NBA insider Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports claims that the Indiana Pacers approached the Golden State Warriors about trade for forward Jonathan Kuminga.
In its search for starting forwards, Indiana may make a move for free agents Kyle Kuzma, Grant Williams, and Harrison Barnes.
“Indiana has been scouring the market for starting forwards, contacting the Warriors about acquiring Jonathan Kuminga, sources said, and it looms as a potential free-agent destination for several veterans such as Harrison Barnes, Kyle Kuzma, and Grant Williams,” Fischer added.
On June 30, Kuzma, Barnes, and Williams all become unrestricted free agents, while Williams remains a restricted free agent.
Kuminga, a forward, is not up for sale, said NBA insider Anthony Slater of The Athletic. In the 2021 draft, Golden State selected Kuminga with the seventh overall pick.
A trade-up possibility involving Kuminga was “one of the exploratory conversations that surfaced, via ESPN,” Slater reported. According to what I gather, that contact came from a lottery team who has shown a consistent interest in Kuminga for the past year. Kuminga is not being shopped about by the Warriors, according to numerous team sources.
This past season, Kuminga participated in 67 games for the Warriors. He shot 52.5% from the field, 37.0% from beyond the arc, and 65.2% from the line for 9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists a game.
After winning the championship the previous year, the Warriors were defeated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinals in six games. Kuminga averaged 3.4 points in just 10 postseason games.
But as he approaches his third season, “continued league-wide interest in his talent attached to an unknown place in Kerr’s rotation has put his future in doubt,” Slater wrote. Kuminga for a top-ten choice “would be a mini-draft-night blockbuster and could make sense if the Warriors love someone up in, let’s say, the Pacers range — Anthony Black perhaps? — but would only further reset the youth movement,” said one draft analyst.
In this year’s draft, the Warriors presently have the 15th overall pick. The seventh pick now belongs to the Pacers.
Leave a Reply