Forward Jonathan Kuminga agreed to a two-year, $12.4 million deal with Minnesota on Wednesday, choosing a shorter prove-it contract over a larger long-term offer from the Los Angeles Lakers in a move that gives the 23-year-old wing a starting role alongside Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball.
The deal includes a player option on the second season, which preserves his ability to return to free agency next summer if he plays his way into a more lucrative market.
Minnesota used its taxpayer midlevel exception to sign Kuminga, who was recruited persistently over the past month. Anthony Edwards was an active participant in recruiting him. Team president Tim Connelly traveled to Miami for a four-hour in-person meeting earlier this month, and productive conversations with coach Chris Finch also contributed to the decision, according to league sources.
Why Kuminga chose Minnesota over the Lakers
The Lakers pursued Kuminga the hardest through the early weeks of free agency, with general manager Rob Pelinka holding multiple discussions about sign-and-trade scenarios that would have paid Kuminga more than $12 million annually over three years. Those discussions involved the Atlanta Hawks and ultimately could not produce a structure that satisfied all three parties.
When those negotiations stalled, Minnesota stepped in with a shorter-term offer attached to a starting role on a legitimate Western Conference contender alongside Edwards, Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert. He chose the starting opportunity and the short-term structure, prioritizing control of his near-term future over the larger guaranteed money the Lakers were offering.
To complete the transaction, the Timberwolves will work through trade scenarios involving reserve wing Josh Green. If they cannot find a landing spot for Green before Saturday’s deadline, they intend to waive and stretch him.
Kuminga’s path here
The signing ends a tumultuous chapter that began last summer, when his restricted free agency with the Golden State Warriors dragged into October training camp before the two sides agreed on a two-year, $46.8 million deal with a team option in the second year.
Golden State exercised that team option, but the relationship between Kuminga and the franchise that drafted him seventh overall deteriorated. In February, the Warriors traded him to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Kristaps Porzingis.
He performed well in Atlanta, becoming a productive bench contributor as the Hawks made a late run to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. He averaged 13.7 points in 26 bench minutes across their first-round series loss to the New York Knicks. Despite that production, Atlanta declined his $24.3 million team option in late June, making him an unrestricted free agent.
His numbers against Minnesota
His best sustained stretch came against his new team. In the 2025 playoffs, playing for the Warriors in a second-round series loss to Minnesota, he averaged 20.3 points on 54.3 percent shooting.
He brings 334 career regular season games of experience, including 40 playoff appearances, and enters what the team is framing as the highest-profile opportunity of his career, starting alongside two All-Stars on a team that reached the Western Conference finals in each of the past two seasons.
