Compare with Cunningham! Kumingga said he deserves the maximum salary, but he didn t know how to make the 26-minute mark into the Development League

Golden State Warriors have not been close to reaching a new contract with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminggar so far, and the main reason may be that he believes he deserves the All-Star salary. According to US media ronkroichick, Kumingga believes that he is the same level as Cad Cunningham and Scotty Barnes among the same rookies, and should also get a contract of the same level.

Cunningham was the No. 1 pick in the NBA in 2021, Barnes was the No. 4 pick, and Kumingga was the seventh pick. Cunningham is the leading star of the Detroit Pistons, while Barnes is the new Toronto Raptors. Both of them received maximum contract extensions last summer, but they are also All-Stars. Third-ranked Evan Mobley was also selected as the All-Star last season and also received a maximum salary contract renewal. No. 5 Jaylen Sages was selected as the defensive team of the year in 2024. He and second-ranked Jaylen Green both received a large contract worth more than $100 million last year.

As the No. 7 show in the same class, the big contracts these students received naturally make Kumingga jealous, but the problem is that he has not achieved the same level of achievements among these students. Not to mention Cunningham and Barnes, who were selected as All-Stars and have become the stars of their respective teams, he is far from comparing Jaylen Green, who has just been abandoned by the Rockets.

Of course there are many people who think that Kuminga still has great potential and he just lacks the opportunity to shine in the Warriors. But what the editor wants to say is that this view is a bit of a matter of course. Although Warriors head coach Steve Cole does not trust Kuminga so much, it does not mean that he has not given Kuminga a chance. In the 2023-24 season, Kumingga played 74 games, with an average of 26.4 minutes per game; even last season, which gradually faded out of the rotation lineup, his playing time was close to this level before an ankle injury caused him to miss 31 games. In short, in the past four seasons, Kumingga has received a total of 5,762 minutes of playing time, but what is the result? It just proves that he is far from reaching the level of Cunningham and Barnes.

Ultimately, Kumingga thought it didn't matter what level of compensation he should get, because no team was willing to give him a quote close to the maximum salary. The only two teams interested in Cumingga so far, the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, have also made far below this level. The Kings reportedly offered a three-year offer worth $63 million, but they have been reluctant to offer the sign-on and exchange chips the Warriors are willing to accept. The Warriors provided a two-year offer worth $45 million, and the second year was the team option. The contract was rejected by Kumingga for two reasons. The first was that Kumingga's team believed the price was too low, and the second was that they felt that the Warriors' team option did not respect him, but just regarded him as a bargaining chip.

regards himself as an All-Star player at the same level as Cunningham and Barnes, saying that Kumingga and his team of agents have not recognized their real value, nor have they figured out that every restricted free agent lacks enough bargaining chips. Restricted free agents have many hardships to leave their original team. First of all, players must convince another team to free up their roster and salary space in order to provide the quotation they want, but there is no guarantee that the original team will not match. That's the main reason why four restricted free agents, including 2021 No. 6 rookies Josh Gidey, Cam Thomas, Quentin Grimes and Cumingga, didn't get any offer this summer.

And Kumingga and his team of agents lacked enough bargaining chips, and they had no influence except for threatening to accept a $7.9 million qualification offer. If he is still fantasizing about getting an All-Star contract, then he will be even further away from reaching a new contract with the Warriors than before.