Kuminga Picks Minnesota Over a Richer Lakers Offer

Jonathan Kuminga agreed to a two-year, $12.4 million Timberwolves deal with a player option after passing on a Lakers offer worth more than $36 million. Minnesota then moved a veteran it had just added so the contract would fit under the second apron.

The starting power forward job is his. The money is not, and the roster math was the price of getting him in the building.

Minnesota Beat the Lakers by Paying Less

Kuminga, 23, chose Minnesota on Aug. 26 over the Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers, his agent Aaron Turner said. The Lakers had the larger check and a starting role next to Luka Doncic. The Wolves had Anthony Edwards on the phone, a four-hour dinner in Miami with president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, and a vacant 4 after trading Julius Randle and Naz Reid to get LaMelo Ball.

New controlling owner Marc Stad told Connelly he could climb from a $3.6 million veteran minimum up to the taxpayer mid-level. Alex Rodriguez joined the recruiting. Coach Chris Finch talked about accountability. Ball and Jaden McDaniels called too.

HOW MINNESOTA CLOSED THE GAP

• The money: Stad cleared Connelly to use the full taxpayer mid-level after the club had only the minimum left.
• The meeting: Connelly flew to Miami for a four-hour sit-down with Kuminga and Turner.
• The star: Edwards kept calling and sold defense, not shot volume, which is what Turner said landed.
• The staff: Finch, Rodriguez, Ball and McDaniels all reached out before the decision.

Turner has known Connelly and general manager Matt Lloyd for years, and he described a tone the last two stops did not give his client.

We sat at the gym this week, and I asked him, what’s the best basketball situation? He said Minnesota. Well, nothing else matters. Why would you go anywhere else?

Aaron Turner, Kuminga’s agent

Edwards played for Steve Kerr at the Paris Olympics, so he could talk about what failed for Kuminga in Golden State without guessing. Turner said Edwards “focus[ed] his message on, we’re gonna really guard here,” and that Kuminga “looked more at the defensive end.” A line later circulated as Kuminga’s own shot at Los Angeles noise. He has not said that in public. The words on the record are Turner’s.

The Taxpayer Exception Forced a Roster Trade

The deal is two seasons on the taxpayer mid-level, which the league set as a taxpayer mid-level of $6.064 million for 2026-27. Year two is a $6.367 million player option, a 5 percent raise, for a $12.431 million total. Minnesota cannot trade him until Dec. 15.

That first-year number is a 75 percent cut from the $24.3 million team option Atlanta declined on June 29. It is also less, per year, than the Lakers’ three-year sign-and-trade at more than $12 million a season. The second apron for 2026-27 sits at $221.686 million, with the first apron at $209.015 million, after the league set a $164.961 million cap and a $200.428 million tax line. Using the taxpayer mid-level hard-caps a team at that second number, and the Wolves were already living there after aggregating Randle and Reid to bring in Ball.

THE CONTRACTS AROUND THIS DEAL

People still measuring him against last summer’s $75 million framework will hate the row that says $12.4 million. The player option is why his camp accepted it. A three-year Lakers sign-and-trade would have paid more now and locked him past next July, when Turner wants him back on the market.

Josh Green Was Gone in Two Months

Kuminga’s first-year salary would not fit until Minnesota moved money. Josh Green, who arrived from Charlotte with Ball, was making $14.6 million on an expiring deal. Stretching that salary would have left $4.9 million on the books for each of the next three seasons with Green already gone.

On Aug. 29 the Timberwolves announced they had sent Josh Green and cash considerations to Utah for forwards John Konchar and Cody Williams. Minnesota is keeping Williams and using the waive-and-stretch on Konchar, which the club expects to cost just over $2 million a season instead of $4.9 million. That swap also left room for one more veteran while staying under the second apron.

The Jazz acquired guard Josh Green, a 6-foot-6 wing with 349 games, 6.3 points a night and 38.7 percent shooting from three. Konchar, 30, has 363 games and a 4.3-point average. Williams, 21, the No. 10 pick in 2024 and Jalen Williams’ younger brother, averaged 8.8 points in 67 games last season and once scored 34 on Sacramento. Green had been in Minnesota about seven weeks. He is the invoice for the Kuminga signing.

Why Kuminga Passed on a Three-Year Lakers Deal

The Lakers chased him first. General manager Rob Pelinka held several talks with Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh on a sign-and-trade, but the Lakers, Hawks and Kuminga never landed on terms all three could live with. League rules make a sign-and-trade run at least three years. Kuminga wanted a shorter deal and a player option, which Minnesota could attach to the taxpayer mid-level without Atlanta in the room.

Turner said money did not decide it this time. “It was such a solid respect factor from top to bottom,” he said. He also told Kuminga, “This is your chance to go to a place you can feel believed in. They’re going to encourage you. They’re going to push you, but they’re not going to run away from you.”

The louder problem, if you have followed him since restricted free agency, is not Minneapolis weather. It is the drop from a $75 million framework to mid-level money after a season that ended with a declined option. The structure answers that complaint only if he plays well enough to opt out. If he does not, Minnesota keeps a $6.367 million forward. Either way the Lakers are watching a player they priced as a three-year starter take the cheaper job.

Golden State Offered $75 Million a Year Ago

Kuminga was the No. 7 pick on July 29, 2021, a Congo-born forward the Warriors drafted into a two-timeline plan next to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. He won a title as a rookie. He also spent long stretches out of Kerr’s rotation, then spent last summer in a grinding restricted negotiation.

FROM THE $75 MILLION FRAMEWORK TO MINNESOTA

1. September 30, 2025: Signs a two-year, $46.8 million deal with Golden State after turning down a three-year, $75 million framework that carried a team option in year three. The deal he signed still had a team option for 2026-27.
2. February 5, 2026: Traded to Atlanta with Buddy Hield for Kristaps Porzingis, less than five months after that contract.
3. June 29, 2026: Hawks decline the $24.3 million team option and send him into unrestricted free agency.
4. August 26, 2026: Agrees to the two-year Timberwolves deal with a player option.
5. August 29, 2026: Minnesota trades Green to Utah to complete the cap work.

He has scored 12.5 points in 294 games in the regular season, with 98 starts, 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 50.2 percent shooting and 33.2 percent from three. Add 40 playoff games and the career log is 334. Last season he played 36 games between Golden State and Atlanta and averaged 12.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists on 46.3 percent shooting. The Warriors stretch was 20 games and 12.1 points. Atlanta got 16 games, one start and 12.3 points. His career high is still 16.1 points in 2023-24, when he started 46 of 74 games.

In the first round last spring he averaged 13.7 points in 26 bench minutes across six games against the New York Knicks, reached double figures in five of those six, and scored 21 in the game that made it 2-1. Atlanta lost the next three. The Hawks declined the option anyway.

He Averaged 20.8 Points Against These Wolves

Minnesota’s pitch kept circling a series it already survived. In the 2025 Western Conference semifinals, Kuminga averaged 20.8 points on 54.3 percent shooting (38-for-70) in five games against the Timberwolves, with 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 27.4 minutes. Golden State lost the series 1-4. His line went 7, 18, 30, 23 and 26. Edwards told him the Wolves had no answer on either end.

That is the tape Minnesota is buying at mid-level money. At 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds he is the most natural power forward on a roster that had been looking at Terrence Shannon Jr., Jaylen Clark and Trey Lyles in a platoon. He is a lob target for Ball, a late-clock scorer when defenses load on Edwards, and a rebounder on a team that just traded Reid. He is also a 33.2 percent career three-point shooter standing next to Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer, two centers who do not space the floor.

He is 23. Edwards, Ball and McDaniels are all 25. The age works. The shot diet is the fight, because he has asked for a featured role even beside Curry and Thompson, and this offense already runs through Edwards and Ball.

October Will Show if the Defensive Pitch Holds

Turner said the choice “was because of the defensive versatility of this team” and that “offense is secondary.” He wants Kuminga pairing with McDaniels on the other team’s best scorers, pressuring the ball, and running out after turnovers. Gobert is a four-time Defensive Player of the Year. Edwards can guard when he locks in. That picture is why a finisher next to Ball can let the new point guard run more as a true lead, not another scorer hunting the same touches.

WHAT THE STARTING JOB ACTUALLY ASKS

• The 4: Open the season next to Edwards, Ball, McDaniels and Gobert in the power forward spot Finch could not fill after the Reid and Randle trades.
• The glass: Replace some of the rebounding those two took with them.
• The defense: Share the hard assignments with McDaniels instead of hunting usage first.
• The three: Live with 33.2 percent spacing until the shot improves or the closeouts dare him to drive.

He turns 24 on Oct. 6. Training camp will decide whether the defensive pitch was recruiting language or the actual job. Minnesota got a 23-year-old starter for $6.064 million and already sent the $14.6 million wing who made the math work to Utah. Kuminga got the minutes and a player option. The next payday is scheduled for next summer only if this one looks nothing like the last two.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Can the Timberwolves Trade Jonathan Kuminga?

A new contract signed in August carries a trade freeze through Dec. 15, 2026, so Minnesota cannot move him before that date even if the fit sours in camp. After Dec. 15 he can be traded like any other player on a standard deal, subject to the same second-apron limits that shaped this signing.

Did Jonathan Kuminga Win an NBA Title?

Yes. He was on the Golden State roster that won the 2021-22 championship as a rookie after going No. 7 in the 2021 draft, and that ring is the main credential from a Warriors stay that later ended in a February trade.

Where Is Jonathan Kuminga From, and When Is His Birthday?

He is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was born Oct. 6, 2002, which means he turns 24 just as the 2026-27 season is getting started, still younger than Edwards, Ball and McDaniels.

What Happens if He Picks Up the Player Option?

The second season pays $6.367 million, a 5 percent raise on the taxpayer mid-level, and would make him an unrestricted free agent in 2028 instead of 2027. If he declines it, he is back on the market next July at 24 with a full season as Minnesota’s starting 4 on his resume.