Kuminga aims for a $150 million deal over five years! The Warriors have never made this offer, and other teams can't meet it either.

Last autumn, forward Jonathan Kuminga and the Warriors failed to reach an agreement on extending his rookie contract. At that time, Anthony Slater, a reporter for The Athletic, wrote: "Kuminga could have accepted a contract below the max, but the Warriors never raised their offer (around $30 million per year) to a sufficiently attractive level."

Kuminga's max contract, if signed for four years, would be around $43 million per year; if signed for five years, the annual salary would be close to $45 million. Clearly, the Warriors are unwilling to pay such a price. However, Kuminga's agent, Allan Turner, tweeted this week that Kuminga has never even received an offer of $30 million per year, let alone rejected one.

Now with ESPN, Slater confirmed this during a podcast appearance with his new colleague Brian Windhorst on Friday.

According to Slater, despite multiple negotiations for a new contract, the Warriors were reluctant to make a specific offer to Kuminga last autumn because if Kuminga signed this extension, he would be limited by the "poison pill provision" in the 2024-25 season, and the Warriors wanted to retain flexibility for trades.

"I think Jalen Johnson's five-year, $150 million contract gave Kuminga's camp a target," Slater stated, "and I've heard that if the Warriors were willing to offer a five-year, $150 million deal, Kuminga's camp would accept it. But the Warriors never made such an offer."

Nine months later, after a tumultuous season—during which Kuminga played only 47 games and saw declines in several stats—he now finds himself as a restricted free agent, with a generally low valuation in the league, far below $30 million per year.

Fred Katz of The Athletic surveyed 16 sources from other teams' front offices, asking them what they believed a "reasonable" contract for Kuminga should look like.According to Katz, the respondents suggested a salary range between $17 million and $25 million per year, with the most optimistic suggesting a five-year, $125 million deal for Kuminga..

Katz wrote that most respondents believed a three-year contract was the most reasonable, with many suggesting including a player option for the third year. Some compared Kuminga's situation to Jalen Green of the Houston Rockets. The former Rockets guard signed a three-year, $105 million rookie contract extension last autumn, which included a player option for the third year, and he was traded to the Phoenix Suns when this contract took effect earlier this month.

"It feels like a Jalen Green-style contract that keeps him tradeable," a team official who suggested a three-year, $70 million deal told Katz, "It's definitely lower than he might expect, but the player option gives him some flexibility."

Another respondent said: "If I were his agent, I would push for a short-term deal so he can earn money while having the opportunity to leave for somewhere else."

As Katz wrote,Kuminga is not without the possibility of accepting that $8 million qualifying offer, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026.But this is a risky path for both the 22-year-old player and the Warriors—the Warriors desperately need a player with a salary between $15 million and $25 million to meet trade demands. Currently, in the 2025-26 season, the only players on the Warriors with salaries exceeding $11.6 million are Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green, none of whom are on the trade candidate list.

If he accepts the qualifying offer, the Warriors will be done in terms of team building,because they need him to sign a contract that can be used for trades," an executive said, "This is crucial for them."