The latest edition of “All My Jonathan Kuminga” concluded Wednesday when ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga and the Minnesota Timberwolves agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract, in addition to reporting that Kuminga will be named a starter for the Timberwolves.
BREAKING: 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. pic.twitter.com/KdtD6YEy9j
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 26, 2026
As is typical of Shams Charania on these sorts of NBA news reports, a cascade of supplemental reports emerged, varying in relevance to the primary news of Kuminga’s move to Minnesota.
Kuminga chose the Timberwolves over offers from the Lakers, Bulls and Trail Blazers -- bypassing a similar starting role and $12M-plus annually over three years in L.A. to land in Minnesota for a shorter-term deal and an ability to have more control of his future, sources said. https://t.co/Nq9byvxkII
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 26, 2026
One eye-catching report in Charania’s series of Kuminga updates is that the Chicago Bulls offered the polarizing wing a similar starting role in the $12+ million-per-year salary range for three years.
However, as if almost cut from the same mental cloth as Bulls lead front office executive Bryson Graham, Charania reported that Kuminga dismissed the Bulls' offer, along with offers from the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers, to prioritize short-term flexibility over his NBA future.
Many thanks to the Timberwolves and Kuminga
Ultimately, the Bulls should be thanking Kuminga with a gift basket of fruit and charcuterie for saving the franchise from its lingering desire to throw money at “young players with experience”, which, of course, was the last great (Norm-MacDonald-tier sarcasm) PR mantra from Graham’s Bulls predecessor, Arturas Karnisovas.
The cryptic Karnisovas infamously used his young players... slogan effectively as a euphemism for acquiring players NBA franchises had no good use for, such as Josh Giddey, Isaac Okoro, and 2x YPWE guy - Kuminga.
Kuminga, like the other YPWE bullet the Bulls dodged, Bennedict Mathurin, is a player profile that is largely hitting the bottom of player value in the NBA - the one-dimensional scorer. Most NBA offenses don’t run the exact style of offense the Steph Curry-era Golden State Warriors ran in their prime.
However, the Warriors' preferred style of offense is a good proxy for judging an NBA player’s decision-making abilities in the context of team basketball because the offense is heavily reliant on head coach Steve Kerr’s two main NBA basketball offensive influences: Tex Winter’s triangle offense that gave Kerr three of his championship rings as a player with the Bulls between 1996 and 1998 and Gregg Popovich’s motion principles that gave Kerr two more rings at the beginning of the Spurs’ championship dynasty in 1999 and again in 2003.
Kuminga's time with the Golden State Warriors proved he would much rather be a player who dribbles into tough, contested midrange shots as opposed to playing in quick-decision dribble/pass/shoot reaction situations that may allow him to be on-ball offensively but equally need him to be fully engaged off-ball.
Today’s NBA average offense is more oriented towards balanced offensive attacks between on-ball actions and off-ball movement as opposed to isolation scoring being the primary feature of an offense.
As the Bulls are in the infancy of their rebuild, that last thing their roster needs is a ball-stopping bucket hunter like Jonathan Kuminga.
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