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September is typically a quiet time for the NBA.

It sure wasn’t for Aaron Turner or the Golden State Warriors. 

On Sept. 19, the fast-talking, passionate agent ran a remarkable media blitz on behalf of his client, restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga. He spent roughly two hours appearing on a pair of basketball podcasts and did a radio hit with 95.7 The Game. Then, in the run-up to training camp, with Kuminga still unsigned, Turner tweeted out workout videos with trolling captions.  (opens in new tab)

Agents rarely give on-the-record interviews during negotiations. Turner chose to go public to clear up what he deemed as misperceptions about his client. 

“That was a big part for me of all these conversations — it was not to negotiate, it was for JK and me to make sure the record was fucking straight,” Turner told The Standard on Oct. 1, a day after the signing was finalized.

“I think everybody thinks it was about negotiating. OK, there was a little part of that. But the reality is, like, ‘No, we never turned down five years, $150 million. No, JK’s done nothing wrong. This is not on him. He’s the player, he’s here.’ If anybody gets mad at him, then trade him! Let him go! You guys are making my point. ‘He’s fucking awful.’ OK, so why do you want him here? ‘He has no value.’ So why are you paying him this much money? Clearly, he does.”  

Ultimately, the Warriors and Kuminga agreed to a two-year, $46.8 million contract with a 15% trade kicker and a team option for the second season. Team sources view this summer’s negotiations as fair and respect Turner for working hard for his client. The Warriors are happy with the result and still see a possible outcome of Kuminga being a long-term piece.

But parts of Turner’s strategy, including applying public pressure through the media, rubbed some in the organization the wrong way. 

“We knew this is the way he likes to deal, and it’s not the most fun,” said one source with knowledge of the negotiations. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.” 

The firebrand agent, in an exclusive interview, defended his negotiating style. 

“It was to set all this shit straight,” Turner said. “And we made a couple million bucks more, so that’s fine too. This is what’s funny to me. Everybody’s like, ‘Aaron fucked up.’ I’m like, hold on. Did I fumble something? Because fumbling would mean like next year, if JK is making $10 million a year, you could say I fumbled by not taking [three years for $75 million]. You can’t say I fumbled because I didn’t fumble anything yet. 

“We made a choice. Now, if I turned down two years, $45 million, and two weeks later got two weeks, $40 million, I fumbled, right? I went backward. Most people, if you had to negotiate for two more weeks to make a couple million dollars more, wouldn’t you do that? Isn’t that my job?” 

Kuminga, 23, is back for his fifth season and saying all the right things. His veteran teammates and head coach are, too. 

That doesn’t mask how unique the negotiations were or how fickle the dynamics between the wing and the organization have been for years. Kuminga’s up-and-down time with the Warriors and the win-now ambitions around Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green complicate his role. Prior comments, both from Turner and Steve Kerr, set up a delicate backdrop for negotiations. 

“Probably won’t have a negotiation like that ever again, just given the circumstances,” GM Mike Dunleavy said.

Even if Warriors fans were subjected to near-daily media updates, the team and Kuminga now have a chance to put everything behind them.

But history suggests more drama could be looming.

One of Kerr’s first orders of business after Kuminga joined his teammates at training camp was to sit down with the wing for a conversation to get on the same page. 

The Warriors’ third-leading scorer last year has had a turbulent tenure under Kerr. He’ll have eye-opening stretches in which the team believes he’s poised to turn the corner to stardom, only for circumstances to change. 

Four years of genuine improvements, of hesitancy to embrace the Shawn Marion-esque role Kerr envisions, of tantalizing two-way promise, of loud on-court lapses, of reported “lost faith” (opens in new tab) came to a head last spring. 

Because Kuminga struggled to reacclimate after his severe ankle injury and as the team was thriving with the newly acquired Butler, Kerr benched him in the season’s highest-stakes moments: the must-win season finale, the play-in game, and four of seven first-round games against Houston. When Curry strained his hamstring in the semifinals against Minnesota, Kuminga surged into a featured role, averaging 24.3 points from Game 2 through Game 5, though the short-handed Warriors lost each night.

“For me, I’ve been asked to win,” Kerr said on “The TK Show” after Minnesota eliminated the Warriors. “And right now, he’s not a guy who I can say I’m going to play 38 minutes with the roster that we have — Steph and Jimmy and Draymond — and put the puzzle together that way and expect to win.”

Some fans interpreted Kerr’s comments as indicating Kuminga isn’t a winning player, an idea that infuriates Turner. 

“You know what pisses me off, though? This narrative that JK doesn’t help winning,” Turner said. “That shit is so false it’s fucking insane. There’s no data that points to that.” 

Kerr and Kuminga don’t have personal issues, by all accounts. Kuminga works hard and is well-liked within the locker room. The team isn’t concerned that the wing will let this offseason’s business spill onto the court. 

“I’ve known JK for four years now,” Kerr said. “He’s not the kind of guy to come in and tear a team down.”  

Curry, likewise, said he expects Kuminga to “be a professional and do exactly what he expects to do and take advantage of his opportunities to help us win.” 

That’d be the easiest way to prove Turner right.

Turner didn’t necessarily intend to make himself a main character of the offseason. He didn’t even intend to become an agent at all. 

An All-State honorable mention playing in the same Ohio high school division as LeBron James, Turner stayed active in the grassroots Cleveland basketball scene in the early 2010s, working in coaching and skills development. 

On trips home from college, Turner would train Terry Rozier when he was a high school prospect. The guard, now a 10-year NBA veteran who has earned more than $100 million, trusted Turner and jumped at his offer to represent him ahead of the 2015 NBA Draft. That’s when Turner cofounded Verus Sports, an agency that pitches itself as development-focused. 

Turner met and signed Kuminga during the Covid-19 pandemic after they bonded over the teenage wing’s work ethic and drive. Kuminga trained this summer with a development plan Turner helped devise. 

When it came to Kuminga’s options in restricted free agency this summer, he and Turner sat down and mapped out what they wanted. They settled on seeking as much control over the wing’s future as possible while simultaneously betting on himself — which could mean sacrificing guaranteed dollars in the long term.

Because there was limited cap space around the league, Kuminga didn’t receive an offer sheet — typically a restricted free agent’s source of autonomy — so Turner and Kuminga used the threat of taking the $7.9 million qualifying offer as leverage. Other restricted free agents this cycle did the same. 

Turner also explored possible sign-and-trade options to get Kuminga to a destination where he’d be featured more prominently. The base-year compensation rule limited sign-and-trade options, so when they didn’t materialize, Turner angled for a contract with a player option. 

During his media blitz, he reiterated that if the team turns the team option into a player option, Kuminga would be all in on helping Curry, Green, and Butler win a championship. “Turn the T.O. to a P.O.” became Turner’s infamous, catchy phrase. 

Their choices were the qualifying offer, a two-year deal with a team option in the second, or a three-year deal with a team option in the third. They decided on the 1+1 team option construction, which Dunleavy and Warriors salary cap strategist Jon Phelps initially pitched in July, per sources. 

The 1+1 deal, in Turner’s view, is the best combination of upfront security and betting on the long term as his client could get, given the market realities. There’s a good chance they’ll be back at the negotiating table next summer, because any team would be incentivized to work out an extension instead of having Kuminga play on a walk year. 

And by dragging out negotiations, Turner got the maximum amount of money the Warriors could offer, given the team’s cap restraints. 

“When you dissect the whole thing, the deal and the concept made a ton of sense for Jonathan,” Turner said. “I don’t know if it would make sense for many guys or anyone else, but it did for him.” 

As talks stalled, the Warriors couldn’t finalize signing veteran free agents Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, and Seth Curry until training camp. For three months, the Warriors were the only team that hadn’t made an official transaction, as the national media and fans jeered. 

In Turner’s eyes, being patient and vocal helped secure the best possible deal for his client. 

“This was an insane negotiation that was hitting a boiling point,” Turner said. “People were losing their minds. I got death threats from all this. We all have. This shit’s wild. It’s like real-life insanity.”

In August, Dunleavy and owner Joe Lacob flew to Miami to meet with Kuminga and Turner. The Warriors, who prefer to do business privately, made it clear they expected the meeting to stay under wraps.

Instead, ESPN published a story (opens in new tab) detailing the contents of the conversation, including a back-and-forth between Lacob and Kuminga in which the owner asked, “Do you want to be here?” and the player answered, “Do you even want me here?” 

“We were laughing, because that was all their idea,” a team source said of the Miami meeting. “Like, they proposed that whole thing.”

At one point, the Washington Wizards reportedly emerged as a possible sign-and-trade suitor for Kuminga. The Wizards, however, insisted to the Warriors that they had no interest in Kuminga and were frustrated by a rumor they suspected was concocted by Turner. (The Athletic later confirmed (opens in new tab) that Washington hadn’t expressed interest in the wing.) 

Kuminga never demanded a trade but was open to a fresh start elsewhere — perhaps where his 92nd-percentile usage rate would make more sense. Turner publicly said that Suns owner Mat Ishbia “would give JK whatever he could if he had the cap space” and that the Kings offered him a featured role during a Zoom meeting.

Through the noise, the Warriors and Turner maintained a working relationship. His clients Gabe Madsen, Blake Hinson, and Coleman Hawkins played on the Summer League team. And the team’s brass remained diplomatic about the agent’s style.

“I’ve got no issues with guys doing whatever they can to get the deals, the things they want, the money, the teams, the role — all those things you’re looking for as a free agent,” Dunleavy said. “However you want to go about doing it, I have no issues. Would I do it that way? No. But I’ve got no issues with these guys.” 

The result satisfied both sides. The Warriors kept a player they still value — someone who has already become one of the NBA’s most prolific downhill finishers — and Kuminga has more control over his future. In the short term, Golden State will rely on Kuminga on nights in which Curry, Butler, or both are unavailable.

In the big picture, Kuminga represents perhaps the franchise’s last chance at upgrading around its championship core. Either by emerging as a bona fide, consistent contributor, or by yielding one via trade, Kuminga remains a vital figure in the Warriors’ dynasty. 

Players can break out at various points in their careers. Kuminga’s time might be now. Even if the deal’s structure gives Golden State optionality in a trade, there’s no guarantee the team will find a suitor offering a deal that makes sense. There’s no guarantee the Warriors will even want to trade Kuminga. 

Maybe Dunleavy will have another negotiation like this, after all. If so, there will be no mysteries about who’s sitting on the other side of the table. 

“This was not about beating Joe Lacob,” Turner said. “This was never that. JK has to do what he needs to do against the rest of the NBA. It was about trying to get a deal that helps JK. It’s not like an Aaron vs. Warriors, or JK vs. the Warriors. It’s negotiation.”