Kyle Kuzma is going to live in the rumor mill for a while, and the Milwaukee Bucks may not be able to avoid that conversation. The bigger question is whether a team out there actually makes the leap for him. Right now, the Minnesota Timberwolves look like one of the cleaner fits - except their cap situation has them boxed in.
Minnesota’s summer has already taken some sharp turns. The team re-signed Ayo Dosunmu and traded for LaMelo Ball, but it also lost two important frontcourt pieces in Naz Reid and Julius Randle. That has left the Timberwolves thin at forward, and the shortage has been obvious enough that a fallback move seemed possible earlier in the offseason.
For a stretch, Minnesota was tied to LeBron James and Rui Hachimura, two names that would have helped patch the hole. James ultimately decided he would take his talents to Philadelphia, while Hachimura landed with the LA Clippers long ago. With that market gone, Kuzma stands out as one of the few remaining options that fits the need.
The problem is simple: Minnesota can’t currently aggregate Josh Green’s $14.7 million salary in a trade. If that restriction weren’t there, the Timberwolves could have packaged Green with Donte DiVincenzo and sent both to Milwaukee for Kuzma. But that path is shut down for now, and without moving a key piece from somewhere else, Minnesota doesn’t have a clean way in.
That doesn’t mean Kuzma disappears from the Bucks’ trade conversation. He should open the season in Milwaukee, but as an expiring contract, he becomes a much easier name to move than he was last year. Teams won’t have to sign up for him beyond this season, and if he plays well with the Bucks - where he’s expected to start - his value only gets stronger.
So if Minnesota eventually gets the ability to combine Green’s contract with someone like DiVincenzo, who is likely to miss a significant chunk of the season rehabbing from an Achilles tear, a call to Milwaukee would make sense. Kuzma is a battle-tested forward, and that kind of piece can help round out a title contender’s frontcourt.
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