While Stephen Curry helps guide the Team USA Men’s Basketball squad toward a fifth consecutive gold medal in Paris, his Golden State Warriors team is stateside trying to rebuild an NBA title contender on the fly.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy have been in pursuit of some significant upgrades this offseason. They were in the running to acquire Paul George before he joined the 
Philadelphia 76ers , but were forced to settle for role players like Buddy Hield , Kyle Anderson and De’Anthony Melton .
Golden State was most recently in on 
Utah Jazz All-Star Lauri Markkanen , but its refusal to include Brandin Podziemski in any deal, at least in part, led to Markkanen remaining in Utah on a five-year, $238 million max extension.
Now, the Warriors need to prepare for talks to sign one of their own young players to a max extension, according to certain reports.
Jonathan Kuminga Wants ‘Full Max’ From Warriors
The 21-year-old is in the final year of his rookie contract
Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (h/t HoopsHype), Golden State’s young forward will head into the final year of his rookie deal looking to stay with the Warriors, but only on some expensive terms.
“Jonathan Kuminga is entering the final year of his rookie deal where the word around the league from various sources is that Kuminga and his representation are looking for a full max extension.”
Fischer adds a word of caution to Golden State. As we’ve seen with the New Orleans Pelicans and Brandon Ingram, the Jazz and Markkanen and the 
Toronto Raptors and Scottie Barnes to an extent, signing a non-superstar to a huge contract is a risky proposition, and even riskier to negotiate.
Kuminga is coming off his best season in the NBA. In 2023-24, he averaged career-highs in points (16.1), rebounds (4.8), assists (2.2), minutes (26.3), games played (74) and games started (46).
His field-goal attempts increased from 7.4 in 2022-23 to 11.6 last year, but his shooting percentage also rose to 52.9. He attempted nearly twice as many free throws last year (4.0) than he did the season prior (2.1).
There’s statistical evidence that, given an increased role, Kuminga could have an increased impact on the Warriors. How much of an impact that is remains to be seen, however, as he still hasn’t gotten an opportunity to be a featured player.
With Draymond Green getting older and less reliable and Klay Thompson now playing for the 
Dallas Mavericks , Kuminga might finally get his chance to be a top option offensively. It’ll be up to him to perform and the Warriors to decide if he’s worth the maximum deal he reportedly wants.
