Jonathan Kuminga signed a two-year, $12.4 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves this week. This closes out a saga that actually began two years and two teams ago, with a rumor about a $150 million offer that his own agent has always insisted never existed.
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The rumor began circulating in the summer of 2024, when Kuminga first became extension-eligible with the Golden State Warriors, and reports said that he had rejected a five-year, $150 million deal. Aaron Turner, Kuminga’s agent, has consistently denied that any such offer was ever presented. And he had to clarify things once again as the number began reappearing in conversations.
“There was never an offer from the Warriors for 5 years, 150 million,” Turner said on the August 28, 2026 episode of ‘Run It Back.’ “That never came on the table. In fact, to take it a step further, the Warriors never made an offer on an extension.”
Per reports, Golden State’s ceiling that summer topped out closer to $30 million a season, and no formal long-term proposal was ever finalized, with the front office instead preaching flexibility.
With no extension in place, Kuminga played out the 2024-25 season and entered restricted free agency in the summer of 2025. The Warriors’ best offer was a three-year, $75.2 million deal with a team option on the third season, after an earlier two-year, $45 million proposal had already been turned down.
Kuminga’s side pushed instead for a player option, wanting control over his own future rather than the team’s. The two sides eventually settled on a two-year, $48.5 million agreement on September 30, 2025, with a team option for the second season, which was a deal built to give Kuminga a shorter runway back to unrestricted free agency in 2027.
But then in February 2026, the Warriors traded Kuminga, along with Buddy Hield, to the Atlanta Hawks to bring Kristaps Porziņģis to Golden State. Kuminga appeared in 16 games for Atlanta, averaging 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds, before the Hawks declined his $24.3 million team option for 2026-27 in June 2026. Just like that, Kuminga became a free agent again, barely a year after his last negotiation had ended.
Hence came the second free-agency period, with the Los Angeles Lakers putting together a sign-and-trade offer reportedly worth more than $36 million over three years, with plans to start Kuminga at power forward.
Instead, on August 26, 2026, Kuminga agreed to a two-year, $12.4 million contract with the Timberwolves, using their taxpayer mid-level exception, with a player option for the 2027-28 season. It’s the second straight year Kuminga has taken a shorter, cheaper deal over a bigger guarantee.
Turner has framed both decisions as being about fit as much as control. He’s previously cited Kerr’s own private assessment of Kuminga’s role, saying that Kerr had said, “I can’t play this guy big minutes with what I have,” about fitting Kuminga in alongside Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.
On the other hand, in Minnesota, Turner said Anthony Edwards was heavily involved in recruiting Kuminga, with the front office pitching a ball-movement-heavy offense and a defensive identity. It’s the kind of role Turner felt Kuminga never fully got in Golden State.
Kuminga is now set to start alongside Edwards and LaMelo Ball, joining Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota’s frontcourt. With a player option on the second year of his new deal, he can reach free agency again in the 2027 offseason, with his fans eyeing his third shot in three years at the long-term payday that has so far eluded him.