Mike Dunleavy Jr. Explains Why Trading Jonathan Kuminga Was 'Right Thing to Do'

Golden State Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. recently sat down with the San Francisco Standard's Tim Kawakami and discussed a number of topics, including the Jonathan Kuminga trade.

Since the Warriors traded Kuminga and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for Kristaps Porzingis, Kuminga has played great in three games. Much of the national discussion has been about how the Warriors made a mistake trading him.

Kawakami asked Dunleavy if the Warriors considered holding Kuminga past the trade deadline to wait for a better trade return in the offseason.

“I think you guys know, it’s been put out there about the trade demand [by Kuminga before the deadline], and I think any time a player wants that, I want to try to accommodate,” Dunleavy said. “You want people who want to be here. And for that reason, we felt it was the right time to move on.

“I think JK’s happy about it, I think we’re in the right spot for it, it was just kind of the right thing to do at the time.”

Warriors Did the 'Right Thing' Trading Kuminga

I agree with Dunleavy that the Warriors did the right thing trading him. The Kuminga saga did not portray the Warriors in a favorable light around the league, but that portrayal would have gotten much worse if they held Kuminga hostage for four more months to wait for a different offseason trade.

The relationship had run its course.

Sure, the version of Kuminga the Hawks are getting right now would help any NBA team. But was that version ever coming back for the Warriors?

He's rujevenated in Atlanta due to new surroundings and what is currently a better supporting cast. We'll see how long the honeymoon phase lasts, but in any event, it's nice to see him succeeding.

But the Warriors Had the Wrong Trade Approach

When ESPN's Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported on Jan. 15 that the Warriors are "prioritizing expiring contracts" in return for Kuminga, I was flabbergasted.

I wrote this column about which "expiring contract" players they could trade for, and every return was underwhelming. I didn't even include Porzingis because I figured his lack of availability was a non-starter.

I stand by the last four paragraphs of that column. It appears that team governor Joe Lacob was more interested in having less cap commitments this offseason than helping this team compete this season and next season.

What the Warriors should have done is attach first-round capital to Kuminga's salary-matching contract to go after a star.

We don't if they could have landed Trey Murphy III or Michael Porter Jr., but we do know Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ivica Zubac could have been had for the right price.

The Warriors had months to canvass the league for a star they could pry for a Kuminga-and-picks package. I can't believe that they had no option to get a star.

Now, the options are bleak. Porzingis might not be back at all next season. If the Warriors wanted to get back into the Murphy sweepstakes, they'd probably have to use Draymond Green's contract as a salary matcher. But Green has less value to the Pelicans than Kuminga would have, which means the Warriors might have to give up even more draft capital than they'd like.

It'll be much more difficult to substantially improve this roster next season without such a tradable contract like Kuminga's. The mistake was not trading Kuminga...the mistake was waiting so many years to trade him and then finally trading him for a player with a mystery illness that in effect is a salary dump.