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The Minnesota Timberwolves 2023-24 campaign came to an end on Thursday night, as they were bounced from the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks in five games in their Western Conference Finals series. While this was an encouraging campaign for the Wolves, they have some big questions to answer this offseason, chief among them being their ownership battle, with Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore facing off against Glen Taylor.
Rodriguez and Lore seemed set to purchase a majority stake in the Timberwolves from Taylor, but he backed out at the last second claiming they didn't have the necessary funding for the deal. Rodriguez and Lore claimed that was not true, and a battle for ownership of the team has ensued. Taylor has tried to keep things civil with Rodriguez and Lore, but they have no interest in doing so, as they ignored him on several occasions at Timberwolves games in the playoffs, with Rodriguez even rebuffing a hug attempt from Taylor along the way.
“On multiple occasions earlier in these playoffs, Taylor tried to approach Lore and Rodriguez to greet them either before or during games, team and arena sources who witnessed the interactions told The Athletic. Taylor even tried to hug Rodriguez at one point, only to be rebuffed, team sources said.” – Jon Krawczynski & Shams Charania, The Athletic
Alex Rodriguez, Glen Taylor not on good terms amid ownership battle
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Minnesota's ownership situation clearly isn't a good one for the team, and tempers are rising between the two sides. Rodriguez and Lore feel they met the requirements to complete this deal, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last second. Taylor contends that they didn't have the money needed in time for the deal to be completed, and the result has been a bitter battle that will be resolved by a three-person arbitration panel.
This is the sort of distraction the Timberwolves do not need as they look to find a way to build off of their extremely encouraging campaign. The biggest problem this could result in is the potential departure of Tim Connelly, their president of basketball operations who is largely responsible for turning this team into a championship contender. There's a clause in Connelly's contract that allows him to opt out of his deal if Minnesota's ownership situation is not sorted out before the offseason starts, and well, the ownership situation is still not sorted out.
Beyond that, the team needs to be actively planning on how to improve their roster, rather than focusing on this lingering ownership battle. It's clear this is an important offseason in Minnesota, but their ownership situation is going to keep being a distraction for as long as it goes on, and the hope is that it won't totally impede the Timberwolves offseason work.
