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NBA: Kuminga picks Minnesota, snubs the Lakers

Four hours in Miami, and a deal was done

Tim Connelly got on a plane. The Timberwolves president sat down with Jonathan Kuminga in Miami for four hours, and by the end of that meeting Minnesota had its man: two years, $13 million, with a player option on the second season, per ESPN and confirmed by agent Aaron Turner. Kuminga walks straight into a starting five that already holds Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert.

The Lakers thought they had him. Three years, north of $12 million a season, same promise of a starting job. Kuminga said no. He took the shorter deal instead, which tells you plenty about how he reads his own market two summers from now.

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Edwards worked the recruitment himself

Minnesota had been circling for a month. The taxpayer mid-level exception was the mechanism. Minutes were the pitch. Edwards did the recruiting personally, then Chris Finch took over the basketball side of it, walking the 23-year-old through where he fits when defenses tilt toward Edwards and the weak side opens up. Chicago and Portland were in the running too. Neither got close.

Third stop in barely two years

Atlanta was a short chapter. Golden State, where he started out, never really settled on what he was supposed to be. Now he lands on a roster with a genuine ceiling in the West and a role waiting for him on opening night. Whether that role survives a playoff rotation in April is the part nobody in Minnesota can promise him.

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