The messiness at the very top of the Lakers took the attention away from Jonathan Kuminga Watch.
Fortunately for everyone sitting on the edge of their seats, absolutely nothing happened.
Despite the Cavs making a move for Peyton Watson, taking a Kuminga suitor off the market, he and his agent are still trying to find money on the market that doesn’t exist. Their options presently are to join the Lakers on a multi-year deal via sign-and-trade or, presumably, go to the Wolves on the minimum.
Even as Kuminga and his agent inexplicably balk at a deal that would guarantee him tens of millions of dollars, the Lakers and Hawks are still negotiating a trade, which remains the other problem.
In a recent article from Kurt Helin on NBC Sports, the current discussions between the two teams include Jaden Hardy.
The Lakers and Hawks talked sign-and-trade earlier this summer, but those talks stalled out because Atlanta is not looking to add salary (it is only $3.8 million below the luxury tax line, and Kuminga currently counts as zero for them). Or, at least Atlanta is not interested without a quality draft pick as an incentive, and the Lakers would not go there. Also, Atlanta currently has 17 players under contract heading into training camp and needs to shed at least two, not add players.
The Lakers and Hawks are talking sign-and-trade again, with guard Jaden Hardey reportedly in the conversation (he makes $6 million this season), while previously that was Jared Vanderbilt ($12.4 million).
Unless the Lakers and/or Hawks have had a third team lined up this whole time, that will remain the next biggest hurdle in this ordeal. And yes, we have graduated to calling it an ordeal. The Hawks, like the Lakers, already have too many players and won’t be willing to take back more on guaranteed deals.
To that end, it’s difficult to understand what the Lakers would be negotiating with the Hawks about, unless they’re really interested in Hardy, which is unlikely.
There remains a seemingly remote possibility that the Hawks are willing to do a simple swap. Hardy has a team option for next season, so he’d effectively be an expiring deal. Getting back some kind of draft compensation, even if it might be second round picks, when you were going to lose him for nothing could be intriguing to Atlanta.
But this is all pointless to talk about or ponder when Kuminga and his agent are just going to twiddle their thumbs and talk about a new team they might sign with instead of the Lakers.
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