The explosive revelations over the pending (or not) sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves continued on Friday, with would-be co-owner Alex Rodriguez saying that Glen Taylor was against two moves that helped Minnesota become one of the best teams in the Western Conference this season.
Appearing on The Dane Moore NBA Podcast with his business partner Marc Lore, Rodriguez said that Taylor was against the trade that saw the Wolves acquire Rudy Gobert for five first-round picks and five players in the summer of 2022.
“[Glen] didn’t agree with [the Gobert trade],” Rodriguez said. “He warned us against it. He didn’t want to do the deal. He let us do it, so credit to him, he didn’t get in the way.”
Rodriguez also said that Taylor was against the idea of hiring president of basketball operations Tim Connelly from the Denver Nuggets, who orchestrated the trade shortly after his hiring in May 2022.
“His quote to Mark and I was, ‘Why are you wasting your time?'” Rodriguez said. “People like Tim Connelly do not come here. Okay? We said ‘Let us take a crack at it.’ Mark and I went to work on it. Three months later, we’re having a press conference at a practice facility.”
While the Wolves were a perennial lottery participant when the agreement between Taylor and a group fronted by Lore and Rodriguez in 2021, the hiring of Connelly and the trade for Gobert are two moves that have resurrected the Timberwolves’ franchise.
Connelly was President of Basketball Operations with the Nuggets and helped build the nucleus that won the NBA Championship last season. The Wolves lured Connelly to Minnesota with a five-year, $40 million contract that included an equity stake in the franchise, and Connelly traded for Gobert a few months later.
Gobert’s first year in Minnesota was rocky, averaging 13.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, but he’s bounced back, averaging 13.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game while helping the Timberwolves become the No. 1 defense in the NBA.
With those moves following the selection of Anthony Edwards with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and the hiring of Chris Finch in January 2021, the value of the Wolves has increased from $1.4 billion at the time of Taylor’s agreement to sell to Rodriguez and Lore to $2.5 billion entering the season, according to Forbes.
The team’s purple patch appears to have convinced Taylor to renege on the sale.
“I just think we’ve built this team,” Taylor told Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “We’ve got the players now. And it appears to me we should have a very positive run for a number of years. And I want to be a part of that.”
Krawczynski reports that Rodriguez and Lore have made behind-the-scenes moves to improve the franchise, including upgrades made to “the back alleys of Target Center” such as a private owners’ suite to entertain guests and conduct business on game nights, and a revamped room for players’ families to hang out during games.
But Taylor viewed the new owner’s suite as “an unnecessary flex” by the new ownership group.
“They wanted that private room for themselves down there,” Taylor told Krawczynski. “I didn’t think that was a very good idea. But I OK’d it and paid for it and stuff like this. So I bent the corners a little bit and stuff like this here. But, I mean, that was more of their priority that they had that room than, ‘Who are we trading for?’”
Rodriguez called the comment a cheap shot in Krawczynski’s article and disputed Taylor’s role in building the value of the team on The Dane Moore NBA Podcast.
“To take all the credit now is not only disingenuous but is a plain lie,” Rodriguez said. “And I’m shocked, by the way how comfortable he is making these statements.”
With litigation between the two sides imminent, comments like this could be the norm as the future of the Timberwolves is decided.
