The Warriors’ messy Jonathan Kuminga restricted free agency suddenly looks a little cleaner in hindsight.
That’s because the latest update around Jalen Duren in Detroit sounds a lot more volatile than what Golden State dealt with last offseason. ESPN’s Marc J. Spears said Monday on NBA Today that the issue between Duren and the Pistons has moved beyond contract numbers.
"I just hear that Jalen, it's not about money right now. He feels disrespected," Spears said."
There's a black cloud going into camp. They gotta try to fix it, and I don't know if they can in time."
That is not a great place to be with a 22-year-old center who is coming off his first All-Star and All-NBA selection. It also puts Detroit in the same general territory the Warriors occupied with Kuminga, only with the tension apparently running deeper.
Golden State’s situation had plenty of noise, but there still seemed to be a baseline of respect while talks were happening. Kuminga eventually signed a two-year, $48.5 million deal, then opened the season playing well enough to earn a starting job and produce over the first two weeks.
Things changed once he was taken out of the starting lineup and Steve Kerr’s rotation. That led to a trade request, and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. responded with a shot about needing market demand if a player wants out.
Kuminga was later traded to the Atlanta Hawks in February, which made his exit from Golden State feel inevitable even if the negotiation process itself wasn’t completely broken from the start.
Duren and the Pistons may be heading toward the same endgame. The former 13th overall pick could still land a major extension, but if the relationship really is this damaged, Detroit may have a hard time keeping him as part of its long-term core.
And that’s what makes this one so tricky. If Duren signs a deal close to $200 million, it won’t be easy to move under the current CBA landscape. If he truly wants out, he may have to go all the way to the qualifying offer.
In Other News...
Warriors May Be Eyeing A Much Bigger Swing Than Fans Expected
The market around the Warriors has kept shifting, with Marcus Smart taking a two-year, $12.4 million deal with Houston and the Lakers adding Collin Sexton on a two-year, $19.2 million contract while other teams continue to reshape their rosters. Against that backdrop, Golden States search for more firepower feels less like a minor tweak and more like a sign the front office is still weighing a far more ambitious move than it first let on.
What makes the situation more interesting is the name that keeps surfacing in connection with the Warriors: Devin Booker. There is clearly a sense around the league that Golden State could be thinking bigger than a standard depth addition, especially with Sacramento taking a low-risk flier on Ben Simmons and Steve Ballmer choosing not to push back legally over the NBAs cap-circumvention sanctions, a reminder that the rules landscape around team-building remains very much in flux. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Could Regret Passing On This Celtics Development Bet
Devin Carters path has taken another turn, and its the kind of move that can look minor in September but loom larger once the season gets rolling. The former first-round pick, waived by the Hawks after his stop in Atlanta, has landed a training camp contract with Boston, where the Celtics are treating him as a development project with real rotation upside. For a player still trying to carve out a steady NBA role, that kind of situation matters as much as the jersey hes wearing.
It also gives the Warriors a fresh reminder of a name they passed on when he was available in trade talks. Boston was able to sell Carter on opportunity over flashier short-term money elsewhere, and that matters in the long run when a team is trying to build depth around a contenders core. Golden State does not need another reason to wonder whether patience with a prospect can turn into regret, but Carters next step will provide one more answer. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Fans Just Got Pulled Into An Uncomfortable Steph Curry Debate
The latest round of Warriors talk has drifted from game results to the kind of uncomfortable long view that always seems to follow a dynasty. On a podcast, Marcus Thompson II raised the possibility that Golden State could eventually have to make a hard call on Draymond Green if the teams performance slips down the line, a thought that immediately fed broader chatter about how long the core can stay intact. From there, the conversation spilled onto social media, where one post imagined Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson all finishing their careers in different places, a stark reminder of how quickly an era can feel like it is closing.
For Warriors fans, Curry remains the emotional center of the whole debate because he has been clear about wanting to stay in Golden State for the rest of his career. Still, the business side is never far away, and his current contract situation only keeps the speculation alive around what the next chapter could look like. Even without any immediate change on the horizon, the conversation has already shifted from whether the dynasty mattered to how much longer its defining pieces can realistically stay connected. [Read more 🡒]