There are a lot of eyes around the league looking at Minnestoa and the future of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns there.
On the one hand, that dominant front line is part of the reason the Timberwolves reached the Western Conference Finals last season and enter this one as a title contender. On the other hand, Minnesota is the most expensive roster in the NBA this season, over the second tax apron, only going to get more expensive, and is going through what can politely be called an uncomfortable ownership struggle (one headed to arbitration). How long can Minnesota keep spending like this? The team extended Anthony Edwards and Towns, but what about Gobert?
Timberwolves president Tim Connelly says he wants to keep Gobert long-term, too. Here’s what he said when speaking with Darren Wolfson of KSTP 5 in Minneapolis.
“We’d like Rudy to be here for a long time. We love his agent, he’s been a friend for a long time and is one of the best guys in the league. And certainly our goal with most of these guys is to keep them here as long as they want to be here. … Ideally, I think continuity is going to be one of the better strengths we have going into the season and we really like our core group.”
The questions are: Which ownership group buys/keeps the majority of shares and controls the team, and how long are they willing to spend at this rate? That’s a question even Connelly can’t answer.
What he did say was the team planned to lean hard into young players — such as just drafted rookies Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. — to play significant roles and help keep costs down.
“We don’t want to put too much on any young guy’s shoulders, but we’re gonna put a lot on their shoulders. Obviously, they’re going to have to prove they’ve earned those minutes. But where we are, we’ve become a pretty expensive team, so we’re going to have to find some spots for these young guys. We know it’s not always going to be pretty.”
The Timberwolves championship window is open but the question is, how long is ownership — whoever it is — willing to pay up to keep it open? If a major cost-saving move needs to be made, it will almost certainly be one of the big men, Gobert or Towns, who will change uniforms. The rest of the league is watching and waiting, even if it’s going to be a couple of years.