KiwiMatt wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 7:30 pm
Like the signing, especially at that price. JK brings top level athleticism. Watching video on him the last couple of days he clearly plays like he's bigger than he is. Impressive strength with next level athleticism. He'll start in the front court, but think he will get a lot of run with the 2nd unit being the primary scorer.
Surely we won't have to waive and stretch Josh Green. He's a solid rotation player on an expiring contract. We also have a 2031 2nd RP we can attach if need be.
Josh Green and that pick to CHI for Jalen Smith would be perfect. Not sure if CHI would though.
I agree signing Kuminga at that price was an excellent move. The point of adding a starting caliber PF to the roster was to add someone better than Trey Lyles with the size and strength of a PF. Kuminga is a beast. He’s not huge but he has PF size. His 8’11 standing reach matches the average 8’11.5 reach of NBA PFs. He weighed 220 lbs at the draft combine, but like every NBA player giving from age 19 to 24, he’s likely put on about 10 pounds. So I’m guessing he’s around 230 right now, which matches the average NBA PF weight of 233. Watching his highlights you can see that he is really, really strong. And he’s obviously an elite athlete.
Fingers crossed that Kuminga has had an epiphany after a somber period of self-reflection. I’d be surprised if TC and Finch did not make it clear to Kuminga that he needs to defend, rebound and accept a limited offensive role as a fast-break finisher, half-court cutter and offensive rebounder, and that he needs to focus on becoming an elite on-ball defender while tapping into his already impressive defensive rebounding percentage in previous seasons.
FNG wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 9:43 am
With the addition of JK as our starting PF, I think we now have a pretty good idea of what the 9-man rotation will look like...and it looks quite promising to me. I think it will look something like this:
C: Rudy 32, Joan 16
PF: JK 32, Lyles 16
SF: Jaden 35, TJ 13
SG: Ant 38, Ayo 10
PG: Ball 32, Ayo 16
Assuming good health and performance, Donte will make it a 10-man rotation when he returns...with his minutes coming from Ant, Ayo and TJ. And we still have Clark and Bones as rotation-worthy options waiting in the wings. I really like what TC has built here.
Those would be career-high MPG for Kuminga, Jaden, and Ant. I don't see any of them playing that many minutes, with all of them playing 2-5 MPG less than you are forecasting here.
I also think Lyles might be a bit more situational now, meaning he may be the 9th man against bigger, slower teams and out of the rotation against faster, smaller teams.
Finally, I expect Clark to get another shot at being in the regular rotation, especially with Green most likely being let go.
Q, you're correct that JK has never played close to 32 minutes a game. But I would push back that he has never been the default starter on any team he has been on...he did start half the games for GS in 23-4 when he averaged 26.3 MPG, but his MPG were limited by all the games he came off the bench. Further, how often does a Finchy starter play less than 30 MPG...barring injury or foul trouble? I agree with you though that it might be beneficial to dial back Ant's minutes a little.
Then there's Clark. I kept a tally last season of how will the Wolves did when he played 14 minutes or more. It was impressive for a while, but I stopped keeping track when the data reversed on him. I so much want Clark to succeed and be a rotation player, but his shooting struggles and over-exuberance at times on defense seems to hold him back. I still see him getting only spot minutes when one of our top 10 is out.
Kuminga is a role player and his lack of shooting is going to be problematic at times. Yes, he will be starting, but he's not going to be one of our main offensive engines like KAT or Randle were when playing next to Rudy.
And don't forget that the 5th highest paid player on the team is Ayo. I expect us to go with a lot of three or four-guard lineups deep in halves. There could be a lot of games where Kuminga is on the bench during crunch-time.
KiwiMatt wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2026 7:30 pm
Like the signing, especially at that price. JK brings top level athleticism. Watching video on him the last couple of days he clearly plays like he's bigger than he is. Impressive strength with next level athleticism. He'll start in the front court, but think he will get a lot of run with the 2nd unit being the primary scorer.
Surely we won't have to waive and stretch Josh Green. He's a solid rotation player on an expiring contract. We also have a 2031 2nd RP we can attach if need be.
Josh Green and that pick to CHI for Jalen Smith would be perfect. Not sure if CHI would though.
I agree signing Kuminga at that price was an excellent move. The point of adding a starting caliber PF to the roster was to add someone better than Trey Lyles with the size and strength of a PF. Kuminga is a beast. He’s not huge but he has PF size. His 8’11 standing reach matches the average 8’11.5 reach of NBA PFs. He weighed 220 lbs at the draft combine, but like every NBA player giving from age 19 to 24, he’s likely put on about 10 pounds. So I’m guessing he’s around 230 right now, which matches the average NBA PF weight of 233. Watching his highlights you can see that he is really, really strong. And he’s obviously an elite athlete.
Fingers crossed that Kuminga has had an epiphany after a somber period of self-reflection. I’d be surprised if TC and Finch did not make it clear to Kuminga that he needs to defend, rebound and accept a limited offensive role as a fast-break finisher, half-court cutter and offensive rebounder, and that he needs to focus on becoming an elite on-ball defender while tapping into his already impressive defensive rebounding percentage in previous seasons.
What I do like about Kuminga is he has some PF size and I think he compliments Lyles and the other way around. Lyles isn't gonna wow you but he has the size of a center and while mobile for that size he isn't a guy that's gonna be chasing wing guys around. Kuminga in theory is a guy that can guard all over the floor and a variety of players. I'm not sure I'm seeing the play strength others are seeing from the videos but he isn't a twig. He seems like a guy that might benefit from being able to just be aggressive on D more often. I think the Wolves are gonna be all over the place more like they did when they flew around that last year with Towns only they have Gobert and Joan behind them.
Also now Lyles could be matched up with Joan giving the frontcourt some space and a vet presence.
