Minnesota Sports Forum

I’ll add that I’m not a Kuminga fan and I’m not sure I’d want to trade anyone on our roster for him right now. But he is certainly talented.

Would you rather add Kuminga at $15M per year by trading Josh Green or add Jeremy Sochan at the vet minimum as a free agent without giving up any assets? To help inform your answer, here’s a statistical comparison:

Multi-Season Statistical Comparison

Kuminga (2024-25) (24 yrs. 6’7 ht., 220 lbs, 6’11 wingspan)
47 games, 24.3 MPG, 15.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.2 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 45.4% FG, 30.5% 3-pt, 66.8% FT

Kuminga (2025-2026)
36 games, 23.1 MPG, 12.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.6 SPT, 0.3 BPG, 46.3% FG, 33.3% 3-pt., 72.4% FT

Sochan (2024-25) (23 yrs., 6’8 ht., 230 lbs, 7’0 wingspan)
54 games, 25.3 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 53.5% FG, 30.8% 3-pt, 69.6% FT

Key Gemini AI Takeaways

* Peak Scoring Volume: Kuminga’s 2024–25 season represents the highest scoring output of any of these individual campaigns, where he averaged 15.3 points per game in just 24.3 minutes of action.

* The Shooting Evolution: Looking at Kuminga's numbers sequentially from 24–25 to 25–26 reveals a notable trade-off. While his scoring volume dipped by roughly 3 points, his overall efficiency outside the paint trended up, showing clear growth in his 3-point range (from 30.5% to 33.3%) and at the free-throw line (from 66.8% to 72.4%).

* Sochan’s Baseline Holds Up: Even when stacked against Kuminga's peak scoring year, Sochan's 2024–25 campaign stands alone for high-efficiency floor game and possession-saving actions. He shot a massive 53.5% from the field—nearly 8 percentage points higher than Kuminga's 24–25 run—and controlled the boards with 6.5 rebounds per game.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:10 am I’ll add that I’m not a Kuminga fan and I’m not sure I’d want to trade anyone on our roster for him right now. But he is certainly talented.

Kuminga is a free agent

kekgeek wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:36 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:10 am I’ll add that I’m not a Kuminga fan and I’m not sure I’d want to trade anyone on our roster for him right now. But he is certainly talented.

Kuminga is a free agent

He's such an enigma, isn't he? His numbers usually look pretty good, but two widely admired coaches have given up on him. If you research on the internet how good he is on defense, it says he is talented and can lock down his man when he wants, but is inconsistent. Hmm...sound like anyone we know?

He wants $20 million, so I don't know how we would ever get it done. I think I would pass anyway based on the opinions of Kerr and Snyder.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:31 am Would you rather add Kuminga at $15M per year by trading Josh Green or add Jeremy Sochan at the vet minimum as a free agent without giving up any assets? To help inform your answer, here’s a statistical comparison:

Multi-Season Statistical Comparison

Kuminga (2024-25) (24 yrs. 6’7 ht., 220 lbs, 6’11 wingspan)
47 games, 24.3 MPG, 15.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.2 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 45.4% FG, 30.5% 3-pt, 66.8% FT

Kuminga (2025-2026)
36 games, 23.1 MPG, 12.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.6 SPT, 0.3 BPG, 46.3% FG, 33.3% 3-pt., 72.4% FT

Sochan (2024-25) (23 yrs., 6’8 ht., 230 lbs, 7’0 wingspan)
54 games, 25.3 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 53.5% FG, 30.8% 3-pt, 69.6% FT

Key Gemini AI Takeaways

* Peak Scoring Volume: Kuminga’s 2024–25 season represents the highest scoring output of any of these individual campaigns, where he averaged 15.3 points per game in just 24.3 minutes of action.

* The Shooting Evolution: Looking at Kuminga's numbers sequentially from 24–25 to 25–26 reveals a notable trade-off. While his scoring volume dipped by roughly 3 points, his overall efficiency outside the paint trended up, showing clear growth in his 3-point range (from 30.5% to 33.3%) and at the free-throw line (from 66.8% to 72.4%).

* Sochan’s Baseline Holds Up: Even when stacked against Kuminga's peak scoring year, Sochan's 2024–25 campaign stands alone for high-efficiency floor game and possession-saving actions. He shot a massive 53.5% from the field—nearly 8 percentage points higher than Kuminga's 24–25 run—and controlled the boards with 6.5 rebounds per game.

Thanks for using AI Lip, and being transparent about it. I guess at some point we shoul have a conversation about AI and basketball analysis, since we're basically all having a conversation about AI and fill-in-the-blank these days.

With AI in cases like this, by big question is, how do you know if and when it's doing actual analysis as opposed to like, just constructing the safest, most logically predictable series of words?

I've heard some people argue that it's only possible to do the latter, but sometimes it's just so logical it seems like good analysis because, in essence, good analysis would lead to the same series of words, so what's the difference if it is "thinking" or not. I've also heard other people say it really is capable of thinking and analyzing, and I suspect that's true, but it seems to me like you have to be precise and thorough in your prompts and give it lots of relevant information to get that real analysis.

Think about it this way, imagine we were to be able to go back in time before the 3 point shooting revolution, like, 1990s, assuming the AI then would have been trained on all the written language that was available at that time, and we asked it how to make teams better. Would it have been able to figure out "hey, dumbasses, shoot way more 3s!" or would it have just kind of remixed conventional wisdom at the time? I think it might have been able to tell us all how dumb we were, but I suspect that to get that, we would have needed to get pretty specific about what we were looking for and make sure to feed it or direct it to a ton of information. I suppose the newest models can probably do more of that self-directing on their own.

But if I were an owner or a GM, you can bet I'd be having plenty of conversations with people about how to use AI well in this job. I'm sure lots of jobs are, but this is such a high-stakes, competitive business, the consequences of not using AI, using it badly or analyzing its feedback badly, or using it well seem really high.

If we're using it as armchair fans pondering Kuminga or Sochan, these front offices better be thinking about this, and I hope they're able to get good analysis out of it instead of just getting a well-worded consensus.

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:57 am

kekgeek wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:36 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:10 am I’ll add that I’m not a Kuminga fan and I’m not sure I’d want to trade anyone on our roster for him right now. But he is certainly talented.

Kuminga is a free agent

He's such an enigma, isn't he? His numbers usually look pretty good, but two widely admired coaches have given up on him. If you research on the internet how good he is on defense, it says he is talented and can lock down his man when he wants, but is inconsistent. Hmm...sound like anyone we know?

He wants $20 million, so I don't know how we would ever get it done. I think I would pass anyway based on the opinions of Kerr and Snyder.

So I don’t really disagree with your statement. All valid points. If he would come here on the min I am down for it. It would easily be his best “bet on myself situation”. I agree it doesn’t look good that Kerr and Snyder passed on him however Finch has done a really good job with Naw and Bones on “fixing/maximizing” young but flawed players that were almost out of the league.

From just a pure talent standpoint kuminga is the best option of a lot of not great options

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:57 am

kekgeek wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:36 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2026 11:10 am I’ll add that I’m not a Kuminga fan and I’m not sure I’d want to trade anyone on our roster for him right now. But he is certainly talented.

Kuminga is a free agent

He's such an enigma, isn't he? His numbers usually look pretty good, but two widely admired coaches have given up on him. If you research on the internet how good he is on defense, it says he is talented and can lock down his man when he wants, but is inconsistent. Hmm...sound like anyone we know?

He wants $20 million, so I don't know how we would ever get it done. I think I would pass anyway based on the opinions of Kerr and Snyder.

My current comp for Kuminga is Kyle Kuzma. That's not exactly high praise but at the right price and in the right role Kuzma is a reasonably worthwhile player. If I could sign Kuminga for like 15 million a year it could really pay off. I'm not really dying to add him though. He doesn't seem to quite play big enough to be a PF and he isn't a good 3 point shooter. I mean...how much is a player like that good for? He definitely is talented though but I'll be cool with it when he picks someone else for the money. It's not exactly a Lebron decision type situation. Lol

I wonder what is actually available to Kuminga at this time. How much is Atlanta willing to give him for 1 year? 3 years? Would they even bring him back at all? What does Atlanta want in a sign and trade? Max Strus? DDV? Josh Green? Vando?

Thing is, Atlanta has 17 guaranteed contracts at the moment. If they trade JK for someone like Green, they might be looking at cutting/waiving and stretching/dumping up to 3 players. They could very well be completely out on signing and trading JK unless a team wants to take Buddy Hield with him to reduce their roster crunch.

I want to know what above minimum deals JK has access to. Is he better off going to a team on a one year minimum? In Minnesota he has a clear path to start and LaMelo could elevate his game and he could try again next summer. I don't think anyone feels JK will elevate this team but this is where we are now.

Brett Siegel from Clutch Points is saying Wolves have shown interest in Jeremy Sochan and Trendon Watford.

I don't want any part in a player who sees himself through rose-colored glasses with nothing to back it up and feels the playing time should be gifted rather than earned.

All players have some semblance of cockiness/inflated ego, but that has to be mixed with humility and a drive to prove doubters wrong. Kuminga seems to have the cockiness with none of the rest.

He'll figure out eventually that his future is a 3rd option starter at best, a 4th-8th rotation contributor most likely. Figuring that out here should not be an option.