Rumors

Marc Spears: I’m sure Jonathan Kuminga's in town um in Vegas supposed to meet with Steve Kerr and Mike Dunleavy Jr. and you know, try to figure it out and the Warriors hold all the cards. Yeah.  Sad to say for Kuminga, man, he just has no power in this. It's a bad market for restricted free agents. Has Cam Thomas signed yet? No. Has Josh Giddy signed yet? Nope. It's just not a good market. 

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An eventual compromise and return to the Warriors also remains very much on the table, league sources said, considering the market dynamics at play. The two sides have talked about a sit-down in Las Vegas between Kuminga, Turner, general manager Mike Dunleavy and head coach Steve Kerr to discuss a possible path forward, if his situation remains unresolved in a week.

New York Times

Anthony Slater: Mike Dunleavy on Jonathan Kuminga’s desire (or non-desire) to be with Warriors factoring into restricted free agency: “I think from his end, ultimately he’s the one that has to sign the contract. If it happens with us, it’s reflective of his desire to be here.”

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Tim Kawakami: Steve Kerr, whose current contract expires after next season, said he's happy going year-to-year with his deals now. Mike Dunleavy said it's not a pressing issue because the Warriors want Kerr around for as long as he wants to coach the team.

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But Lacob’s sentiment is notable when attempting to get a read on the front office’s planned path forward. The lead decision-makers — Lacob, general manager Mike Dunleavy, assistant general manager Kirk Lacob — don’t plan a major shakeup, team sources said. They’re plotting a retooled middle of the rotation below Curry, Jimmy Butler and Green, still believing that veteran core can contend. “It’s in some ways kind of a win to get here, to get (to) the second round,” Lacob said. “Yeah, we lost four games to one. Not good. But to a team that is playing very well. They took the Lakers out four to one also with two of the greatest players in the world on their team. We didn’t have one of ours. So we can all sit here and make what-ifs, judgments, but I can’t be really upset with what happened, given that we just didn’t have our biggest force.”

New York Times

So much has been said in the war of words between Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and the Memphis Grizzlies organization that it's hard to believe just how close he came to signing there as a free agent in the summer of 2023. "Very," a source close to Green told ESPN, when asked how serious Green was about leaving the franchise he'd won four titles with to join the young upstarts he'd feuded with so publicly during a heated six-game playoff series a year earlier. Green had even called Warriors coach Steve Kerr and teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to warn them that he was close to joining the Grizzlies via a lucrative sign-and-trade deal, sources told ESPN, before Warriors owner Joe Lacob and new general manager Mike Dunleavy swooped in with a four-year, $100 million extension to keep him in the Bay.

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“I told them, ‘It’s time to win,’” Mike Dunleavy Jr. explained to HoopsHype. “Whatever happened this season thus far where we’ve had some tough losses and our record isn’t what it needs to be. This signals it’s time to win, no f****** around. We’ll see where we can get to.” For Dunleavy Jr., being a former teammate of Jimmy Butler with the Chicago Bulls gave him a “level of comfort” in making the blockbuster trade and signing him to a two-year, $111 million extension. “I think there’s a talent level that he brings that we needed at the top of the roster,” Dunleavy Jr. told HoopsHype. “There’s also a presence, a competitiveness, and an IQ. We need all those things on the court and in big moments. I think it raises the level of all of our players. Not only our role players but also Steph and Draymond to know they’ve got another guy with them that they can look around and feel like, “Alright, we’ve got a chance.”

HoopsHype

Dunleavy has the most established relationship with Butler in the organization and was the central figure in the Butler pursuit, expressing confidence the team’s environment and Butler’s competitive desire will allow this partnership will work despite the recent track record. “Mike knows him really well,” Lacob said. “Played with him. That’s a big advantage.”

New York Times

Keyon Dooling: "Mike Dunleavy played a critical role in my career because he told me I wasn’t an NBA player. He told me, 'You can’t shoot, you can’t dribble, you don’t handle the ball well, you’re not a one, you’re not a two.' I used that as motivation. I worked harder in the summers, worked on my shooting, and became better. A lot of times, the hate, the doubters, and the naysayers fuel you. I told Eddie the other day, Mike came to me in Toronto after we put the Raptors out of the playoffs. He said, 'Hey man, I had that wrong. You turned yourself into a hell of a player.' My teammates looked at me like, 'Damn, okay.' That validation was cool, but it was almost like, 'Damn, that was fueling me.' Sometimes you need those voices to push you, to motivate you to prove people wrong."

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Anthny Slater: Steve Kerr notes that the Warriors are “way at the bottom of the league” in layups and free throws. Mentions it is personnel based. Asked about urgency heading toward deadline: “Those are questions for Mike.”

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Anthony Slater: Mike Dunleavy: "We're in a time zone here of maximizing our window with Stephen Curry, Draymond, Steve as our coach. As proven here in the first day we could make trades, we did that. We'll continue to look at things...I want to evaluate and see, but we'll always be looking at stuff."

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Anthony Slater: Mike Dunleavy on Steph/Draymond's role in Dennis Schröder deal: "Those guys are not banging down my door. They never do that...Do I keep them in the loop? Yes. Were they double thumbs up on this move? Yes...It's a good clean process. They're on board. Steve's on board."

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Anthony Slater: Mike Dunleavy on Dennis Schröder (on an expiring $13 million deal): "We still think he has a lot of good years left in him. We'll have his Bird rights, the ability to re-sign him. Hopefully there's a relationship here longer than just a few months."

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"The most challenging part is we've got a great owner and there's always a willingness to spend," Dunleavy told ESPN earlier this month. "So we'll figure out the CBA stuff. But it's really just the timeline. You can't get years back. You can't make guys younger. And so to balance that and make moves to enable us to really be good and get over the top now is what's challenging." The second apron is one of several reasons trade talks for George never truly materialized, league sources told ESPN.

ESPN