East Team’s Potential Decision Could Escalate Jonathan Kuminga Drama With Warriors

East Team’s Potential Decision Could Escalate Jonathan Kuminga Drama With Warriors originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The Golden State Warriors are still awaiting a decision by restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga as the NBA offseason is nearing August.

Of course, Kuminga has a major decision to make regarding the next step of his career and it appears likely that it will not be in Golden State but rather with another franchise.

This comes after the young forward fell out of Steve Kerr’s rotation last season after the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat at the trade deadline.

While it appears Kuminga’s time in Golden State is nearing an end, the Warriors still have a major say in his next team as they will likely have to agree to a sign-and-trade deal.

Despite this, ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel recently reported that one Eastern Conference team could escalate the situation between Kuminga and the Warriors by making a major decision this offseason.

“Other teams with rumored interest in Kuminga are the Chicago Bulls, Phoenix Suns, and Brooklyn Nets. Then again, the Nets, who have plenty of cap space, have yet to express serious interest in Kuminga,” Siegel wrote. “If they wanted to, Brooklyn could sign Kuminga to an offer sheet right now and escalate this situation.”

This is a massive report by Siegel as the Nets do have enough cap space to sign Kuminga to an offer sheet which would tie the Warriors’ hands.

Of course, this is unlikely to happen as the Nets are also dealing with their own restricted free agent problems with Cam Thomas as they are not wanting to offer the young guard the contract that he wants.

While that may be the case, if the Nets end up moving on from Thomas in a sign-and-trade deal with another team they could shift their focus on Kuminga, who they have been linked to over the past two seasons.

This would be the worst-case scenario for Golden State and one that would extremely hurt them heading into next season, especially with their lack of moves thus far this offseason.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 25, 2025, where it first appeared.