Cody Williams Trade: Why Did Timberwolves Acquire the Former No. 10 NBA Draft Pick?

The Minnesota Timberwolves are trading wing Josh Green and cash considerations to the Utah Jazz for forward Cody Williams and guard John Konchar, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Friday. On its face, it looks like a minor depth swap. In practice, the deal exists because Minnesota needed a way to legally complete a much bigger transaction: signing free-agent forward Jonathan Kuminga.

Kuminga agreed to a two-year, roughly $13 million contract with Minnesota this week, turning down a larger sign-and-trade offer from the Lakers to take a starting role alongside Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert. That signing pushed Minnesota’s team salary above the NBA’s second-apron hard cap, a spending line the Wolves are not allowed to cross under any circumstances this season. Moving Green’s $14.7 million contract off the books, and bringing back Williams and Konchar in a way that kept the math legal, was the mechanism that let the Kuminga deal close.

Williams is the more consequential name in the trade for Minnesota’s actual roster. He is expected to stick with the Wolves as a developmental wing, while Konchar is expected to be waived and have his salary stretched over future seasons for cap purposes.

How Jonathan Kuminga Forced the Timberwolves Into the Trade

Kuminga’s free agency dragged deep into the offseason, with the Lakers reportedly willing to offer him a three-year deal worth more than $36 million through a sign-and-trade with Atlanta. Minnesota could not compete financially, the Wolves only had access to the taxpayer mid-level exception, worth about $6.1 million in year one. What they could offer instead was fit: Anthony Edwards was directly involved in recruiting Kuminga, president of basketball operations Tim Connelly flew to Miami for a four-hour meeting with him, and coach Chris Finch sold him on a starting job at power forward. Kuminga ultimately chose the smaller, shorter deal in Minnesota over the bigger guarantee in Los Angeles.

That decision was a coup for the front office, but it came with a cost: using the taxpayer mid-level exception is only allowed for teams below the second apron, and adding Kuminga’s salary put Minnesota over the top of it. To stay compliant, the Wolves had to find a way to shed enough money elsewhere in the same transaction, which is what set the Green trade in motion.

What the Second Apron Actually Means

The second apron is the NBA’s strictest luxury-tax threshold, set well above the standard tax line, and teams that cross it face real basketball restrictions, not just a bigger tax bill. A team hard-capped at the second apron cannot exceed that total team salary figure at any point during the season, meaning Minnesota literally cannot carry more salary than the cap allows, full stop. Second-apron teams also lose the ability to aggregate multiple players’ salaries together in a trade to match money, can’t take back more salary than they send out in deals, and can’t use the full mid-level exception in free agency. That last restriction is why Minnesota could only offer Kuminga the smaller taxpayer version of the exception rather than a bigger contract. Trading Green, an expiring, largely expendable contract, for a cheaper Williams-Konchar package was one of the few moves available to create room without giving up a young core piece or a valuable draft asset.

Why a Former No. 10 Pick Became Available After Two Seasons

Williams entered the 2024 draft as one of its more tantalizing developmental prospects: a 6-foot-8 wing with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, fluid athleticism and the physical profile scouts compare to switchable, do-everything defenders. Jonathan Wasserman’s pre-draft report for Bleacher Report noted the demand for “big wing defenders who are also efficient offensively,” while other evaluators floated comparisons to a young Scottie Pippen or a defensive-minded Brandon Ingram. The concerns were also clear from day one: a thin 190-pound frame that struggled to absorb contact, and an inconsistent, low-set jump shot.

Those concerns showed up early in Utah. Williams’ rookie season was rocky enough that the Jazz sent him to the G League in November 2024, with coach Will Hardy stressing it wasn’t “a demotion” but an opportunity to play through mistakes on a crowded roster. Williams gradually carved out a bigger role in his second season, drawing praise from Hardy for his preparation and defensive growth, “it’s not easy to do what Cody is doing,” Hardy said in December, “he’s not in the rotation every night… his approach to understanding personnel and the gameplan is elite”, and finishing the year averaging 8.8 points on 46.8% shooting in 67 games.

But Utah’s timeline and Minnesota’s timeline are different. The Jazz have invested heavily in a young core of their own, and with a deep group of forwards and wings already ahead of him, one Jazz-focused analysis this summer bluntly noted Williams was more likely to be effective as an “eighth or ninth guy” than one of Utah’s top four options, a smaller ceiling than a No. 10 pick typically wants. Two years in, with a crowded depth chart and value still relatively low, Williams became a logical, inexpensive piece for Utah to include in a trade built around solving someone else’s cap problem.

What Cody Williams Brings to Minnesota

On tools alone, Williams checks the boxes teams look for in a modern wing. His length lets him guard multiple positions and contest without needing to be physical; he’s an effective cutter and transition finisher, and his second-year tape showed a defender who reads game plans well and moves his feet, even if his frame is still filling out. The obvious question mark remains his jump shot, which stayed below 20% from three as recently as this season, and his overall offensive polish, which is unlikely to be needed heavily in Minnesota anyway.

That’s arguably the appeal for the Wolves: Williams doesn’t need to create his own offense here. Minnesota’s ball-handling and shot creation already run through Edwards, Ball and now Kuminga. What the roster wants from a wing like Williams is switchable defense, catch-and-finish opportunities and reliable off-ball movement – a lower-usage role than Utah could offer him, but one that plays closer to his current strengths. At 21 and still on his rookie-scale contract, he costs Minnesota almost nothing to develop, and if the defensive tools translate, he becomes a cheap long-term asset on a roster that otherwise has very little young, controllable talent left after this summer’s moves.

Fitting Finch’s Vision for the Wing Spot

Chris Finch has built Minnesota’s defense around long, switchable perimeter defenders, with Jaden McDaniels, 6-foot-9 with a seven-foot wingspan, as the archetype. “Having him as a point-of-attack defender with that length is a luxury,” Finch has said of McDaniels. Williams’ physical profile, a 7-foot-1 wingspan on a 6-foot-8 frame, fits that same mold, even if he is not yet in McDaniels’ class as a defender. With McDaniels expected to continue as Minnesota’s primary point-of-attack stopper and occasionally slide up to guard forwards, Williams projects as depth insurance in that same defensive system rather than a replacement for anyone in the starting five.

How He Fits Alongside Edwards, McDaniels and Kuminga

Minnesota’s starting lineup is expected to run Edwards, Ball, McDaniels, Kuminga and Gobert, which leaves Williams competing for bench minutes rather than a guaranteed role. That’s a real hurdle, Minnesota’s wing rotation was already considered crowded before this trade, but it also means Williams won’t be asked to do much offensively when he does play. In a reserve unit, his length gives Finch a defensive changeup off the bench, someone who can guard up a position next to smaller guards or take some pressure off McDaniels and Edwards against bigger wings, similar to the complementary role Green himself had been carving out. Whether Williams beats out Minnesota’s other young wings for that job will likely be settled in training camp.

Williams vs. Green: What Minnesota Is Trading Away

The comparison underscores how different this trade is from a typical basketball upgrade. Green, acquired over the summer in the LaMelo Ball blockbuster with Charlotte, was viewed as a proven, low-usage 3-and-D veteran, a “rock-solid role player,” in the words of one Wolves analyst, with size to guard multiple positions and a track record of winning basketball, including a run to the 2024 Western Conference Finals with Dallas. He was already earning praise for his fit next to Minnesota’s stars. Williams, by contrast, is unproven at the NBA level, on a far cheaper rookie contract, and comes with a wider range of outcomes, from out-of-the-rotation depth to a long-term defensive find. Minnesota isn’t betting Williams is better than Green right now; it’s betting the cap flexibility and long-term value of Williams’ contract are worth more to the roster than what Green offered on the floor.

The trade itself has drawn relatively little independent reaction so far, given how recently it was reported, and most of the surrounding commentary has focused on the Kuminga signing that triggered it. Draymond Green, Kuminga’s former Golden State teammate, warned on his podcast that Kuminga’s bargain contract makes him vulnerable to being “the first plug that gets pulled” if Minnesota’s new-look starting group struggles, a dynamic that puts added pressure on complementary pieces like Williams to prove themselves quickly if the Wolves need to reshuffle their rotation.