Kumingga: Died with the Warriors, or...?

"Do you really want to stay here?"

"Do you really want to stay me?"

These two sentences are more than enough in love videos, but the scene they appear is commercial negotiations. The first sentence comes from Golden State Warriors boss Lacob, and the second sentence is a rhetorical question from Warriors striker Kumingga. It sounds a bit inexplicable, because this is different from the careful test of both men and women in the romance film. Lacob and Kumingga both knew the answers when asking questions and asking rhetorical questions.

Why is it unnecessary?

Lakob's question may be to play the last emotional card. In 2021, the Warriors chose Kumingga from the G League igniting team with the No. 7 draw. It is said that head coach Cole, general manager Miles and other management teams are more willing to choose Wagner, and Lacob goes against the crowd and chooses Kumingga.

Kuminga's rhetoric question opened up the four-year conflict between him and the Warriors. The goal he pursues never matches the position given to him by the Warriors and is not at all close. Many people in the Warriors want to choose Wagner, but why doesn’t Kumingga want to become another Wagner?

Only look at the data for the 2024-25 season, Kumingga and Wagner are two levels of players. The former averaged 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game; the latter averaged 24.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game. The market also gave the answer, and Wagner received a five-year, $224 million contract renewal last year.

Kuminga's contract renewal has been delayed until this summer, and he has the following 6 options -

1. Sign with other teams, and the Warriors consider whether to match the contract.

2. Sign first and then change.

3. Accept qualification quotes and have the right to veto the transaction for the entire season.

4. Accept a one-year contract, the amount exceeds the qualification quotation, and waive the transaction veto.

5. Renew the Warriors, the last year of the contract player option.

6. Renew the contract with the Warriors, the team option for the last year of the contract.

Kumingga excluded 1, and teams with salary space this summer were not interested in signing with him; the Warriors could have chosen 2, and two teams were willing to sign first and then exchange for Kumingga. The Suns offered the price of Reus O'Neal, Nick Richards and four second-round picks. The Kings were willing to give Monk and the first round protected signing in 2030, but the Warriors were not satisfied and refused.

Kuminga chose 3 items for the remaining 4 options. He was willing to accept 3, 4, and 5, but the Warriors were only willing to give 6 items. Time is getting less and less. According to the rules, if the two parties do not reach an agreement before October 1, the qualification quotation will be cancelled. In other words, if the Warriors fail to meet Kumingga on September 30, he will sign a qualification offer.

In this long and boring pull, the Warriors first gave $45 million in two years and the team option for the second year, but was rejected; as time gradually decreased, Lacob came forward in person and gave $75.2 million in three years and the team option for the third year, but was still rejected.

Kuminga's requirements are also very simple. If it is a three-year contract and a third-year player option, he is willing to accept a contract with an annual salary of US$20 million. If the team option is required in the third year, the annual salary will be US$30 million.

The two sides were in a stalemate again.

Many Warriors fans criticized Kumingga for being too greedy. They looked through the video one by one, pointed out Kumingga's various flaws, and then persisted in discussing a question, "How much is Kumingga worth?" Obviously, Kumingga is not regarded as a star. Except for the Suns and Kings, teams with cap space will not give contracts, and teams without cap space will also refuse to trade.

If you only look at Kumingga's regular season data, it may be a bit more than $20 million a year, especially after the Warriors introduced Butler, Kumingga's playing time gradually decreased. In the penultimate game of the regular season, Kumingga played for 17 minutes, scored 10 points in 2 of 7 shots, without an assist. The Warriors' self-media even shouted, "Is this Kumingga's last game with the Warriors?"

But in the second round of the playoffs, Curry was injured, and Kumingga got the playing time he wanted. From the second to the fifth, under the suffocating defense of the Timberwolves, Butler stopped. Kumingga averaged 24.3 points per game, of which 30 points were scored from 11 of 18 shots in the third game.

Judging from the data of "high-end games", it is not an exaggeration to have a contract with an annual salary of US$25 million.

But which Kumingga is the real him?

On December 18, 2021, the Warriors started their first start in Game 30 of the 20th game of the 20th game of the 20th game of the 20th game of the rookie season, playing for 36 minutes, and in his first 19 games, the maximum number of games did not exceed 19 minutes. Kumingga made 9 of 15 shots in this game and scored 26 points. After the game, Cole said to him, "If we were a bad team, you could play like this every night, you would score high points every game and be selected into the best team of rookies. Everyone would think you are the future star, but you wouldn't know how to win."

Kuminga's grudges and love and hatred lasted for four seasons, and the connotation was in this passage.

Kor wants to train every Warriors player to what he wants, he just wants to see Kuminga defend and pass the ball. When Hilde just joined the Warriors and made an open three-pointer but failed to pass it to Curry, Cole also joked. He pulled Hilde towards Curry, "Come on, get to know Curry, the greatest pitcher in history. Pass the ball to him!"

But Kumingga didn't want to pass the ball, and didn't want to be the screws of a meticulous machine, especially as this machine gradually ages, and the friction sounds are getting louder and louder.

His destiny has been finalized in 2020. Kumingga was born in the Congo (Dragon), and his parents are both basketball players. His brother is also great at playing basketball. In 2015, Kumingga's father's eldest brother shot a video to send it to the United States, hoping that his eldest son would go to the United States to study. It is rare that someone helps edit it, and my father took another picture of Kumingjia, which is considered a big deal.

The eldest brother was attracted to him. In 2018, he entered UNLV, played for a year and then transferred to Texas Tech, and now he plays in Africa.

And Kumingga, who is the top student, was actually selected and went to the United States to study for the first year of high school in 2016. Four years later, Kumingga ranked fourth among the 2020 high school students selected by ESPN. Since he was born in October 2002, he can also stay in high school for one more year, and Kumingga ranked first in the 2021 high school students ranking.

According to normal circumstances, Kumingga will have two choices in the summer of 2020, either stay in high school and play for another year, or go to the NCAA. At that time, there were four prestigious schools competing for it, namely Kentucky, Duke, Auburn and Texas Tech, where his brother was located. Having to make a choice, Kumingga wanted to play basketball with his brother.

But unexpected situations occurred in 2020. The NBA senior executives slapped their heads and set up a G League team called Lighting - Unlike the university in Baigan, they give money here.

So Kumingga decided to join Lighting, with an annual salary of about 500,000 US dollars.

It is hard for us to condemn Kumingga for not going to college for money. He was born in Congo, without a prestigious American school plot, and the team has NBA endorsement. Who would have thought that this team was in chaos in management and training?

We cannot condemn Kumingga for "looking at money", because he occupied the moral high ground. In May 2021, the Niragongo volcano erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing many people. Most of the salary Kumingga received was donated to the motherland.

2022 World Cup Africa Qualifiers, Kumingga was once rumored to be trapped and lost contact due to the complex situation in Africa, but it was finally proved to be a false alarm. Now, Kumingga is not all for money. He did call out a high price of $30 million per year, but he was willing to accept a one-year contract that was a little higher than the qualification quote, and at the same time gave up the non-trade clause; he was willing to ask for a three-year contract with an annual salary of $20 million. During the negotiations, he and his agent Turner always emphasized the player options. The reason is simple. The Warriors are prisoners for him and he wants to escape.

Kuminga believes that he can be himself and play in the way he likes.

At this time, Kumingga has another reference object, Sam Thomas, the No. 17 show in 2021. Last season, Thomas averaged 24.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game at the Nets. He wanted a contract with an annual salary of more than $30 million. The highest expected value was an annual salary of $40 million. The Nets did not comment, and other teams remained silent.

Thomas finally renewed his contract with the Nets and signed a one-year qualification quotation contract of $6 million. This is seen as a "win-win", and the Nets can still keep Thomas at a low price for a year, and Thomas becomes a full free agent by the summer of 2026 and has more opportunities. Why are the Warriors unwilling to be "win-win" with Kuminga?

Just as Kumingga could not answer Lacob's question positively, he could only ask back, and Lacob could not answer Kumingga's question too - the Warriors needed Kumingga to sign a 2-year or 3-year contract, not to keep him in the team for a long time, but to make him a bargaining chip in the future.

With Kumingga's status, his contract renewal is actually not qualified to be a soap opera all summer, and he should not have such high attention. It's a big stir now, just because this contract renewal is the tip of the iceberg that emerges from the water. Everyone's eyes widened, hoping to see how big the shadow there is under the water.

Where the Warriors' dynasty will go depends on how they retain Kuminga.

The Warriors now have nine players with formal contracts, with a total salary of $170 million, of which Curry, Butler and Zhu Meng combined for about $140 million. In the 2025-26 season, the luxury tax line was 188 million, the first fence was 196 million, and the second fence was 208 million.

The new labor-management agreement started in 2023 is gradually changing the alliance.

If the Warriors add $30 million a year to Cuming, the Warriors have 10 players and a total salary of 200 million, and they have to make up for the other five on the 15-man roster, the total contract amount will inevitably exceed the second fence, which is a devastating blow to the Warriors.

In other words, no matter how big the contract the Warriors contracted to Kumingga, the salary of the 2025-26 season should be less than $22 million, so that they can sign the basic salary and limit the total salary to the second fence. The most cost-effective way is to sign a qualification quote with Kuming, so that the Warriors can keep their salary under the first fence and save about $70 million in luxury taxes. The loss is that the team completely loses hope of strengthening, Kumingga is in harmony with the team, and he will be free next summer. The Warriors' goal is not to save money, but to maintain competitiveness.

Curry, Butler and Dream Chasing contracts all expire in 2027. In the next two seasons, the Warriors are still looking forward to seeing the afterglow of the dynasty. With their current lineup, they must improve the team through trades. But who can I trade? Only Kumingga, and he signed Kumingga with an annual salary of $20 million.

Therefore, the team options in Kumingga's contract are particularly important. The team that takes over can try to scrape out a big lotto. If not, use the team options to stop loss. If Kumingga's contract is a player option, the transaction value will be greatly reduced.

So, in this negotiation between Kuminga and the Warriors, Kuming's bargaining chips have never been his data, ability and potential, but the Warriors' future..

The Warriors face only three environments: big loss, medium loss and small loss - I am not wrong. In the entanglement with Kumingga, the Warriors will not become winners no matter what the ending ends. Their only way to survive is to lose first and then win, lose the contract renewal negotiation, and find opportunities to win in possible future transactions.

Fate always makes a joke with us inadvertently.

I wonder if the Warriors who are trapped by the second fence will think of 2016. That summer, they relied on a soaring $24 million in salary space to sign Durant, and then won the championship for two consecutive years to establish the dynasty, but all the gifts given by fate had already been secretly bidding for the price.

In 2016, the Warriors' general manager was still Miles. He received news that Durant was willing to talk to the Warriors. Miles is not sure if Curry is willing to accept Durant, but he hopes to get Curry's answer first. So he had a conversation with Curry, which was also a question and a rhetorical question.

"What if Durant wants to come?"

"Do you think he wants to come here?"

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(text/Lao Pan)

source:7m free