Trade succeeds January 15 when Kuminga becomes trade eligible
• Golden State Warriors receive Michael Porter Jr. • Brooklyn Nets receive: DeMar DeRozan, Moses Moody, Buddy Hield, Devin Carter, Warriors’ 2026 first-round pick, 2028 first-round pick swap with Warriors • Sacramento Kings receive: Jonathan Kuminga, Haywood Highsmith, Ziaire Williams
Why the Warriors make this move: This is their all-in move for one last ride with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Steve Kerr. Porter has been All-Star quality this season, a monster scoring threat averaging 25.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 49 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from 3 and 83.3 percent from the line entering Monday night. No one around the league really believes that Porter could be the primary scoring threat like he is for the Nets on a team with real playoff aspirations, but he has silenced a lot of questions regarding what his output would be away from the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokić. It’s hard to find a better fit for Golden State than Porter, too. We know that he can be an integral part of a title team, and his skill set is exactly what the team needs between Jimmy Butler and Green as a real shooter who can also occasionally create his own shot. He’s also played with a creative passer within a movement/cutting-based system before in Denver with Jokić, meaning there might be a bit less of an adjustment here for him.
As far as price point? It’s rightfully expensive. The Kings get involved as a third team and take back Kuminga, and the Nets land DeRozan, Moody, Hield, Carter, a 2026 Warriors first-round pick that will likely land in the 20-to-25 range and an unprotected 2028 Warriors pick swap. The pick swap could be the real value add there, as Curry, Green and Butler’s contracts all expire in 2027. Given that, I would think the Warriors would want to, on some level, mitigate potential value loss there by receiving the Nets’ pick that year in return. But Golden State has to give something serious if it expects the Nets to move Porter. That might be just enough of an enticement to do it along, with Moody and this year’s late first-rounder.
If the Warriors want to make this one last push, Porter is the perfect player to chase and makes the most sense of any player on the market from a scheme, talent and fit perspective.
Why the Nets make this move: I think the Nets should look at retaining Porter and extending him this offseason at the right price. But there are good reasons to move Porter at the deadline and cash in at the top of his value. Namely, Porter’s injury history is quite real; he was medically flagged at the NBA Draft Combine back in 2018, which led to his fall toward the end of the lottery. If Brooklyn wants to mitigate the risk on Porter, this would be the time to cash in.
Indeed, the 2026 first-rounder and 2028 pick swap with the Warriors would be pretty interesting assets to get back, given Golden State’s timeline. Even if Curry, Green, Butler and Porter all re-sign for another year in 2028, you would think there would be seriously diminishing returns two years from now when all their core guys outside of Porter would be in their late-30s. The next-most valuable asset here is Moody, who has turned into a solid 3-and-D player at 6-foot-6 with a 7-foot wingspan. The Nets could use a guy like this for the next few years as they build out the rest of their roster. Moody makes sense next to a wide variety of players and is an established rotation player whose presence could help develop younger guys that Brooklyn already has and continues to bring in. Carter is also a lottery pick who’s terrific on the defensive end but whose jumper has been very messy since he injured his shoulder before the 2024 draft. He’d be a pure lottery ticket instead of taking the expensive Kuminga back. DeRozan has a $10 million guarantee next season that won’t really dent the Nets’ cap space if they shed Porter’s money, and Hield has a rare contract that only has $3 million guaranteed next year but has essentially a mutual option on the 2027-28 season. All in, the Nets would only add about $250,000 to their cap sheet this year and actually end up saving a bit more money on next year’s sheet, assuming that they let go of Hield and DeRozan and open up even more flexibility.
Why the Kings do this: They’ve been connected with Kuminga for quite a while, and here, they get to take a swing on him at a low price. To do so, they send out the DeRozan deal (something they seemingly want to do pre-deadline anyway) and Carter and take back the $11.8 million cap hit owed to Highsmith and Williams for the rest of the year to make the deal relatively cash-neutral for Brooklyn. Neither Highsmith nor Williams is guaranteed any money beyond this year, meaning the Kings could easily fit Kuminga’s full salary into the fold right into the slot they had for DeRozan.
Should they want Kuminga? If the price point is this low, I at least understand taking the chance. I’m not a massive fan of his game, but he’s bigger and longer than Carter and has more of a track record of success as a scorer. He has shown the ability to play with downhill force, which gives him a bit more upside if he can ever figure out the work he needs to do on his jumper to make it more consistent and thus get defenders even more off-balance. But given the poor feel for the game that Kuminga has shown outside of scoring, this is probably the most I would want to pay to take a chance on him.
I welcome comments, but please no comments without supporting reasoning (e.g. "Hawks pass". Don't be a hater. If you’re going to say something, make it meaningful or don't bother)