Like any agent worth his commission, Aaron Turner is his client’s biggest cheerleader, as he is first among those who believe Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga is a starting role away from becoming a perennial NBA All-Star.
Maybe he is, but that’s not happening in Golden State. Not as long as the core trio – Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler – remains intact. And if there’s no room for Kuminga in the starting lineup, he can’t be the player he wants to be.
“It’s probably true,” Turner said Friday during a guest appearance on “Dubs Talk.” “But that doesn’t mean that it can’t work, or it’s not OK for the time being. JK’s an ambitious 22-year-old. I’m not going to take that away from him. I love that. He should be. (He’s) young. You want to keep growing and get better.
“The way JK moves is he wants to keep pushing the envelope, and I’m not going to take that away from him. I actually agree with it. Can he be the player he wants to be here, right now, with this roster composition? No. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to win and he’s not willing to sacrifice for the group.”
That concession is bound to have an impact on any contract offer. How high are the Warriors willing to go for someone slotted to come off the bench as a sixth or seventh man?
Golden State’s latest offer, roughly $75 million over three years, really is a two-year deal because Year 3 is a team option. That offer was made with considerable reluctance, and bumping up to $100 million or more is does not seem to be on the horizon.
Turner acknowledges that Kuminga’s contract value is lower than most of his fellow lottery picks in the 2021 NBA Draft, largely because he entered the league with a team with an incumbent superstar. A team built not to develop but to chase championships.
“Those other guys didn’t really go to teams that were winning,” Turner said. “If the Warriors didn’t win in ’22, (negotiating a new contract) is probably very fluid and easy. But they did, and that kind of complicated things.”
Five of the six players selected before Kuminga in the 2021 NBA…
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