Jonathan Kuminga’s free agency took another sharp turn this week, and the twist came down to basketball fit, not the bright lights in Los Angeles.
For most of the summer, the 23-year-old NBA champion seemed destined to land somewhere else almost every time his name came up. The Golden State Warriors had a slow offseason with Kuminga last year, and late this summer the Lakers looked like the front-runner.
New York Post’s Valentina Martinez reported that “Jonathan Kuminga landing with the Los Angeles Lakers seems inevitable at this point. On Tuesday, it appeared Kuminga had three suitors remaining in his free-agent sweepstakes: the Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Lakers,”
But Cleveland dropped out, Minnesota was widely seen as a long shot, and the path appeared to be clearing for LA. Instead, Kuminga chose the Timberwolves.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported, “Jonathan Kuminga has agreed to a two-year, $13 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, plus a player option, agent Aaron Turner tells ESPN. Kuminga will be a starter alongside Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert on the West contender,”
That choice raised eyebrows, especially with the Lakers on the table. Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, told The Athletic the decision came back to where his client believed he’d be in the best basketball situation.
“We sat at the gym this week, and I asked him, what’s the best basketball situation?” Kuminga’s agent Aaron Turner said.
“He said Minnesota. Well, nothing else matters.
Why would you go anywhere else?”
From Kuminga’s perspective, the answer was simple: Minnesota offered the setup he wanted more than Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in Los Angeles. The move was surprising, but it points to a player putting team context first.
The Timberwolves look positioned for a deep playoff run with their current roster, while the Lakers still have more questions than answers. Kuminga’s decision to take less money makes more sense in that light, and it may be the clearest sign yet that he valued the chance to win over the bigger market spotlight.
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Aaron Turner, Kumingas agent, said his client put the playing situation and organizational alignment ahead of contract length and money, which helps explain why the process unfolded the way it did. It also sheds light on why the Lakers were never quite enough on their own, even with their usual pull in these conversations. The larger surprise may be what happened before all of this, with Golden State never making a real push to keep Kuminga before moving on from him. [Read more 🡒]
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Lakers Still Have A Roster Problem Cavaliers Helped Create
The Lakers spent part of the offseason looking at Jonathan Kuminga as a possible answer at power forward, a spot they have been trying to stabilize around their core. Instead, Kuminga has agreed to a two-year, $13 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, including a player option, according to his agent, leaving Los Angeles to keep searching for the kind of frontcourt fit it had hoped to land.
Kyle Kuzma is among the names the Lakers may now have to weigh if they decide to go the trade route, and he would fit the broader conversation about adding size and scoring on the wing. The bigger issue is the same one that has lingered for weeks, with Los Angeles still trying to solve a roster gap that another teams move helped expose, and the options to fix it looking thinner by the day. [Read more 🡒]