We’re spending most of today’s roundup of offseason rumors in northern and central California, but we’ll bounce around a little after that. Things are quiet as the rush of summer free agency is over and teams don’t have to do much now until near the start of training camp.
Stephen Curry’s future with Warriors
The combination of Golden State striking out with LeBron James and other free agents — essentially running it back with a 37-win team while waiting for Moses Moody and Jimmy Butler to get healthy — and Stephen Curry has led to idle speculation about Curry’s future with the Warriors. Would one of the most loyal players in the league actually ask out in the next couple of years to chase a ring?
For his part, Curry has only ever said he wants to play his entire career with one team, and that this summer he has worked with the Warriors front office and understands the situation. Nick Friedell of The Athletic added this in a recent report.
According to one team source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the organization’s internal discussions, it’s not like Curry isn’t aware of what Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy and the rest of the front office are trying to accomplish. The conversation between the star and the team has been ongoing — for years.
The Warriors have consistently pursued high-level trade targets, and that’s not going to stop even though those pursuits haven’t ended well recently, aside from landing Butler just before the 2025 trade deadline. The fact that they haven’t landed more stars has irritated the fanbase, but the Warriors remain favorably viewed throughout the league for the way the franchise operates and spends money from top to bottom.
The Warriors are doing this the right way. What gets teams in trouble is when they strike out on big swings, then, out of desperation, overpay for marginal moves that reduce their flexibility without making the team meaningfully better. It becomes an ugly spiral.
Maybe the Warriors will land another star while Curry remains a Warrior, maybe not, but from his comments this summer, he gets the big picture.
Klay Thompson update
There is a line of teams waiting and hoping that Dallas buys out Klay Thompson — Miami, the Clippers, maybe a reunion in Golden State — but because of all that interest in him, the Mavericks are not talking buyout and are looking for a trade, reports NBA insider Jake Fischer in a stream at Bleacher Report.
“Dallas has not been looking to find a buyout agreement with Klay Thompson… the Mavericks have been very hesitant, to my understanding, of actually moving forward and agreeing to a buyout with Klay Thompson. They believe this market that is shaping up for him. The fact that there is some LA, some Miami interest, there’s other places that have interest as well. We’ve talked in the past about how, if he were to find a buyout agreement, there’d be mutual interest between Klay and the Golden State Warriors. I think all that is indicative of why Dallas believes they should not have to buy out Klay Thompson.”
Dallas has 16 players with guaranteed contracts on the roster and it appears Thompson will be the odd man out (they can only carry 15 into the season), but they have until the day before the season starts to make that move. Dallas can and will be patient.
Jonathan Kuminga update
As mentioned in the next section, the Sacramento Kings are out on Jonathan Kuminga. Well, unless he wants to play for a minimum contract. Cleveland is another team linked to the young wing, and with Cleveland largely having stood pat this offseason — making them one of the losers of the offseason — its fan base is dreaming of landing Kuminga and Nuggets restricted free agent Peyton Watson before this offseason is out.
Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer threw cold water on that on the Wine and Gold talk podcast (hat tip Hoopshype).
“Yeah, I think both of them is highly unlikely... Getting one of them is going to be hard enough given the salary cap situation that the Cavs are currently in, given the lack of perceived trade assets and given the salary cap situation of some of these other teams that we’re talking about here.
“So for example, you’ve got the Atlanta Hawks who have said to teams around the NBA, we’re willing to help out Jonathan Kuminga in a potential sign-and-trade, but we need to be incentivized in order to do that. We’ve got to get something back in return that we actually like. And that’s part of the holdup, it feels like, between the Hawks and the Los Angeles Lakers, because there are people around the NBA that are saying to themselves, what are the Lakers going to give the Hawks that the Hawks value enough or that the Hawks actually want? The Hawks already have 17 guys under contract, so they have some things that they have to do internally.”
A sign-and-trade for Kuminga is incredibly complex because the Hawks — while having a lot of flexibility going forward — are pretty set this season and have to trade or waive a couple of guys already to get down to 15 before the season starts. They don’t want to trade for another salary without some serious draft pick compensation. Nobody is giving that up, at least yet.
This offseason has not gone as Kuminga envisioned, and the most likely outcome is he’s going to end up somewhere on a deal way below what he feels he’s worth, and he’s going to have to prove to teams he’s worth a lot more money, even in the apron era.
Kings have Acuff and...
Sacramento got their guy in the NBA Draft with Darius Acuff, the point guard out of Arkansas. They are making him a cornerstone of the franchise’s future.
But who is there around him? As previously reported, the Kings are not going to buy out Zach LaVine, and there is no trade market for him due to his $49 million contract. The Kings also plan to keep center Domantas Sabonis around, in part because he, too, has a nearly untradable contract (two years, $94 million guaranteed) but also because he is a high-level center who can work with Acuff. Sabonis and LaVine reached out to Acuff after the draft, reports Anthony Slater of ESPN, and that pleased Sacramento general manager Scott Perry, as he told Slater.
“An excellent gesture. It’s important that the veterans that are around not only can show or offer constructive criticism or constructive feedback to a young player like him. It’s also incumbent upon them to encourage, welcome and help fast-track his growth as well too in this particular situation.”
Slater adds that the Kings, who at one point were making a big push for Jonathan Kuminga, now can and would only offer him a minimum deal. He also confirmed that the Kings are looking for a veteran point guard to back up Acuff and are considering reuniting with Russell Westbrook, and will consider Victor Oladipo as well.
