The Golden State Warriors roster is finally coming together now that the question of Jonathan Kuminga has been settled with a two-year, $48 million deal that the team agreed upon with Kuminga on Tuesday.
The negotiations with Kuminga have held up much of the Warriors’ offseason, leaving without the certainty to ink formal deals with any free agents, having to settle with verbal agreements instead until the team knew where their finances were at.
With Kuminga’s contract out of the way for now, the team has been free to set the rest of their deals in stone – signing Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, and Seth Curry in a flurry of contracts since Tuesday
Having squared away their major extensions and free agent acquisitions, the Warriors now have another decision to make, this time about shooting guard Brandin Podziemski.
Podziemski is three years into a four-year, $16.2 million rookie contract, with the final two of those four years being team options. The Warriors picked up Podziemski’s first option for last season and now have to decide whether to do the same with the second option of his contract.
If picked up, the Warriors would owe Podziemski roughly $5.6 million, which would result in a $3.6 million cap hit. Golden State has until October 31 to make a decision on Podziemski’s option.
Podziemski has carved out a reliable spot for himself coming off the Golden State bench and averaged 11.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists while appearing in 26.8 minutes per game last season. He is projected to have an increased scoring year in 2025-26.
While the Warriors have added increased depth at the shooting guard position with the signing of Melton, Podziemski would still be a likely candidate to clock major minutes on the court for Golden State. It’s worth noting that Melton is still recovering from a torn ACL from the 2024-25 season.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had glowing reviews for Podziemski following a scrimmage on Thursday, a good indication of the team’s feelings toward him as a whole.
“BP had an incredible day today. He’s looking more poised, more confident with his shot, staying off the refs,” Kerr said (via Anthony Slater of ESPN). “A lot of guys looked good, but I would say BP stood out today.”
Podziemski was a leading scorer off the bench for the Warriors, and even if the team were to move him later on in the season through a trade, it’s unlikely they would simply let him go into free agency when the option is waiting for them.
