There is an ongoing feud between current Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx owner Glen Taylor and majority owners in waiting Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, and despite the Timberwolves being at the top of the Western Conference, the battle has gone public, with Rodriguez making comments on multiple issues on the Dane Moore NBA Podcast. The first topic he discussed was the trade for Rudy Gobert, which Rodriguez said Taylor was not for.
“There has to be trust in any partnership, you’re not gonna put everything in a contract right?” Alex Rodriguez said on The Dane Moore NBA Podcast. “There has to be a spirit of trust, and we believe trust is a very important element in any partnership. He did not agree with the Rudy [Gobert trade]. He warned us against it. He did not want to do that deal. Okay. So he let us do it, so credit to him. Okay, he didn’t get in our way.”
While Rodriguez credited Taylor for letting the Rudy Gobert trade go through, he said the bigger issue was the hiring of president Tim Connelly and taking credit for the team’s current success.
“The big one was Tim Connelly,” Rodriguez said. “His quote to Marc and I was, ‘why are you wasting your time? People like Tim Connelly do not come here. Okay’ We said, ‘let us take a crack at it.’ Marc and I went to work on it. Three months later we’re having a press conference at our practice facility. So, to take all the credit now is not only disingenuous but is a plain lie. And I’m shocked by the way, how comfortable he is making these statements.”
Despite this feud, the Timberwolves have had a very successful 2023-2024 season, with the Gobert trade playing a big part in that.
Timberwolves finding success on the court
As things currently stand, the Timberwolves are first in the Western Conference, tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder at 51-22 overall. The moves that the organization have made have paid dividends. The Timberwolves are doing this without Karl-Anthony Towns as well, who has been out due to a knee injury that he suffered on March 6. He is out for at least the rest of the regular season, and possibly some of the playoffs. It remains to be seen when he will be able to come back.
For now, the Timberwolves will try to tune out the battle between Rodriguez, Lore and Taylor and continue their on-court success. They have a great chance at securing the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with nine games remaining in the regular season.
The Timberwolves could be looking at a matchup with a team like the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets in the first round, depending on their own seed and how the NBA Play-In Tournament shakes out.
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