On Tuesday, Golden State Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. held his first press conference since Jonathan Kuminga handed in his trade request on Jan. 15. Dunleavy was unsurprisingly asked about Kuminga’s desire to leave in his presser and had quite the ruthless response.
“I mean, I think as far as the demand, I’m aware of that,” Dunleavy said. “… In terms of demands, when you make a demand, there needs to be demand on the market. So, we’ll see where that unfolds.”
Dunleavy is indicating there isn’t much interest in Kuminga around the NBA at the moment. The executive doesn’t want to give the 23-year-old away for a pack of chips, just because he wants out. In business, you don’t sell low, you sell high.
As one would imagine, though, Dunleavy’s comments didn’t go down too well with Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner. Turner put up an interesting post on X a few hours after the press conference.
“Demand is sensitive to price or playing time, So if a seller sees demand is low, lower the price point or let him play and demand will go [up].”
Demand is sensitive to price or playing time, So if a seller sees demand is low, lower the price point or let him play and demand will go ⬆️#IUEconomicsMajor #Nationalchamps @mcuban @VicOladipo pic.twitter.com/41B72xzf3V
— Aaron Turner (@arockturner20) January 21, 2026
The message is pretty clear from Turner. Either lower the asking price or give Kuminga playing time to build up his value. The Warriors opted for the second option even before he put this up.
With Jimmy Butler tearing his ACL, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr decided to put Kuminga back in the rotation for Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors at Chase Center. Despite not playing a single minute in any of the last 16 games, he recorded 20 points (7-10 FG), five rebounds, two assists, and one steal in 21 minutes off the bench. The Warriors still lost 145-127, but if he keeps this up, the demand might rise.
Of those 16 games, Kuminga didn’t feature in 15 of them because Kerr had given him a DNP. He was set to play in one game in this stretch, against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan 2.
The Warriors were without the likes of Butler, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green for the contest, and so they had to turn to Kuminga. He’d end up being a late scratch against the Thunder, however, due to back soreness. That raised eyebrows, and you did wonder if another chance was going to come Kuminga’s way. It has now, and he did step up.
Regardless of how well Kuminga plays, though, the only question now is whether he gets shipped out of town before the Feb. 5 trade deadline or after the season. This partnership is ending one way or the other, and Dunleavy is disappointed with how the situation has played out.
“I’m probably disappointed it hasn’t worked out better, but it is what it is,” Dunleavy stated. “And without getting into it too much, I think I have a pretty good understanding of what’s gone on. But there’s still time left here. He’s on our roster. I know the trade has been requested, but nothing’s imminent. And things in this league can change in a heartbeat, as they did last night. So he’s got to be ready, and we’ll be ready.”
The Warriors selected Kuminga with the seventh pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. He was supposed to be part of this young core that would ensure that the team remained competitive even after the Curry era ended.
Kuminga has never quite been able to win over Kerr, though. That, in turn, meant his playing time was inconsistent, and he didn’t get the kind of role he had wanted.
The situation then got messier this past offseason when Kuminga entered restricted free agency. It was only after months of tense negotiations that the two sides reached a two-year, $46.8 million agreement, with a team option for the second year.
Kuminga then got to start the first 12 games of the season, which gave hope that perhaps this situation was finally getting better. Kerr took him out of the lineup after that, though, and it was clear then that they were going to part ways.
We have listed the five best landing spots for Kuminga, and a fresh start would do him a world of good. A deal isn’t imminent, however, so we’ll see Kuminga in action next when the Warriors take on the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on Thursday at 7:30 PM ET.
