Why the Sixers Aren't Likely to Trade for Jonathan Kuminga

In the least surprising news of the NBA season, exiled Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga officially "demanded" a trade Thursday, per ESPN's Anthony Slater and Shams Charania. Thursday is the first day that he became eligible to be traded.

When Kuminga signed his two-year, $46.8 million contract shortly before the qualifying-offer deadline, Charania reported it contained a team option that was "designed for the Warriors—or another team if and when Kuminga is traded during the upcoming season—to rip up and complete a fresh new contract after the 2025-26 campaign." Both sides seemed to acknowledge that his re-signing was a marriage of convenience fueled solely by the lack of cap-space teams around the NBA in the offseason.

Kuminga got off to a hot start this season and briefly made it seem as though the Warriors might need to rethink that stance. However, head coach Steve Kerr shifted him to the bench in mid-November, and he has played sparingly ever since. While the Warriors are now posturing about their willingness to keep Kuminga past the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline and shop him around in the offseason, it would be in all parties' best interest for Kuminga to find a new home in the next few weeks.

Could the Sixers get in on the bidding? Never say never with Sixers team president Daryl Morey, particularly when it comes to buying low on a potentially high-ceiling player. However, Kuminga's current contract and the Sixers' top-heavy salary structure would make it challenging.

Salary-matching would be Sixers' big obstacle

The Sixers are currently about $1.05 million below the $195.9 million first apron. They aren't hard-capped at either apron for now, but if they take back more salary than they send out in a trade, they would not be allowed to cross the first apron this season. They'd likely prefer to avoid hard-capping themselves, particularly at the first apron, since they also have their taxpayer mid-level exception still sitting in their back pocket.

Kuminga is earning $22.5 million this season. The Sixers have only three players earning more than that: Joel Embiid ($55.2 million), Paul George ($51.6 million) and Tyrese Maxey ($38.0 million). The Warriors did pursue a sign-and-trade with George during the 2024 offseason before he signed with the Sixers, but they'd almost have to include Draymond Green ($25.9 million) in any George deal for salary-matching reasons, which is likely a non-starter for them.

If the Sixers could find a third team to take on George while they get Kuminga in return, a framework like that could work. Because otherwise, it's challenging for them to cobble together the requisite salary to match Kuminga's contract.

VJ Edgecombe is the Sixers' fourth-highest-paid player this year at $11.1 million. Everyone in the Sixers' front office should be fired on the spot if they even consider offering him for Kuminga. After that, it's Quentin Grimes ($8.7 million), Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.4 million) and Andre Drummond ($5.0 million). Even if the Sixers combined all three of them, that would only get them to $22.1 million. If they didn't add a fourth player to that deal, they'd get hard-capped at the first apron and would have little wiggle room to fill out the depth that they just traded away. Further complicating matters, Grimes also has the right to veto any trade involving him this year since he'd lose his Bird rights if he gets dealt away.

This is among the many challenges of a top-heavy build. If you don't have mid-sized contracts, you get boxed out from adding a player in Kuminga's salary range unless you're willing to trade away one of your max deals. This is also where Grimes taking his qualifying offer comes back to bite the Sixers. Had they signed him to a deal in the $15-20 million range, they could have packaged him with either Oubre or Drummond to land Kuminga, and he wouldn't have had veto rights.

Unless the Warriors are desperate enough to trade for George, the odds are strongly against the Sixers being Kuminga's next NBA home.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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