Kuminga sign and trade Bulls interest

[MGB8]

If Kuminga was particularly good, why wouldn’t Brooklyn, who had no one locked in and all the cap room in the world, make a play for him?

Sure, he has upside, but so did Jabari Parker, so did Zack LaVine, so does Jalen Green out of Houston.

He had a 54% TS last year. Yes, for the prior two he was at 60%, but when you consider meh FT, poor 3 0t percentage (except one year), negative +/- on/off 3 out of 4 years, including last year….

I mean, if we could unload Pat….

[thxfrthmmrs]

Kuminga could take every one of Vuc's shots as a frontcourt player and I'd be fine with that, and DNPing Vucevic. There was enough shots for Vuc to average 19 ppg.

I'm not saying there aren't enough shots. I'm saying they do not fit next to each other. You could literally always find guys to take shots away from each other, but Giddey and Kuminga both make life harder on the other, not easier.

We have to be sending out enough contract to match his new contract BYC, which seems like it would be Patrick or Vuc. Giddey was a 38% 3P shooter, he wasn't an issue on spacing otherwise we would have had a worse record than 17-10 with him as lead PG. Of course he could regress, but so could every young player in the league.

For BYc, we'd need to start at 23.2 we could send as little as 15.7 and GS could take back as much as 19.1. Pat, Huerter, and Collins would all fit that 1:1, but Vuc wouldn't. I think they could just toss us a vet min guy to get Vuc if they wanted. They could also do something like Smith + Ayo or Smith + Carter given they may desire to fill out the roster this year with viable guys to help them win.

IMO Bulls are far from worrying about too many players who can score. In the most important game of the season we played Dalen Terry, Talen Horton Tucker, and Patrick Williams 43 minutes who combined for 11 points. A typical Kuminga game would have had him being the 2nd best player on the Bulls in that game, since Coby shot 5-20 and 3-12 from 3. Kuminga in 5 playoff games with GS in the 2nd round averaged 21 ppg on 54%/42% shooting. Seems like at worst he's at least the 3rd best player, and certainly worth taking away touches from the ugly Pwill/THT/Terry trio.

Whether you can win a championship with him or not doesn't seem like a problem Chicago needs to worry about since we're light years away. He's likely to be a better asset than most of the roster. Kuminga on a mid contract is probably going to be more valuable than whatever we give up for him, which is probably a PWill or Vuc and assuming a heavily protected pick (top 12?). These mid picks have what, a 10% chance of turning out well? Sabonis is a player I also question if you can win a championship with him, but as an asset he was good enough to get Indiana Haliburton a player they never could have gotten otherwise. I just see him as improving Chicago's asset situation, which is bottom tier in the league atm.

That depends a lot on what you think of Kuminga. I think he's a super low IQ blackhole scorer that makes the game worse for everyone else. I think getting him puts you further away from competing not closer. We just saw a team built around 3 talented guys, but two of the three were super unicorns that were really hard to build anything around (Vuc + DeRozan). Giddey + Kuminga is the young version of the same plan.

I think they'll be a bit better in that at least there is young, so you hope their traits change, but I just wouldn't start out with two guys that have overlapping critical weaknesses and don't mesh as my base. Granted, you don't have to see it that way in terms of how big a problem that is or may just feel better about both players than me.

This. Complementary basketball is more important than sheer talent. Pacers were an injury away from winning the championship because they had a team of good players that complements each other well and fits in that system. Kuminga was such a bad fit in the Warrior system and their personnel that he was a DNP in the playoffs before Curry went down. I just don’t see Kuminga as being a key player on a winning team that I would not only invest $25M a year in but to also give up assets in a S&T, even if this team isn’t overflowed with talent.

[JRoy]

Don’t do it CHI.

[MGB8]

I get the notion of adding more talent. But Washington, who has no one locked in long term at both the 3 and 4 (Sarr potentially a 5, Coulibaly potentially a 2, Kispert may be a reserve, ditto just acquired Whitmore) made no play. Brooklyn, in the same boat (Porter Jr. not young anymore, Demin, Clowney and Timme only other guys above 6'6 who aren't bigs...) - didn't make a play.

Meanwhile, Bulls have Giddey at 6'8 (defends the 3), Matas and Essengue at 6'10, Pat at 6'7 and hard to unload, and Phillips at 6'8... And Smith and Collins can both play "big ball" 4 too. Terry and Huerter are both 6'7 and play some 3, as does Okoro despite being listed at 6'5 (should probably be 6'6 or even 6'7 given reported 6'5 w/o shoes measurement, though reported 6'9 w/s not huge and 8'5 ish reach mid, and way heights listed in NBA inconsistent again).

So isn't the Bulls need for talent more to find another perimeter scorer and shooter, since basically it's Coby and no one else who can create for themselves off the dribble at a high level from the outside? As opposed to another slasher?

[sco]

I get the notion of adding more talent. But Washington, who has no one locked in long term at both the 3 and 4 (Sarr potentially a 5, Coulibaly potentially a 2, Kispert may be a reserve, ditto just acquired Whitmore) made no play. Brooklyn, in the same boat (Porter Jr. not young anymore, Demin, Clowney and Timme only other guys above 6'6 who aren't bigs...) - didn't make a play.

Meanwhile, Bulls have Giddey at 6'8 (defends the 3), Matas and Essengue at 6'10, Pat at 6'7 and hard to unload, and Phillips at 6'8... And Smith and Collins can both play "big ball" 4 too. Terry and Huerter are both 6'7 and play some 3, as does Okoro despite being listed at 6'5 (should probably be 6'6 or even 6'7 given reported 6'5 w/o shoes measurement, though reported 6'9 w/s not huge and 8'5 ish reach mid, and way heights listed in NBA inconsistent again).

So isn't the Bulls need for talent more to find another perimeter scorer and shooter, since basically it's Coby and no one else who can create for themselves off the dribble at a high level from the outside? As opposed to another slasher?

Good points. I think the Bulls should be focusing on talent who might develop into a true #1 option, regardless of overlap because our roster without that guy is a placeholder anyhow.

[ghostinthepost1]

I don't think most people on this board have spent a lot of time watching Warriors games the last two years and honestly the Kuminga discourse online is all over the place. So, I did some googling this morning to answer some questions I had.

Question 1: Is JK an iso heavy, black hole on offense?

His ISO stats over the last two seasons:

2024: 7.3% freq%, 81 total possessions
2025: 7.5% freq%, 56 total possessions

Ok, well surely if Kuminga is constantly waving other players off to ISO, then most of his field goals should be unassisted?

2024: 298 out of his 462 made field goals were assisted - 65%
2025: 181 out of his 303 made field goals were assisted - 60%

To provide some context, in his last full season with the Bulls DeMar was at 33% and last year Coby was at 50%.

Okay so it sure doesn't look like he's the 2nd coming of DeMar so far.

His AST% last year was 14.6, which isn't great. Again, for context Coby's career low (3 years ago) was 15%.

Maybe Steph and Draymond do so much of the passing that no one else gets any assists? Nope, 11 other warriors last year had AST%'s greater than 16.

So, I think it's fair to say he's not a great play maker but is more than capable of playing off the ball.

Question 2: Is JK an inefficient chucker?

One thing is clear, he REALLY needs to work on his jump shot.

Going back to the 2024 season he shot just 37.8% on all jump shots and 31.7% on 3s

For context Giddey shot 40.5% and 33.9% his last season in OKC when it was deemed his shooting made him unplayable.

His 3 point volume has stayed steady through his 4 years in the league as has his FT% at ~70% so I'm not sure how much hope there is for his 3 point shot to improve significantly.

With that said, JK's is crazy good going to the rim.

In 2024 he shot 576 shots within 10ft of the rim, on those he shot 62%!

Again, for context Zion Williamson the same year shot 58%, granted it was on like nearly double the volume (1064 fga)

He's also elite at getting to the free throw line, I'll just post this excerpt for an article from John Hollinger below:

On the other hand, Kuminga has one marker that is off the charts: his free-throw rate. Drawing fouls at a high rate is an innate signal of talent (even if some grifting is involved) because players who do so are continually creating advantages that force defenses to react adversely, desperately or both.

Kuminga drew 10 free-throw attempts per 100 possessions last season in a non-trivial sample of 1,144 minutes. That was the eighth-highest rate of free-throw earning in the league among players with at least 1,000 minutes played. In other seasons, it hasn’t been as high, but Kuminga still has drawn an impressive 7.3 per 100 for his career.

Here's the thing: Last season, 17 NBA players played at least 1,000 minutes and earned at least 8.5 free-throw attempts per 100 possessions. Of those, 16 have played in an NBA All-Star Game. The other one is Kuminga.

Does Kuminga suck on defense?

This is harder to quantify but all the stats say he's about league average.

I did find this video which I think is a good breakdown.

Watch on YouTube

My conclusion

**** it, sign him if you don't have to give up anything to crazy in return.

[MrSparkle]

Better FO/ownership wouldn’t have over-thought this so much. They would’ve prioritized resigning Giddey, added Kuminga without giving up anything significant, and then focused on whatever leftovers. But now we’re so stuck with so many guaranteed contracts and forwards, that it’s difficult to comprehend. Inc. the Okoro trade imo. This obsession with value deals; except you’re still buying 2nd (or 3rd) rate talent.

They f***ed up with Patrick’s salary, but they also shouldn’t make it contingent that they part with that albatross deal in order to take on a new player of similar cost and position. It’s so negative ATM that you can’t expect it to work. Almost have to just pretend this guy is Dame with an achilles tear and hope for a miracle he takes his job more seriously.

I said this in the other thread, but resigning cheapos and holding future-less mediocre rotation players like Vuc, Jalen, Tre, Jevon, Okoro is just plain stupid. Even Collins, Huerter — these are guys that would help GSW a lot right now in their twilight run, but they don’t make much difference here. Meanwhile, Kuminga is a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams (inc. this dead cap free agency).

Bulls would’ve had little to lose paying him $30M, paying Giddey $30M, playing these 22yos and losing some games. Instead we have $120M on a scrub complimentary roleplayer rotation. Literally, 120M on 3rd string playoff guys. And almost half of it is long term salary.

AK keeps handicapping his future flexibility with this stuff. Not just salary, but roster spots and player development (minutes!!!). Some people argue that Pat was spoiled with big minutes, Matas/Terry deserve the slow starts… but imo, it’s all irrelevant at the end of the day. Good players thrive with minutes. Bad players don’t. If Terry can’t buy a role after 3Y, why are we still holding him? It’s insane. There are more creative moves you can make in the NBA. These aren’t plants that will all grow alike. You play a guy through his mistakes, he’ll develop faster. It’s that simple. If his ceiling ends up sucking, you drafted the wrong guy.

But I digress. Kinda. GSW hasn’t played Kuminga, but they’ve playoff or finals contended the last 4Y. He hasn’t popped, but he hasn’t been terrible either. I’m certain he has issues, but he’s a better prospect than Tre, Huerter, Okoro, Pat, and Terry. But alas, you have $70M right there in bench warmers or low-minute/bottom-tier starters. Dunno how you make Kuminga work. I just don’t like this roster build. It’s haphazard, and Billy has not done well managing minutes amongst 12 (er 14 guys). I guess Phillips is just gonna count sheep? Geez, not even considering Noa.

[Red Larrivee]

Better FO/ownership wouldn’t have over-thought this so much. They would’ve prioritized resigning Giddey, added Kuminga without giving up anything significant, and then focused on whatever leftovers. But now we’re so stuck with so many guaranteed contracts and forwards, that it’s difficult to comprehend.

They f***ed up with Patrick’s salary, but they also shouldn’t make it contingent that they part with that albatross deal in order to take on a new player of similar cost and position. It’s so negative ATM that you can’t expect it to work. Almost have to just pretend this guy is Dame with an achilles tear and hope for a miracle he takes his job more seriously.

I said this in the other thread, but resigning cheapos and holding future-less mediocre rotation players like Vuc, Jalen, Tre, Jevon, Okoro is just plain stupid. Even Collins, Huerter — these are guys that would help GSW a lot right now in their twilight run, but they don’t make much difference here. Meanwhile, Kuminga is a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams (inc. this dead cap free agency).

Bulls would’ve had little to lose paying him $30M, paying Giddey $30M, playing these 22yos and losing some games. Instead we have $120M on a scrub complimentary roleplayer rotation. Literally, 120M on 3rd string playoff guys. And almost half of it is long term salary.

AK keeps handicapping his future flexibility with this stuff.

Kuminga has the potential to be a bigger stain on the Bulls salary cap going forward than any of what you just mentioned. Adding talent is good, but team fit matters. Kuminga is clearly not the type of player that is going to meet his upside regardless of what a roster looks like. We already have proof of that.

[sco]

Better FO/ownership wouldn’t have over-thought this so much. They would’ve prioritized resigning Giddey, added Kuminga without giving up anything significant, and then focused on whatever leftovers. But now we’re so stuck with so many guaranteed contracts and forwards, that it’s difficult to comprehend.

They f***ed up with Patrick’s salary, but they also shouldn’t make it contingent that they part with that albatross deal in order to take on a new player of similar cost and position. It’s so negative ATM that you can’t expect it to work. Almost have to just pretend this guy is Dame with an achilles tear and hope for a miracle he takes his job more seriously.

I said this in the other thread, but resigning cheapos and holding future-less mediocre rotation players like Vuc, Jalen, Tre, Jevon, Okoro is just plain stupid. Even Collins, Huerter — these are guys that would help GSW a lot right now in their twilight run, but they don’t make much difference here. Meanwhile, Kuminga is a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams (inc. this dead cap free agency).

Bulls would’ve had little to lose paying him $30M, paying Giddey $30M, playing these 22yos and losing some games. Instead we have $120M on a scrub complimentary roleplayer rotation. Literally, 120M on 3rd string playoff guys. And almost half of it is long term salary.

AK keeps handicapping his future flexibility with this stuff.

Kuminga has the potential to be a bigger stain on the Bulls salary cap going forward than any of what you just mentioned. Adding talent is good, but team fit matters. Kuminga is clearly not the type of player that is going to meet his upside regardless of what a roster looks like. We already have proof of that.

Yeah, I get both sides of the Kuminga issue. On the one hand he's clearly not good at 3pt shooting, which really hampers an offense to have anyone other than your C be a non-3pt threat...he's also not a great defender, which is problematic on a roster featuring Coby and Giddey already...third, his own team is luke warm on him (and nobody else is jumping to pay him).

On the other hand, in a lot of ways he is a scorer, and scorers capture the imagination of fans as franchise saviors.

I look at him like a buying a late lotto first round pick but needing to sign up for $25-$30M a year for 4 years. He COULD become a really good player, but the opportunity cost to find out is likely to cost you being able to afford to pay-up for another very good player in the future.

[KissedByaRose1]

I'd pay Quentin Grimes before Kuminga the more i think about it. Better defender and less ball dominant while still having a bunch of Offensive skills.

[Am2626]

If Kuminga was particularly good, why wouldn’t Brooklyn, who had no one locked in and all the cap room in the world, make a play for him?

Sure, he has upside, but so did Jabari Parker, so did Zack LaVine, so does Jalen Green out of Houston.

He had a 54% TS last year. Yes, for the prior two he was at 69%, but when you consider meh FT, poor 3 0t percentage (except one year), negative +/- on/off 3 out of 4 years, including last year….

I mean, if we could unload Pat….

The Bulls don’t have anything. At least take a chance on a talented high upside athletic 22 year old. Maybe it works maybe it doesn’t but there isn’t a better alternative over the next 5 years.

[dougthonus]

Kuminga is a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams (inc. this dead cap free agency).

Why are we sure that a non play making, non shooting, guard with a TS% of 53% in his 4th year in the league that fell out of favor with a Warriors team that had the most elite off-ball player in the league as their center piece is a "a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams" instead of a non talented rotation player similar to all the guys you mentioned?

My general problem with the Kuminga talk is that people have decided Kuminga is a highly talented, high upside player, when the reality is that from a basketball skill perspective, he is very untalented. He's an athletic guy that hasn't really resolved most of the skill issues inside the four years he's been in the league and has fallen out of favor with a team that could have desperately used him.

He's a "buy low" candidate if the price is actually low, but so is Okoro. The difference is Okoro's price is ACTUALLY low and Kuminga's isn't.

[MGB8]

If Kuminga was particularly good, why wouldn’t Brooklyn, who had no one locked in and all the cap room in the world, make a play for him?

Sure, he has upside, but so did Jabari Parker, so did Zack LaVine, so does Jalen Green out of Houston.

He had a 54% TS last year. Yes, for the prior two he was at 69%, but when you consider meh FT, poor 3 0t percentage (except one year), negative +/- on/off 3 out of 4 years, including last year….

I mean, if we could unload Pat….

The Bulls don’t have anything. At least take a chance on a talented high upside athletic 22 year old. Maybe it works maybe it doesn’t but there isn’t a better alternative over the next 5 years.

He could easily be Jabari Parker 2.0. he can score, although he was below average efficiency last year and has never been a good shooter... And that is about it.

As for the Bulls having nothing, Giddey IMO is 100% a better player, and so is Matas, already. So there are 2 guys who play the defensive forward spots that are already ahead of Kuminga - and Giddey shouldn't be forced to defend the perimeter to enable a rim runner / slasher who does nothing else.

Meanwhile, adding Kuminga also reduces opportunities for Essengue. If Essengue is more advanced than some (including myself) fear - having a Kuminga, on potentially an already hard to move contract, either hurts
Noa (another rim runner but who has more defensive upside) or further hurts ability to trade Kuminga.

Yeah, just zero interest. Like Red wrote, would have more interest in Grimes, or even Jalen Green.

[Senor Chang]

I believe we benefit more from not making the playoffs again and getting a better draft pick than acquiring kuminga who may or may not help us win some more games which could potentially hurt our draft position in 2026. I higher 2026 draft pick is more valuable to me than the chance to flip kuminga for something later on. I would give Pwil one more chance to redeem himself. There was a time i would have traded coby for a bag of peanuts.


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[2weekswithpay]

I could convince myself that Kuminga might be worth it if he signs for 20M AAV and it only costs Ayo to get him. Anything more than this is probably too much for me.

Read on Twitter

[sco]

I believe we benefit more from not making the playoffs again and getting a better draft pick than acquiring kuminga who may or may not help us win some more games which could potentially hurt our draft position in 2026. I higher 2026 draft pick is more valuable to me than the chance to flip kuminga for something later on. I would give Pwil one more chance to redeem himself. There was a time i would have traded coby for a bag of peanuts.


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IDK, you could argue that Kuminga might actually make us a worse team next season. Oh, and there won't likely be enough minutes given to PWill to up his trade value to positive next season, regardless of Kuminga. Not saying we should get Kuminga though.

[Senor Chang]

I could convince myself that Kuminga might be worth it if he signs for 20M AAV and it only costs Ayo to get him. Anything more than this is probably too much for me.

Read on Twitter

I would not give up ayo for kuminga. Ayo is player we will need once we start winning. Kuminga is a player we would eventually need to dump in order to start winning. Al harrington 2.0


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[sco]

Kuminga is a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams (inc. this dead cap free agency).

Why are we sure that a non play making, non shooting, guard with a TS% of 53% in his 4th year in the league that fell out of favor with a Warriors team that had the most elite off-ball player in the league as their center piece is a "a talented prospect stuck in a couple of jams" instead of a non talented rotation player similar to all the guys you mentioned?

My general problem with the Kuminga talk is that people have decided Kuminga is a highly talented, high upside player, when the reality is that from a basketball skill perspective, he is very untalented. He's an athletic guy that hasn't really resolved most of the skill issues inside the four years he's been in the league and has fallen out of favor with a team that could have desperately used him.

He's a "buy low" candidate if the price is actually low, but so is Okoro. The difference is Okoro's price is ACTUALLY low and Kuminga's isn't.

I'm more interested if PWill goes out in the transaction. That said, do we think that the chances of Kuminga doing things that he never has are greater than Pwill just going back to doing things he did his first year or two?

[Senor Chang]

I think people see kuminga as another potential gem like giddy. Giddy was a triple double machine right out the gates as a 19 year old. Everyone saw how talented he was even on a deep OKC team. The two are not the same. Kuminga fails to fit in with the most compatible player in the league in curry. Giddy had similar weaknesses such as shooting and defense but he was a great rebounder and a special passer so you knew he had potential. Kuminga is not special at anything. I would rather tank a season than acquire mediocre talent that could hurt our draft position.


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[JohnnyKILLroy]

Ayo for Kuminga ? Have people not watched Ayo? He's miles better than Kuminga. Last I checked he played for the Bulls and people here should know that.