Let’s just start off by acknowledging the mad scientist that is Tim Connelly.
A couple months ago it seemed like the Wolves were mostly locked into a version of their roster that was good, but not good enough, and would never be good enough. The frontcourt was aging, and Julius Randle had moodied his way back into low trade value. The backcourt had no point guards, and Donte DiVincenzo was fresh out of Achilles tendon surgery. There were no more future draft picks to sweeten trade offers.
Fast forward to now. The Wolves suddenly have a team that is younger, more athletic, and a great deal more intriguing. LaMelo Ball was the feature offseason attraction, but this week’s acquisition of Jonathan Kuminga is a big one too.
Despite the legitimate excitement that many (including yours truly) were feeling about this upcoming season after the Ball pick-up, the elephant in the room was the power forward that was conspicuously NOT in the room. The Wolves didn’t have one — not unless you count Trey Lyles. Remember over the last two years when we’d talk ourselves in circles about point guard, whether you really even need one, and funny stuff like that?
We were in for Round 2 of “Does this position even matter?”at the 4 spot if Connelly couldn’t pull a rabbit out of a hat. With an assist from Anthony Edwards, Connelly was able to persuade Kuminga to sign for less money for a better basketball situation in Minnesota.
Suddenly, the Timberwolves have all the excitement of a LaMelo & Ant backcourt, without having to contort their personnel into misfitting positions. They have a point guard. They have a shooting guard. They have a Power Forward. They have a center.
Let’s go?
About Kuminga himself, the other part of this conversation.
The concerns with Kuminga are straightforward. He wasn’t able to stay in Steve Kerr’s good graces in Golden State, and if you can’t play with Steph Curry then that is a red flag. Kuminga had a cup of coffee in Atlanta, and the Hawks opted to not pick up his team option for this coming year (which would’ve paid him $24 Million, a great deal more than the $6.5 Million the Wolves will pay him).
He’s been in two places, and his teams decided not to keep him.
If there were no red flags or drawbacks to a 23-year old with Kuminga’s athletic profile, the Wolves would have had no chance to acquire him. It’s hard to call it “risk/reward” when the salary is so small and the alternative is Trey Lyles.
The Wolves “need” Kuminga to pan out, in the sense that they will not be able to win a championship without more frontcourt juice than Rudy Gobert alone can provide. An idealized or even B+ version of Kuminga might be a player that takes the Wolves from a “difficult playoff matchup” to a heavyweight contender, the likes of which we’ve really only seen here in 2004 and 2024. So I guess they need him to pan out, but if the other guys are playing the right way and JK is the odd man out, there might be midseason opportunities to replace his spot, sort of like we envisioned being a Connelly task had he not made this signing.
Kuminga needs this to work out in Minnesota if he wants to reset his career on a path he once envisioned. The morning before the signing was announced, I tweeted this:
That’s really it, right there. Of everything Finch has done well in Minnesota, his job with NAW ranks near the top. It was immediately apparent when NAW got here, that he had confidence issues. (Remember the airballed free throws in his early games?) It soon became equally apparent just watching the games that Finch was making it his mission to rebuild him. It wasn’t long before NAW was mixing 10 out of 10 defensive effort in a high-minutes bench role, with a whole bunch of swagger on the offensive side, converting high rates of jumpers, and scoring in traffic with both hands. Next thing you knew, he was signing a $62 Million deal with the Hawks and averaging over 20 points per game, winning Most Improved Player.
It’s quite possible that a good Kuminga outcome likewise involves the Timberwolves stint not as the peak, but the start of the upward journey. If he plays well this coming season, he’ll opt out of that second-year option and command a bigger payday; possibly one the Wolves won’t be able to offer themselves.
Three more quick thoughts about Kuminga the Timberwolf:
First is about our old friend Gersson Rosas. You might remember that he traded Andrew Wiggins and a future first rounder for D’Angelo Russell. That first rounder, the 7th pick in the 2021 Draft, became Jonathan Kuminga. That the Wolves get Kuminga now, still just 23 years old and on a cheap deal, leaves open a window for things to just feel better about that whole situation. We’ll see.
Second is about the headlines surrounding the Kuminga signing:
In my trek through Timberwolves history, I just got to Summer 2000 and Joe Smith. Let me just say that “Jonathan Kuminga turned down twice as much money from the Lakers to come to Minnesota” gave me a brief chill, especially amid the ongoing Kawhi Leonard/Clippers salary cap circumvention saga. Let’s hope all is on the up and up here!
Third is about the puzzle that could be fitting together with these offseason moves and the attendant dynamic shift within the team’s approach. Hear me out. For the Wolves to win a championship, they’ll need an idealized Anthony Edwards, which – despite his massive progressions over the years – we have not seen. He holds the ball a little too much on offense, and in the process doesn’t leave enough gas in the tank for defense. Well, the LaMelo Ball signing takes the ball literally out of Ant’s hands, so a step in the direction of “more energy and focus on D.” Move over to Kuminga, and what went into this recruiting pitch. Per the Jonny Athletic piece on the recruitment, Ant spoke to JK only about defense and how great the Wolves were going to be on that end of the floor, and how important Kuminga would be to that effort. Somehow that helped persuade him that the Wolves were the best team for him right now, and the power forward gap is suddenly filled. I dunno – the stars could be aligning.
We have a real rotation with real positions. We have a power forward. We also have Jonathan Kuminga.
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