It was the biggest story of the offseason in the NBA.
Leading into media day and the opening of training camp, the entire league was waiting for the next step in the saga between Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors. They spent the offseason unable to come to terms on a new contract.
The Warriors wanted to lock him in, while Kuminga wanted a say in his future. It's important to understand that the core of the issue was more about respect than money. Kuminga was tired of being underutilized and given inconsistent minutes.
Tied up in this whole standoff were the Sacramento Kings. Long-time rivals of the Warriors, the Kings were the rumored destination Kuminga preferred. While a contract has finally been signed between Kuminga and his current team, that doesn't mean the Kings are out of the picture.
Kuminga stays on the Warriors
Simply put, Golden State needed Kuminga to sign a new contract before his qualifying offer kicked in on October 1st. If that had happened, he would have been locked into a one-year contract with a no-trade clause that would have made him an unrestricted free agent next summer.
That meant the Warriors would not have had the option to trade him. Just before the deadline, the Kuminga signed a two-year contract with the Warriors that features a team option in year two. That's about as good as the Warriors were going to get.
This new contract give Kuminga some big money, but it's unlikely to fix Kuminga's real problems. He can't get minutes or a stable place on the roster. He spends far too much time on the bench for a player of his caliber. That's not likely to get better this season.
The Kings are waiting in the wings
At this point, Kuminga is likely checked out from the Warriors. Unless they are willing to make a drastic shift in how they structure things on the court, Kuminga will probably still see a lot of bench time and little development. But the Warriors didn't sign him to put him on the court.
The whole point was to keep control of the situation, to buy themselves some time to work out a good trade. With the qualifying offer deadline looming, the Warriors were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Now, they have options.
As it stands right now, the Kings still want Kuminga, and Kuminga wants to play on the Kings. But Sacramento has limited trade options, so this will likely end up being a multi-team trade setup. That takes time to get done, which everyone now has. The Warriors/Kings/Kuminga saga isn't over, yet.