We may finally, mercifully, be nearing the end of Jonathan Kuminga Watch.
First, the list of teams he can even sign with is dwindling. Second, the season is actually approaching. If he wants to play this season, he’ll have to join a team soon.
Seemingly, his options are the Lakers and the Wolves. On either team, he would start. On one team, he’d get a multi-year deal at something close to the money he’s seeking. On the other team, he would not make nearly as much.
You’d think it’d be obvious which team
— cough, the Lakers, cough — would be ahead. The latest update would indicate as much as Jake Fischer discussed the Kuminga situation on Bleacher Report on Tuesday (h/t Odd-Direction9452/Reddit).
“Kuminga, I think, has seemed to prefer going to the Lakers. They’ve had the most opportunity to negotiate there. Minnesota is just limited to signing Kuminga to the taxpayer mid-level. He would walk into a starting job, I think, in both situations where Minnesota is thin at the forward spot, the Lakers have been selling him on this vision of having him start next to Luka. They’re going to have the spending power, in theory, to reward him next year if all goes according to plan. That’s going to come to some type of conclusion here soon.”
Yeah, Jake. We all thought this would be done weeks ago. You’re not alone on that.
This report comes after one late last week that the Lakers and Hawks were still discussing a deal. There are still some moving parts here before a deal is done, but heaven knows everyone involved has had lots of time to discuss things.
Any day now, Kuminga.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
