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Former New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry warned the Golden State Warriors about flipping Jonathan Kuminga for a win-now talent such as Chicago Bulls’ two-time All-Star wing Zach LaVine.
LaVine and the Bulls have mutually agreed to be open to trade, according to The Athletic. But Perry has a fair warning to whoever will trade for the athletic, high-flying wing.
“The only way I’m going to consider doing that is if I believe that getting Zach LaVine is going to push me closer to getting to the Conference Finals and Finals and that’s a question they got to be able to answer,” said Perry on the Hoop Genius podcast, responding to ex-Warriors guard BJ Armstrong’s proposed LaVine trade with Kuminga as the headliner of the returning package.
Armstrong’s proposal featured Kuminga, draft compensation and a salary filler. Under salary cap rules, Chris Paul’s $30.8 million expiring salary is the logical choice as the salary filler in a straight swap for LaVine’s $40 million salary this season.
Why Should the Warriors Consider a Zach LaVine trade?
The argument for a LaVine trade for the Warriors is to give them a scoring punch next to Stephen Curry, who is the only player in the team that consistently scored above 20 points this season.
His Splash Brother, Klay Thompson has cratered this season amid uncertainty of his contract situation. Thompson and the Warriors failed to agree on an extension this offseason.
Thompson is averaging 14.4 points, his lowest scoring average since his rookie year, on 40.3% shooting and just 34% from downtown. He’s only scored 20 points once in the Warriors’ first 15 games in a contract year.
On the other hand, LaVine is also off to a slow start, averaging only 21.3 points, his lowest since his first year with the struggling Bulls.
A change of scenery for these players might do wonders.
Armstrong’s Hoop Genius podcast co-host Mo Mooncey also concocted a trade idea for the Warriors, swapping Kuminga and Thompson for LaVine. The math doesn’t work though unless the Bulls will have to add Andre Drummond to the deal.
Why Should the Warriors Hold on to Jonathan Kuminga?
Kuminga, the Warriors’ seventh overall pick in 2021, has the NBA body and athleticism fit for today’s NBA.
“One thing you gotta consider though if you’re Golden State, they know what [Kuminga] can do better than anybody else around the league because they’ve been with this guy in practice for the last three, four years,” Perry said. “They’ve taken a great role in his development.”
Kuminga hasn’t quite yet taken the leap he’s expected this season. He’s averaging 11.9 points, a career-best, but only two points above his scoring average last season. His rebounding, which has been a concern for the Warriors, remained stagnant at 3.3 per game.
But for Perry, who had 23 years of front-office experience with the Detroit Pistons, Sacramento Kings and the Knicks, he’d rather want the Warriors to hold on to Kuminga for the post-Curry era.
“It’s hard to let a young guy out of your building, if again, I don’t know to what degree they value Kuminga but I’ve seen signs of him that indicate that he has a chance to be a very good NBA player,” Perry said. “You got to take that into account. Do I want to let that guy go out of my building after putting three to four years?”
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