The Nets basically have a monopoly of cap space this summer. They can move in a lot of different ways. Would signing Jonathan Kuminga be one option.
Jonathan Kuminga can’t get off the bench in Golden State. The 6’7” 22-year-old who averaged 15.3 points a game on 45/31/67 shooting splits racked up a DNP-CD and nothing else in Game 1 of the Warriors-Rockets series, his third straight game-long benching. It’s quite clear, as long-time Bay area basketball writer Tim Kawakami said, Kuminga is simply “out of the rotation, period.”
Making things even more confusing is that Kuminga is a restricted free agent, meaning that he can go into the free agent market in July in hopes of earning a lot more than the $7.6 million he picked up this season. Kuminga turned down the Warriors offer last summer, reportedly seeking a deal with an average salary of $35 million. That was $5 million more than the Warriors were willing to pay.
And so, his future has become as much of an issue as his present. Since there’s only one team with cap space this season, there’s been speculation that the Nets could have interest in the Congolese native who finished up his high school career at the Patrick School in Hillside, N.J.
Cue Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Steinline. Writing Monday, Stein and Fischer had this to say about the possibility of Brooklyn interest:
The Brooklyn Nets have long loomed as a potential suitor that the Warriors have been monitoring given the Nets’ projected cap space. Brooklyn’s true level of interest remains to be seen, but Kuminga could not come to terms with Golden State last fall when he was seeking a contract higher than the $30 million in average annual salary that went to fellow Class of 2021 first-round draftees Jalen Suggs (Orlando) and Jalen Johnson (Atlanta).
The Nets, at present, are projected to be the only team with $40 million in salary cap space this summer, theoretically positioning them to mount a firm Kuminga pursuit if they wish. That lack of abundant cap space has led various team strategists this week to suggest that a sign-and-trade could be the ultimate mechanism that delivers the former No. 7 pick out of the Bay Area come July.
Not really a lot there. Stein and Fischer are careful not to say the Nets have interest, just that the Warriors are “monitoring” the Nets as a potential sign-and-trade partner, that the Nets could “theoretically” pursue Kuminga with all that cap space and that Brooklyn’s “true level of interest remains to be seen.”
Back in December, when Golden State made their deal for Dennis Schroder, there were some reports that the Warriors were interested in expanding that deal to include Cam Johnson and Kuminga but that the Nets demands were “too steep.” Sean Marks & co. were seeking first round draft assets for Johnson at the time.
Other reports back then questioned the level of Nets interest in Kuminga whose offensive decision-making and general defense have long been questioned.
Brian Lewis, in a lengthy discussion of how the Nets might move this summer — with all that cap space and all those draft picks — Tuesday also indicated Kuminga might not match the Nets plans. Same with other similarly situated free agents.
[T]he opportunity cost of using their $45 million in cap space on available targets such as Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey, Quentin Grimes and Santi Aldama could be too high…
Despite Kuminga regularly being linked to the Nets, it seems unlikely.
Lewis backed up his supposition with this quote from last Monday’s media availability.
“I think we need to be opportunistic,” Marks said. “In this market, we’re always going to have various different free agents and opportunities thrown at us. Just simply being in a top-five market in the league, that’s going to happen. [But] we don’t want to get sped up. We’ve talked multiple times about being systematic and strategic in how we build here. We know we have 15 first-round picks in the next six, seven years, so there’s a lot of draft assets at stake.
“There’s a lot of cap room at stake. And how we use that, it’s probably too early to determine. But there’s a variety of different pathways we can go on. And it’s just about being opportunistic as to how we build and when we go all-in again, so to speak. And that could be going all-in with whether it’s free agents or trades, but it also could be go all-in with systematically growing some homegrown talent.”
Lewis suggests that Marks is likely to move slowly — “we don’t want to get sped up” — with some of the same strategies he used in the early part of his first rebuild: taking on bad contracts in return for more draft assets, being a third wheel in multi-team deals involving superstars, etc.
So, bottom line, expect the Nets to be the subject of a lot of rumors in the coming weeks and months, but also be skeptical of the Nets making big deals and be prepared for what Lewis called, “Tank 2.0”
- The Nets have the cap space and extra picks to upgrade this summer — that doesn’t mean they will ($) – Brian Lewis – New York Post