Report: Proposed Hawks Sign-and-Trade Offer Would Send RFA Kuminga to Lakers
· Yahoo Sports
The Atlanta Hawks declined their $24.3 million team option on restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga for the upcoming season. The Los Angeles Lakers immediately contacted Kuminga and pitched him on their plan to make him a starting wing for them, and Kuminga certainly seemed open to the marriage. And yet, the two sides don’t seem close to ironing out a deal. All the Lakers can offer in free agency is a two-year deal worth approximately $20 million. The former 7th overall pick envisions his value as much higher than that.
To that end, Khobi White of the New York Post tells us that a sign-and-trade with the Hawks could be the answer. That would allow Kuminga to sign for a bigger annual dollar figure than the $10M the Lakers are able to offer on their own.
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REPORT: The Hawks have a preferred framework in place to execute a sign and trade that would send Jonathan Kuminga to the Lakers, per @khobi_price.
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 8, 2026
Hawks would receive:
Jarred Vanderbilt
2032 first-round pick swap
Lakers would receive:
Jonathan Kuminga pic.twitter.com/lUkq6aXqM4
Price says the Hawks foresee the framework of a proposed sign-and-trade like this:
Lakers receive:
Jonathan Kuminga
Hawks receive:
Jarred Vanderbilt
2032 first-round pick swap
“The Lakers have been willing to trade Vanderbilt,” Price writes, “as well as other players on the roster in order to create more roster-building optionality.” Vanderbilt has two more years and a total of $25.7 million left on his deal. LA would be fine moving on from that if it would land them Kuminga.
When Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and head coach JJ Redick met with Kuminga, they tried to sell the 24-year-old on “a vision of being a high-minutes wing next to Luka Dončić in a spacious on-court environment conducive to Kuminga’s skill set,” according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
Lakers have competition for Kuminga
There is a short list of other teams that are also interested in Kuminga, including the Cleveland Cavaliers. They, however, are a little tied up at the moment in their pursuit of LeBron James. The Cavs have become the frontrunner in the LeBron sweepstakes, and whether they’d still be interested in Kuminga should they land James is unclear.
The Milwaukee Bucks are another potential landing spot. There are some wide-open minutes at forward in Milwaukee these days with Giannis Antetokounmpo having been dealt to Miami.
The Sacramento Kings have widely been known to show interest in Kuminga, but there are conflicting reports about whether that interest still exists.
And then there’s the Hawks. They would still be open to re-signing the player, but at less than the $24+ million they passed on already.
The No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft was not happy with his role in Golden State for four and a half years. He faced an uphill battle each season to gain the trust of head coach Steve Kerr. It reached a boiling point earlier this past season, when he got off the bench just three times in a 26-game stretch. That led up to his eventual trade to the Hawks before the deadline in February. Atlanta sent veteran center Kristaps Porziņģis to the Warriors for Kuminga and Buddy Hield.
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