The Jonathan Kuminga saga is starting to look less like a one-off and more like a warning label.
What happened with the Warriors last offseason is now hanging over the Pistons and Nuggets as they work through restricted free agency with Jalen Duren and Peyton Watson. Golden State spent months in limbo with Kuminga before finally getting him back on a two-year, $48.5 million deal in October - and even that didn’t stop the story from ending with a trade to the Atlanta Hawks just over four months later.
On Friday’s All NBA Podcast, NBA insider Marc Stein said Detroit and Denver are still a long way from the point of no return. But the longer these talks drag on, the more the Kuminga comparison starts to fit.
Adam Mares took that thought a step further.
"He (Kuminga) did sign but begrudgingly and it just felt like a divorce was inevitable. It really extended the window of contention between him and the team," Mares said. "And I just wonder if Duren and Peyton Watson are going to be the same where, all right, we're going to agree to a number, but I immediately want out."
The difference this time is that neither the Pistons nor the Nuggets have a pile of other free-agency decisions waiting on these deals. That was a real issue for Golden State last year, when players such as Al Horford, De'Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II had to wait until October to officially join the team.
Detroit’s situation feels especially delicate. Duren is not just another young piece - he’s a much bigger part of the Pistons’ future than Kuminga was in Golden State. The 6'10" big man had a rough playoff showing, but his regular season still mattered: career-best production, his first All-Star nod and a place on the All-NBA Third Team.
That’s why a drawn-out standoff could hurt the Pistons far more than it hurt the Warriors. If Detroit pushes Duren to the point where he wants out, it could complicate the team’s plans around Cade Cunningham, Duren and Ausar Thompson as it tries to build toward its next championship.
The Warriors have already lived through this kind of restricted free agency mess. Now the Pistons and Nuggets are trying to avoid learning the same lesson the hard way.
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