How Bad Do The Sacramento Kings Want Jonathan Kuminga?

How Bad Do The Sacramento Kings Want Jonathan Kuminga?

talk about all that. But first, we got new reporting on Jonathan Kaminga. Oh, yeah. There’s actual like new, not news that nothing has happened. Still nothing has happened. Mhm. But I’m going to try and summarize the article that ESPN that was posted on ESPN by Shamstania and friend of the program Anthony Slater. So, the Warriors have offered Jonathan Gaminga 2 years and $45 million. Mhm. But the hangup from Kaminga’s camp is that that two years $45 million includes a team option for next year and a there’s a built-in no trade clause to such a deal and the Warriors want him to wave that no trade clause. Yeah. So, we’ll start there. So Kaminga is saying no deal because his whole thing and we’ll get to this in a second is wanting control over his career for the first time. And by signing a two-year $45 million deal, like forget the finances for a moment, if you’re waving your no trade clause and then giving the team a team option, you’re now seeding all control of your future to them. Oh yeah. And that that may be worth more than dollars at this point to to Jonathan Kaminga. At least that’s kind of what that’s kind of what it sounds like to me. Yeah. I I mean like look, this thing is is heading towards a conclusion. At least that’s what the Warriors are trying to push right now. You can see that they’re like, “Hey, we want to end this thing now.” Mhm. And it’s like, “Okay, well that’s nice if you want to end it cuz I don’t have to sign a contract. Uh I don’t have to, you know, play for the qualifying offer. I I can play for the qualifying offer, but I can accept qualifying offer a month from now.” Do you know what Jonathan Kaminga’s deadline is? October one. Oh yeah, that’s when he have to sign a qualifying offer. He has until October 1st. He’s not Jonathan Kaminga’s life doesn’t change if he agrees to a deal today or figures that out on September 30th. Yeah. Like he’s chilling. Yeah. But the Warriors are on a different clock. Correct. Because of the six-month rule. Correct. And because of they want to do other moves. Well, yeah, they have other moves they want to do for sure, right? But, uh, yeah, this is just a a total mess and you can see how they are pushing towards a conclusion, but that doesn’t mean there will be a conclusion because this is just one line of, you know, again, there there are so many factions in this. There are three different groups of people and probably more like four or five because there are other teams that are interested as well. But the team that wants to get Jonathan Kaminga, Jonathan Kaminga’s camp, and then the Warriors, and nobody is on the same page, it sounds like, and at this point, sounds like the Warriors are trying to play hard ball and say, “Yeah, we’re going to pull all the sign and trade stuff off the table.” You know, you’re not. They’re definitely not. You know, you’re not. So, like, it’s just not believable. So, Kaminga’s camp offered framework of a deal. Again, this is reporting via ESPN. Mhm. Their counter offer to the Warriors was three years $82 million. So a $27.3 million average annual value. It keeps the Warriors under the second apron. I don’t know how that would be laid out and how it would affect additional moves they want to make this offseason, but that’s the counter offer. Yeah. Is 3 and 82. And the reason this is important to me is we’re now getting at least a ballpark range of kind of the the dollar figures we’re working with. Yes. Kaminga’s camp is like three and 82. Great. That gives us a really good foundation to work off of when we’re here in Sacramento talking about the Kings and what it what what a Kaminga deal would look like for them. Um, the other wrench that is now thrown into this though that had been kind of reported a little, but now we’re getting really firm reporting on this from from ESPN is that we’ve talked about the difficulties of the Warriors and Kings making this deal just from a pure financial perspective. Yep. and then figuring out what that compensation looks like for a player like Kaminga who’s ostensibly an unknown or relative unknown. Yeah. And so if you’re the Kings like what are you giving up for him and what’s So we’ll we’ll get to that in a second. But Phoenix is now in the mix. They are and they aren’t. Okay. Financially Phoenix is in the mix. Yes. They have, according to ESPN, made the most lucrative push for Kaminga. Mhm. with a deal, a four-year deal that has a player option in year four approaching $90 million. Okay. It is $70 million more. I mean, nearly $70 million more guaranteed than Golden State’s offer. So, um, Phoenix is in the mix. Okay. The Kings are in the mix, I assume, financially. Yeah. Yeah. Phoenix isn’t in the mix cuz Phoenix doesn’t have the access to a single first round pick. So that’s the issue. Golden State here’s further reporting. Golden State is uninterested in trade offers from the Kings and Suns. And so what the reporting from ESPN is is Golden State is viewing this like, “Okay, Jonathan, here’s two years and 45 million with the no trade with the no trade clause waved and a team option in year two or you can play on the $7.9 million qualifying offer, but barring a change in offer from one of these other teams. You’re playing for us next year and we’ll kick this can down the road.” this this disaster that they they being the Warriors, Jonathan Kaminga, everybody is to blame here in my opinion. Uh they’re kicking this disaster down the road and into the regular season and just doing whatever they can to squeeze just that little just that little bit of extra value. Hey, maybe he plays really well the first half of the year and they can get something better than Devin Carter, Dario Sarich in two seconds or protected first maybe. Okay, you can try it, but I don’t foresee that going well for them. No, I mean like look, this is why you should have taken care of this deal last year. Mhm. But you’re in wait and see mode and you’re still in wait and see mode if you’re the Golden State Warriors. Everyone in the league realistically is in wait and see mode on Jonath Jonathan Kaminga. We have no idea really what he is as a player. You can look and say, “Oh, he did this in a playoff game or or he had this stretch of games.” But for every one of those, there are a bunch of stretch of games where you’re like, “Oh, boy.” Like, he’s just hit and miss. And that happens a lot with young players. But it really does feel like no one has developed over the last like five or six years in in Golden State as far as young talent. They they they’re just not developing at all. And that’s partially on the Warriors. is partially on the fact that they’re packed with Hall of Fame players or they were um and and so it just makes this really complicated assessment and if you’re a team like the Kings, you’re like, “Okay, we’ll we’ll roll the dice on him, but it’s got to be a contract that makes sense for them and you’re not going to give up a bunch because you see the leverage. There’s no leverage here.” Sure. Do the Kings want him or not? Yeah, that that’s what it’s going to come down So, so that’s just it is is do do you want Jonathan Kaminga or do you not? Yeah. Do you want Jonathan Kaminga but like not really? Like we’ll take him if it’s dirt cheap and it’s an easy flyer. Okay. It doesn’t seem that it’s going that way. So to me, if you’re Scott Perry and again there’s there’s two different ways this can go for Sacramento. Sacramento might want Jonathan Kaminga. like genuinely. Mhm. They say this is the most talented player we can possibly get. We’re looking for potential franchise building blocks, we think he is that guy. In which case, if it takes Keon Ellis to get it done, all right, then you got to do it. But if they are in the camp of, yeah, we’ll take him, but like we we really like Keon. We’re not going to give up Keon for him. Like we’re going to we have a backlog at at guard, so Devin Carter can be in the deal. And here’s this protected first and Dario Sar to make the money work. Yeah, here you go. Here’s this. This is as much as we’ll this is as far as we’ll go. If that’s where they are, then call up the Warriors and go, “Hey, we’re out. Like, we’re done with this.” Yeah. And just and just be done. Wash your hands of it. But you we know they’re not. They had a meeting with him last week. They had a meeting with Kaminga last week. So So this is the one thing that I I keep seeing out there like, “Oh, you know, Scott Perry’s holding the line. Oh, this is like, oh my gosh, you know, they would have already folded in the past. Tell me when uh when Monty McNair and Wes Wilcox folded like they didn’t get deals done, right? It was the opposite. Yeah. No, they they just like said, “Okay, we’re just not going to do the deal.” They didn’t fold, right? Fold would have been to throw in more picks. Fold would have been to give up way more. They didn’t fold, right? they just sat there and just didn’t get the deal done. We’re in the same exact holding pattern right now. So, like look, it it started out, we heard it was Dario Sarich, uh Devin Carter, and two second round picks. Like, I I’m not going to like put words in the King’s mouth, but I would be very surprised if they weren’t willing to go up to a protected first round pick, right? And I don’t know what protected pick that would be. So, like maybe they they give up, you know, that 2027 uh Spurs pick, but they protect it 8 through 15 because it’s already protected 16 through whatever. You know, maybe they do something like that. Maybe they uh they they give up it’s literally just lottery protected or top 10 protected pick. Maybe they give up that. Like if you’re on the brink of a deal, then figure out what it is that they actually want because the the Kings don’t have the young player that is going to like move the needle. Unless it’s Keon Ellis. And again, I’m not giving up Keon Ellis in this deal. Like if you’re starting young, younger, if you’re looking at your team and going, “Okay, where are we two years from now?” Keon Ellis should be your starting shooting guard most likely. Like he if he wants to play for your team still. Yeah. if he still wants. And that’s the other problem, right? So, this is complicated, but it’s like, do you need to throw in is it a a protected first and a second? What is it that you have to give up? Because figure out what that is and move forward or or don’t or you know, say, “Okay, we’re done with this.” And I think that’s why this is just the discussion amongst fans with it is and I’m not I don’t have the chatty house open at youtube.com/esbn1320 and twitch.tv/esbn TV/ ESPN 1320. Um, if you’d like to catch a Simocast, I think I’m sure when I said then include Keon Ellis, there were people who were like, “Absolutely not. You’d never do that.” But I think there are people who go, “Man, Kaming is pretty good.” Like, he had average 28 or whatever it was in the in the playoffs against Minnesota. I get that talent in here. And we’re talking two years from now, Keon’s going to be like 27, 28. like, “Yeah, here.” And he might not even want to play here. Yeah, sure. Send him. It’s all about how much do you value Kaminga. Yeah. And how much you value him or I value him or Joe values him or or any anybody listening to this, anybody who who who calls himself a Kings fan, that’s going to vary. But if you’re the Kings, like let’s go to put your put yourself in the Kings front office. If you’re a member of the front office, you have to you’re deciding are are we committing to this player? Because that’s that’s the other that’s the other part of this. You can’t halfass the Jonathan Kaminga thing. No, you have to kind of go for it. And and the reporting from ESPN is directly quote, “Kaminga prefers the longerterm offers presented by the Kings and Suns because he believes they signify a fresh start, a larger guaranteed role, a promised starting position, and a greater level of respect and career control. If you’re going to seed all of those things to Jonathan Kaminga, then go make the move. Go do go do what you have to do to get that done. And if you’re wary, then like, all right, hey, we’re out. We’re done with this. We don’t like if that’s that’s just it. If Scott Perry, and I’m assuming it’s Scott Perry making this call. If Scott Perry’s like, “Yeah, like him, don’t love him.” Like would much prefer to have Keon and and sort it out that way than bringing Kaminka because we don’t know if he fits and we got questions and ties us up financially a little bit. It just Okay, cool. Then separate yourself from this madness. get out because if the Warriors really want to get a deal done, if the Warriors really really want to get a deal done and they go, “Hey, that that two years or the qualifying offer thing was a bluff.” Uh, it didn’t work. It’s August 13th. We we need to be done with this. Then they’ll pick up the phone and call Scott Perry and go, “Hey, all right. Let’s let’s try it.” And now maybe you’re getting him for the for the for the kind of pennies on the dollar that you were hoping to get him for. Well, let me add in the other problem though. The problem is that if you do get him on that contract, you’re now way over the luxury tax and now the Kings have to unwind something else. Mhm. And number one, I I do see where the Kings can look at this like we can’t sit here and yell at the top of our lungs for a year and a half, two years that the Kings have got to get more size and athleticism at the at the three and the four when a 6’9 like super athlete is sitting there on the table. Not only that, but Kaminga slides right into starting lineup alongside Keegan Murray. It moves Keegan Murray to the three, which is a better natural position for everyone involved here. That gives him the ability to move around the court a lot better. Uh it just changes his upside. A and not only that, it it creates this young switchable forward thing, right? Mhm. The problem that you have is that you now have to get you got to go find a way to save another 10 million bucks to get below the luxury tax or at least get close to it because they’re hardcapped at at 189 million 188 whatever the first apron is. So now they have like this process that they have to go through. And I bring this up because that could also cost something. And so if you’re going out there and saying, “Okay, we now have to move move Malik Monk or we now have to move uh Demard Rosen, there might not be a team out there that’s willing to just take those those players on without you giving up something else.” And I know people are like, “Wait a sec. You’re going to give up Malik Muk and a second round pick or and two second round picks?” Yeah. That’s the way the dynamics of the league work. No one has any cap space. Yeah. So you’re going to have to give up something to get something. Mhm. And so now that has another cost at the back end. And so you’re looking at this deal as a collective deal. Like it might feel like it’s two individual transactions, but realistically it’s not. It’s all part of one bigger deal. And you have to figure out how to like, you know, it’s a it’s a minefield. Yeah. And I I don’t know how they get through it. I don’t either. We’ll continue discussing this. Would love to know your thoughts. 9169-1320 916991320. We’re we’ve talked about it ad nauseium. Should the Kings go get Jonathan Kaminga? Should they should they push their chips in for him or not? Because the Devin Carter, Dario Sarge, and two seconds deal clearly is not going to work. Mhm. So, do you want to go more than that or do you not? And I think that’s that’s what the question has to be. We’ll keep talking about this. We’ve got some 49er stuff coming up at 11:30 with Matt Barrows. He’s covered the team for a long time for the Athletic. Uh does a great job. I will talk.

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