Jonathan Kuminga is headed to Minnesota. The Timberwolves and the former Golden State Warriors forward agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract that includes a player option, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday, closing out one of the more chaotic storylines of the NBA offseason.
Kuminga was traded to the Hawks ahead of last season’s deadline as part of the deal that sent Kristaps Porziņģis to the Warriors. He was largely sidelined during the first half of his final season in Golden State and reportedly requested a trade as soon as he became eligible. In Atlanta, he appeared in 16 games and averaged 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds, helping the Hawks reach the playoffs for the first time under head coach Quin Snyder before they were eliminated in the first round. The Hawks then declined his team option in June, making him an unrestricted free agent.
What makes the decision notable is that Kuminga didn’t chase the biggest paycheck. Agent Aaron Turner told ESPN that his client chose Minnesota over competing offers from the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers, and according to Charania, Kuminga passed on a similar starting role plus more than $12 million annually over three years in Los Angeles in favor of a shorter deal in Minnesota that gives him more control over his future.
That’s a shift from where things stood just a day or two earlier. Reports had suggested Kuminga was leaning toward a sign-and-trade with the Lakers, with insiders like Jake Fischer saying he preferred joining Luka Dončić in LA and had “the most opportunity to negotiate there.” Minnesota’s ability to sign him outright — without needing a complicated sign-and-trade — appears to have ultimately tipped the scales.
Kuminga will slot in as a starter alongside Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert on a Timberwolves team positioning itself as a Western Conference contender. The move addresses a real need: after Minnesota traded Julius Randle and Naz Reid — its only rotation-level power forwards — for LaMelo Ball, the team was left searching for size and rim protection at the four. Kuminga is coming off a season split between two teams in which he averaged 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds on 46.3% shooting overall and 33.3% from three, and there’s belief in Minnesota’s front office that a featured role next to Edwards and Ball could help him rebuild his value.
Signing Kuminga doesn’t fully close the book on Minnesota’s offseason. The Timberwolves will use their $6.1 million taxpayer midlevel exception to complete the deal, but they don’t currently have enough room below the second apron to fit his salary — they need to shed payroll first. Salary-cap reporting suggests Minnesota sits roughly $3.9 million below the second-apron hard cap, and adding Kuminga would push them about $2.2 million over that line, forcing president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to either engineer another trade or waive-and-stretch a contract before the roster deadline. Josh Green and Donte DiVincenzo have both been floated as the likeliest names to be moved to create the necessary flexibility.
For a Timberwolves team that already made waves this summer by dealing away Randle and Reid for Ball, the Kuminga addition — and the corresponding roster crunch it creates — suggests Minnesota’s offseason shakeup isn’t quite finished yet.
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