The latest on Jonathan Kuminga, Quentin Grimes, Houston and more from the NBA’s personnel grapevine
We have been writing it and saying it, both here and into various microphones, for seemingly weeks now.
It has been evident for some time that restricted free agency, for both Jonathan Kuminga and Quentin Grimes, could consume the entire offseason and play all the way out to the Oct. 1 deadline attached to their respective one-year qualifying offers for the coming season.
And now here we are.
An agonizing wait continues in Golden State, where the Warriors — who need to sign Kuminga first before filling out the other five vacancies on their roster — must come to terms on a contract extension with the 22-year-old before Wednesday’s buzzer or watch Kuminga sign the one-year, $8 million qualifier for 2025-26 that would set him up to be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The 76ers’ situation is plenty agonizing in its own right. They held their Media Day on Friday at the team’s Camden, N.J., practice facility without Grimes on the roster or even in attendance. Philadelphia is scheduled to fly to Abu Dhabi after Sunday’s practice in advance of two preseason games in the Middle East against the Knicks, but Grimes is not expected to be part of the Sixers’ traveling party while his extension negotiations drag on. It’s an absence that will be even more noticeable than anticipated in the wake of this week’s news that Jared McCain sustained a serious thumb injury in a workout Thursday to create a backcourt void for Philly.
How did we get so deep into the summer with no resolution for Kuminga or Grimes?
How will their respective standoffs ultimately play out?
We cover those stories and lots more personnel news from around the league in my latest notebook: