Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Wolves GM: Matt Lloyd: "The opportunity came up to sign Jonathan Kuminga, which again was the product of many, many phone calls and a lot of time investment. My wife asked me at one point, how many times has he called you? She was referencing Jonathan Kuminga's agent. How many times have you been on the phone with him since the middle of July? So I said, okay, I will look, and we went through my phone and we had 94 phone calls between July 15th to the day we signed Jonathan. Anthony Edwards was really instrumental in recruiting him to come here. We had several conversations with him, his representatives, and from Chris Finch to Tim Connelly to Alonzo Gee, who is on our staff, everything just came together."
Jim Souhan: "So is Marc Lore still involved?" Jon Krawczynski: "He is still involved though, he is still a limited partner with this group he's not leaving entirely, he's just taking a step back and so we'll see sort of like how much more comes to light on who he and Alisa are and and and how they move and how they operate. But, you know, Marc Stad was the number three investor with Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez in this ownership group. He's been very quiet and under the radar for his tenure with the Wolves and really for the way that he conducts business in general. If you look online and try to find any really public information about Marc Stad, there's not a ton of it out there and that's all by design. He's a very private person, he wants to stay behind the scenes, but talking to people with the Timberwolves over the last couple of years, Marc Stad has been involved in what has been going on in decisions that are made and kind of meeting and talking with Tim Connelly, discussing with Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lore the kind of the visions for arena, for the business side of the operation, for the basketball side of the operation."
Jon Krawczynski: They had to get into a bidding war, a recruiting battle with the Los Angeles Lakers for Jonathan Kuminga's services. The Lakers were offering a possible starting spot, the Wolves were offering a possible starting spot, the Lakers were offering more than $12 million per season, the Wolves could only get to six, and yet with a huge recruiting push from Marc Stad, Marc Lore, and Alex Rodriguez, and Tim Connelly, and Anthony Edwards, and a bunch of Timberwolves teammates, they were the ones that outmaneuvered the Lakers in free agency for a player both teams coveted.
The Wolves have been looking for a prototypical power forward ever since trading Julius Randle and Naz Reid during a busy offseason that also brought LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. Multiple team sources, speaking under condition of anonymity to discuss the team’s private recruiting efforts, outlined the work done over the summer that helped the Timberwolves beat out other suitors for Kuminga’s services. Tim Connelly, Timberwolves president of basketball operations, had extended conversations with Kuminga and agent Aaron Turner throughout the summer, including flying to Miami for a face-to-face meeting with Kuminga, sources said.
Michael Scotto: Jonathan Kuminga chose the Timberwolves because he felt it was the best basketball fit and gives him a chance to start at power forward for a contender. Wolves stars Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, executive Tim Connelly, and owner Alex Rodriguez all actively recruited Kuminga.
Advertisement
Shams Charania: In the last month, the Timberwolves persistently recruited Kuminga, offering their best financial tool in the taxpayer mid-level exception plus a large on-court opportunity. Edwards was a major part of the full-court recruiting press to sign Kuminga while president Tim Connelly traveled to Miami for a four-hour in-person meeting with Kuminga earlier this month along with productive conversations between the wing and coach Chris Finch.
Brian Windhorst: "Tim Connelly is in the last year of his contract. If he wanted to, I'm sure he could sign an extension. He has not signed the extension. Here is the other thing: when Tim Connelly was brought on board, he was given something called phantom equity. He was basically given a stake in the team, but he didn't actually get shares of the team, he got the equivalent of shares of the team that if he completed his contract, he would get a giant bonus. That bonus is in the five figures and it is not 10 million. It is a very sizable bonus."
Darren Wolfson: "Next to the arena, the other elephant in the room is Tim Connelly's future, considering his relationship with Alex Rodriguez. I think Tim is here. I don't know where Tim is going. I think he wants to see this thing through. You make the big deal for LaMelo Ball, give this a couple years, see what this roster looks like. So I guess I will be surprised, just because of Tim's involvement, Tim increasing his ownership stake slightly, the fact that Tim is here a ton, has the house here. I think Tim ends up re-upping."
Timberwolves lead roster decison-maker Tim Connelly is said to have a strong relationship with Stad. This figures to be key given that Connelly — after Dallas ultimately conceded in the spring that it would not be granted permission to pursue Connelly for its front office vacancy as the Mavericks had initially hoped — is entering the final year of his current contract in 2026-27 and needs a new deal.
Stad, the founder and managing partner of Dragoneer Investment Group, had been a significant minority investor in the Timberwolves and Lynx under the ownership group of Lore and Alex Rodriguez. Sources said the transfer of ownership between the Stad family and Lore developed after months of conversations and allowed Stad, Rodriguez and Lore to continue working together and maintain the current leadership structures of the Timberwolves and the Lynx. That includes Timberwolves president Tim Connelly, general manager Matt Lloyd and coach Chris Finch and Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who also serves as the Lynx's president of basketball operations.
Advertisement
Tim Connelly on Timberwolves’ title chances: Why not us? Every year it’s been a different champion for a long time now. I really thought, if we went one and one versus Dallas I thought we had a chance to win the championship. And then we're down 20 versus Denver in Game 7 so it's not linear. It’s can you win enough in the Western Conference, is brutal. It's going to be a top six team. Hopefully we're a top four team. I think with our home court advantage the Target Center is just so loud and so raucous. And then it's match-ups and injuries, right? I mean we saw it every year it's are you healthy enough? Are you resilient enough to win it all? I think we have a real chance and there's only five or six rooms in the league that really think they have a chance, and we're one of them.
Charlie Walton: I am told that Will Barton, an 11-year NBA veteran wing, will be joining the Timberwolves' coaching staff this season in a player development role. Barton was an assistant coach with the Iowa Wolves last season and with this year's Summer League team. Tim Connelly was the General Manager of the Denver Nuggets when they traded for Barton in 2015. Barton spent roughly eight years in Denver, all of which came under Connelly.
The Minnesota Timberwolves threw everything they possibly could at LeBron James to try to persuade him to chase a championship with them. Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball got on the phone with him. Alex Rodriguez led ownership’s pitch given their common ground as superstar athletes who have become business moguls. Tim Connelly’s longstanding working relationship with Rich Paul helped the two have extended conversations on the fit for James in Minnesota. Throughout the process, team sources said, the Timberwolves felt like James and his camp were giving them full consideration for his 24th season. Those sources spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to speak candidly about private negotiations. They always knew it was a long shot, but the prospect of putting James in a starting lineup alongside Edwards, Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert was something they had to pursue all the way to the end.
Darren Wolfson: "I know from Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez down to Tim Connelly, to Chris Finch, to Pablo Prigioni, Elston Turner, others on the coaching staff, other guys, that the Wolves feel like they have a really good infrastructure in place to help LaMelo mature that much more. And there is a thought from the deep dive that they've done, that LaMelo took a big step forward last year, certainly on the court. We can have the conversation about the car accident off the court, but on the court, accepting playing lesser minutes, playing 28 minutes a night compared to 35 minutes a night. You look at that Charlotte Hornets offense, number one in the league from January 1st on. They were also a really good defense from January 1st on. LaMelo Ball drove a lot of that. The Wolves also feel like with their medical staff in place, and hey, recent history says this is a fact, the Wolves do a really good job of keeping their guys on the court compared to the rest of the league."