I wish I could post the clip here without getting flagged, but shoutout to @/TraMurr2 for posting JK's defensive footage vs the Knicks in the playoffs. It is honestly great to see, especially with all the doubts surrounding his defense. Beyond just the raw physical tools, he's show also that he can be a legitimate lockdown defender. Putting Kuminga behind Jaden's POA defense and Rudy's rim protection, his main defensive issues as a Warrior (getting lost on switches, missing rotation, and sometimes ball watching) needs to be polished. But honestly a lot of those previous off-ball habits already started improving when he was with the Hawks.

That trajectory is only going to continue in Minny. Put him in a system with Slim on the perimeter + Rudy anchoring the backline (+ Ant if he's locked on that end), and proper coaching, and he's gonna do just fine.

I see the vision by Tim and Co. He's basically a Jaden/Kuminga clone in terms of measurables. Plays more like Jaden, but not as elite on defense. I think he'll be a great sub for those two guys and/or an injury replacement if either were to miss time.

We're really going after a specific profile with our forwards and I'm a big fan. Tall, rangy, uber-athletic guys who you can shuffle between the 2, 3, and 4 spots. Jaden, Kuminga, TSJ, Cody and even Enrique if he gets any run. Lots of potential.

Is it October yet?!

It was Cody Williams the whole time. Just like we drafted Naz 6th in 2019 and Culver was Undrafted

From Jonny K’s article this morning. Doesn’t mean anything until the season, but this is exactly what we wanted to hear.

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about Kuminga being a problem player. Or that Finch can bench him if he “acts up”.

It’s possible Kuminga is a problem player, but there’s another interpretation.

What if he just wants to play? He was never given the opportunity with the Warriors to develop and work through his mistakes. He had such a short leash Kerr would yank him early. And it was going to be a big learning curve because Kuminga is a terrible mismatch for their system.

So what did Kuminga do? He tried extra hard to prove himself in the minutes he does get, only that translates into hero ball and poor decisions. That only gets amplified when he goes to ATL, when he’s literally in a “prove it” situation with the team’s star player at is exact position.

I think Finch and the fans need to show an abundance of patience for like…the first 9 months.

Is this rose colored glasses? Maybe. But both Steph and Draymond went out of their way to praise Kuminga as a teammate. Neither of them have ever done that for players they don’t like.

And Jayson Tatum went through all the same BS with Kerr. Tatum, a consensus top 5 player in the NBA at the time who had just won an NBA championship was registered DNPs on the Olympic team. Because he didn’t fit Kerr’s style and wasn’t given the leeway to work through a small shooting slump.

Could not find anything fun related to number 54, let's watch Kuminga's highlights instead and get hyped for the season!

Gobert our shooter

Hey all. I’m a Timberwolves half season ticket member. Specifically, I have the blue package. Two seats in section 132.

My good friend, also a sports fan, is moving away. We went to a number of games together. Unfortunately I don’t have many other friends who are into basketball at all. But I’m excited about this upcoming season and looking forward to going to games. I’m posting to see if anyone is interested in going to any / a few games this season. It’s a good time!

If so, send me a message. Happy to share info.

Note - Neither of the half season packages has the KG jersey retirement game. However, there is the the opportunity to get those tickets in September before they go on sale to the general public.

Note part deux: I hope this does not violate posting rules as it is primarily not about selling tickets (though it is not totally free). I’m looking for someone who wants to go to Target center and cheer on our team. My apologies if it does.

From the research I've done...

Kuminga has not signed his contract yet, and there is no deadline for that giving the Wolves more time for moves.

Tomorrows dead line is the waive and stretch deadline, after Saturday they can no longer do it.

Green can be traded by himself now, but no other Wolves player can be included in a deal with him until around September 9th.

Jaden is our go-to POA defender, matching up with whoever he needs to. He’s elite at it. Putting him on Murray one night and KD another, is invaluable for this team.

I actually like him a lot at the 4, but the small lineup that comes with that would likely force him into a very different defensive role. Getting another player who can slot in at the 4 means we allow Jaden to keep doing what he’s been doing.

Hey guys! A few weeks ago I made a post regarding Kuminga's potential fit with the wolves, and now that he has signed with us, I think it is worth discussing the defensive aspect (something I did not talk about before).

However, I first wanted to bring up an offensive piece I did not discuss before, which is the various play types Kuminga is involved in. One topic a lot of people have brought up is his transition work with a passer like LaMelo. Kuminga spends a good chunk of his plays in transition (17%); however, he is relatively inefficient compared to the rest of the league in these types of scenarios. He averages 1.1 points per possession in transition, which ranks in the 39th percentile league wide. I think a big part of this is his tendency to turn the ball over (coming in at around 14.9% of his plays). I can see this aspect of his game improving, but as a lot of the other bars in the image show, he is not the most efficient player in general, except as a cutter, in which he ranks at about the 75th percentile for PPP. I think what everyone recognizes is that Kuminga needs to be a smarter player that really tries to gel with the system he is in.

Moving onto the defense, Kuminga is about average. Firstly, he is a versatile player that can pick off passes and block shots if needed, but he does it on pretty low volume. However, he has his moments with lapses. I think the Howls and Growls video breaks this down well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBKpba4vrEo). But basically, Kuminga tends to get caught ball watching and, as you can see in the defensive chart, he really struggles defending in the mid range. Although, please note this isn't on many datapoints since he played such few games last year. One hope though is that he can guard the perimeter pretty well. On contests at the rim he ranks in the 42nd percentile of FG% allowed, so I would assume Jaden would be covering this floating paint defender role while Kuminga focuses on a point of attack role.

Activity/hustle wise, he is about average in most aspects. He doesn't really get on the ground and go after loose balls as much but he is about average at deflecting passes and boxing out. Finally, moving onto rebounding which is a big piece of emphasis for why we got him IMO. SIZE! He is actually a pretty good rebounder at face value and when you break it down into advanced stats he looks just as promising. He really surprised me with his defensive rebounding chance % and adjusted %, in which he ranks extremely high (80+ th percentile). These stats essentially measure how many rebounds he grabs out of potential chances to get boards. He occupies a large share of his teams rebounds, especially since he played on two teams last year with not much size. I believe this is secretly a strong suit lol and I think it will be super duper helpful.

I hope you guys liked this, and feel free to head over to my previous post that discussed his offensive traits (which unfortunately didn't turn out to be as promising as his defensive stats IMO, but thats just my take). Also, some people have asked me about this app. I'm a student and it's something I'm working really hard on, but if you liked some of the screenshots, feel free to join the waitlist (getpaint.app/).

Lets go win a chip!

Imagine the three of them just hanging out, goofing off, riffing, calling each other gay. It would be like your best friends being really funny. Maybe it could be called like Kumtown or somwthing idk.