Jonathan Kuminga’s Start With Timberwolves Is Even Better Than It Seems

Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd isn’t exactly sure what the narrative around Jonathan Kuminga was before he landed in Minnesota this summer, but Lloyd isn't buying whatever it was.

“It could not be further from the truth,” Lloyd said on SiriusXM Radio Wednesday. “He has been nothing but awesome every single day.”

Kuminga’s narrative formed during his time with the Warriors, the team that drafted him seventh overall in 2021. Steve Kerr grew frustrated with Kuminga’s lack of buy-in defensively and competitiveness toward team goals. Kuminga didn’t think his head coach believed in his skills.

During his four-and-a-half seasons in the Bay Area, Kuminga proved he had the talent to score in volume at an NBA level. But could he buy into being a player who drives winning without being a primary offensive option? Could he commit fully to the team’s success, even if it came at the expense of his personal stats and required him to play less like a star?

Nine games into his tenure in Minnesota, Kuminga is already answering that question.

“We knew we needed him to be our dirty work guy,” Chris Finch said regarding Kuminga following Minnesota’s 117-107 win over the Rockets Wednesday. “Run the floor, get rebounds, guard at a high level. Just be some connective tissue out there, doing all the things he can do with his physicality and his athleticism.”

Not only is he driving winning in a secondary role, but Kuminga is doing it so well that he looks like a long-term fit—which creates new possibilities for Minnesota as it looks beyond this season.

Kuming really is doing all the things

When the Wolves signed Kuminga this summer, they didn’t need his scoring. They didn’t need the player who dropped 30 points on them in the playoffs two years ago. No, the Wolves needed Kuminga for his versatile defense, rebounding, and downhill athleticism in a primarily off-ball role on offense.

Kuminga knew that when he signed here. He set out to be the rugged off-road tires supporting the Wolves so they could traverse the mud. And oh boy, has Kuminga gotten dirty and actualized that goal so far.

“Don’t really have much to prove,” Kuminga said during training camp. “Just win games somehow. Playing defense. Not taking a shot. Running the floor for others to get easy buckets. Just those smaller things.”

Jonathan Kuminga clutch putback layup pic.twitter.com/usEyBzRDEm
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) November 5, 2026

Those smaller things have added up to a significant impact for Kuminga. The Wolves are 6-3. They have the NBA’s third-best defensive rating and just handed the Rockets their second loss of the season and first at home. Minnesota has scored at least 110 points in each game, and has done so while missing Anthony Edwards for four. The Wolves have been a mature group that would be lost without Kuminga.

“He just continues to play the perfect role,” Finch said Monday. “He is just doing everything we need him to do, and a lot of it in a timely manner. We would be lost without him right now.”

Kuminga is supplying the Wolves with consistent energy on defense. He is flying around the court with the type of defensive passion that Kerr didn’t see enough from him with the Warriors. Kuminga has also been active on the glass, finding ways to be a leading force without scoring.

The former lottery pick has played in at least 33 minutes while scoring ten or fewer points in a game twice in his career. Both games have come in Minnesota, and both games featured him as a winning player.

When the Wolves signed Kuminga in June, he was the best available free agent on the market. He was the bright and shiny player in what was an otherwise dark toolshed. From a raw talent perspective, the Wolves—who desperately lacked depth at power forward—would have been fools not to recruit Kuminga to Minnesota.

But for Kuminga to truly fit with the Wolves, he needed to buy into the type of role that he had never been able to. Kuminga needed to prove he could shift away from isolation-heavy possessions with inconsistent defensive effort.

Less than a month into the season, Kuminga has already proved himself. He is doing exactly what this Wolves team needs of him. Primarily, that has meant being a glue guy in the starting lineup. But Kuminga’s importance to this Wolves team—which is becoming increasingly obvious game by game—goes beyond all of the little things he is doing.

His offense has been unexpectedly good, too

Kuminga is averaging 12.7 points per game this season, right around his season average last year (12.2), but lower than the 15.8 points he averaged from 2023 to 2025. Kuminga is taking 10.3 shots per game, the fourth most on the team (excluding Edwards, who has only played in four games).

“He’s just really letting the ball come to him,” Finch said. “He’s trusting his offense and his teammates. He’s getting a lot of really good looks because the ball is really moving and he is just playing within the flow.”

Kuminga is a career 33% three-point shooter. If there was one part of his game that was most likely to hold him back from fitting in well with the Wolves, it would have been his lack of off-ball floor spacing. Still, Finch and his coaching staff have told Kuminga to stay confident in his shot. They trust his offense and have wanted him to let it fly when he’s open.

That is exactly what Kuminga has done.

Most recently, Kuminga scored 16 points against the Rockets. He shot 5 of 10 from the floor and 4 of 7 from deep. After that performance, Kuminga is now shooting 46.3% from the three-point range this season. He has connected on at least two triples in seven of nine games and has made 19 total, his most over a nine-game span in his career.

“They all feel like they are going in,” Finch said Wednesday.

Jonathan Kuminga clutch corner 3 pic.twitter.com/FQUBUeHcsF
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) November 5, 2026

Kuminga’s ability to space the floor has transcended his offensive fit beyond what most could have expected. He is punishing collapsing defenses, which is essential. Kuminga doesn’t need to connect on 46% of his threes all season, but he needs to keep a defense honest.

Kuminga doing that—while pairing it with his athleticism and sneakily good passing—makes him an offensive weapon that perfectly fits in Minnesota’s offensive ecosystem as a complementary piece.

He is looking like a long-term fit

In the offseason, the Wolves saw a world in which Kuminga was not just a one-year rental. He is 24 years old, perfectly fitting Minnesota’s timeline. He clearly had NBA-level talent. But in order for Kuminga to earn a long-term contract in Minnesota, he would need to prove he can (and is willing to) thrive in a complementary role.

Kuminga has operated in that role through nine games and has been smiling constantly throughout. He seems to be playing with a genuine joy right now while doing the dirty work.

He has been a connector for the Wolves in a way that every championship-level team needs. Kuminga looks like a player who will be awarded a pretty lucrative contract this summer. And for that to be in Minnesota, the Wolves front office will likely need to make moves elsewhere.

The Wolves may be forced to make sacrifices elsewhere to keep him around, because nine games into the season, Kuminga is rewriting narratives and looking like an essential part of this Wolves team moving forward.

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