ideal investor profile for the “new generation” of franchise is NOT wealthy individual/family, but investor syndicates, with proven experience in management in pro sports franchises. There are 2 reasons:
First, with the exception of the mega-rich (which excludes Mark Cuban!), few individuals have the resources, time, or experience to get a deluxe sports/entertainment center built. (Paglucia’s background indicates he could create such a syndicate.)
Second, NBA team organizations are at least 2x the size (and, in many cases, 5x the size) than 10 years ago, requiring international reach, new forms of marketing, etc. Investor groups insist on professional management. Individual owners, (see Tsai, Dolan, Ishbia, etc) demonstrate over and again a refusal to hire and defer to professional management.
Yuri Collins is nice, a young C prospect and a trade of Payton and Waters (or waived for Collins) for a veteran C that blocks shots and plays defense.
They should only looking at PG’s and C’s
PG. Curry
SG. Heild
SF. Wiggins (give confidence like you should have done to Klay)
PF. Green
C . ?
Podz needs to be on the bench with Kuminga and company playing high minutes (yes with Moody playing a bigger role)