Mike Dunleavy’s recent comments about Jonathan Kuminga’s reported trade request stirred up plenty of chatter around the league, but Draymond Green is stepping in to offer some context - and maybe clear the air a bit.
Let’s rewind. When asked earlier this week about Kuminga’s desire to be traded, the Warriors general manager didn’t exactly sidestep the question.
“As far as demand, I'm aware of that,” Dunleavy said. “In terms of demands, there needs to be demand.”
That line caught fire quickly. Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, wasn’t thrilled, and even one of Green’s close friends texted him saying Dunleavy crossed a line.
But Draymond - never shy about jumping into the fray - took a closer look and came away with a different perspective. He broke it all down on a recent episode of The Draymond Green Show, and as usual, his take was layered and insightful.
“When I first read the quote, I was like, ‘Hm, that's spicy,’” Green admitted. “And then when you actually watch the clip, you're like, ‘Oh, I get what he was saying.’”
Green’s point? Dunleavy wasn’t dismissing Kuminga - he was speaking to the business side of the NBA.
The message wasn’t so much about the player as it was about the process: if a player wants to be traded, there has to be interest from other teams. That’s the reality of the market.
No demand, no deal.
Draymond emphasized how easy it is in today’s media landscape to react to a quote without full context. “Oftentimes in today's day and age, we just read the quote and are like, ‘Oh man, this guy did that,’” he said. “And I said, ‘I read the quote too, and it's not quite what you thought.’”
But Green didn’t stop there. He reminded listeners that negotiations between agents and front offices are rarely clean and quiet.
“In business, there’s negotiation,” he said. “That’s a huge part of a general manager and an agent’s job… Sometimes they get tense.
There’s things that are said during negotiations that the public don’t know. We don’t know.
I don’t know.”
He even hinted that some of Dunleavy’s tone may have been a response to things said behind the scenes - shots fired, not publicly, but during those tense agent-GM conversations that fans never hear about. And in those moments, it’s not uncommon for a GM’s public comments to be aimed more at representation than the player himself.
“I think you have to take all of that into account,” Green added.
Draymond also offered a behind-the-curtain look at how communication flows in an NBA organization. General managers, he said, aren’t usually in constant contact with players.
That’s more the coaches’ lane. GMs talk to agents, other execs, and front office personnel - not players directly, unless something’s gone south.
“General managers aren’t usually speaking to players,” Green said. “And in this case, I don’t believe the general manager was speaking to the player.”
So if Dunleavy’s words felt cold, Green argues they weren’t meant for Kuminga. They were likely aimed at Turner - part of the ongoing chess match that happens between agents and execs every season.
Still, the timing of everything was hard to ignore. Not long after Dunleavy’s press conference, Kuminga - who had racked up 16 straight DNP-CDs - found himself back in Steve Kerr’s rotation. And he didn’t just show up; he showed out, dropping 20 points in 21 minutes in a loss to the Raptors.
Green tipped his cap to Kuminga for staying ready, especially after such a long stretch without game action. That kind of resilience doesn’t go unnoticed in a locker room - or on a podcast.
So while the headlines may have focused on Dunleavy’s quote, Green’s deeper dive reminds us that NBA front offices are complicated ecosystems. There’s the business, the politics, the messaging - and then there’s the basketball. Kuminga, to his credit, let his game do the talking.