Minnesota Timberwolves Sale Stopped? + Surviving Karl Anthony-Towns Injury With Naz Reid
On today’s show Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor stops the sale of the team a little bit of sellers remorse perhaps how the Timberwolves are surviving without Carl Anthony towns in the lineup the importance of Nas Reed and why Chris Finch deserves to be coach of the year it’s all coming up on
Today’s locked on NBA you are locked on NBA your daily NBA podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what’s up and welcome to another edition of locked on NBA the biggest stories with the local experts I’m your host Jackson Gatlin also host of locked on Rockets
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Listen to your podcast and on YouTube just search locked on wolves and Ben this past week uh a little bit of uh some interesting activity going on with the ownership group of the Minnesota Timberwolves uh Glen Taylor stopping the sale of the Wolves minority owners Mark lore and Alex Rodriguez uh apparently
Taylor has alleged that lore and Rodriguez have failed to meet certain contractual deadlines and obligations of the sale process which began all the way back in 2021 what’s your read on this overall situation kind of how much of this is potentially even maybe some like sellers remorse from Glen Taylor trying to maybe
Not want to you know lose control of this wolves team after you know arguably the most successful season in franchise history yeah no and that was kind of the um that was kind of the statement that Mark Lori and Alex driguez came out with like it was kind of bang bang bang one
After another I think it was Thursday morning it was like you know Glen Taylor uh announces the team’s no longer for sale and then lorian Rodriguez through spokesperson immediately issue a statement saying this is an unfortunate case of sellers remorse and then after that Glen Taylor issued another
Statement the first statement was like an official team letterhead statement then this was like a quote through the athletic where Glen Taylor said basically admitted to the sellers are part he said something to the effect of I’m paraphrasing but um this isn’t much of a paraphrase he he said like hey the
Team’s really really good and I want to be around for it we’re gonna be good for the next few years so this is one of those situations where it’s going to play out it sounds like there it’s going to go to some form of you know arbitration o over at some point over
The summer a and we don’t really know except for you know the the lawyers involved in the situation were all the boxes checked was this some combination of like is Glenn calling a technicality because he really wants to keep the team that’s what this feels like it feels
Like maybe there was something that got a little bit you know fudged along the way and and Glen Taylor’s like well you know what I’m a businessman and I’m going to call him on it and I’m gonna you know because I want to maintain this 60% majority stake in the team right now
It’s 60% Glen Taylor 40% Lori Rodriguez and if this goes through like it was supposed to Glen Taylor would have gone down to 20% he’s on the team for almost 30 years and Rod RZ and Lori would have had 80% so right now it’s a little uncomfortable a little it’s a lot
Uncomfortable because Lori and Rodriguez still have 40% of the team and they’re by definition partners with Glen Taylor so we’ll see what happens this summer but clearly this is this is like there’s no winners here right like nobody looks good uh given Glen Taylor’s history was
Some of the stuff you know him and Kevin Garnett not getting along the team Garnett won’t let the team retire his jersey because of Glenn Taylor That was supposed to happen you know maybe even in the playoffs this year had the sale gone through as expected um so there’s
Some weird stuff there this isn’t necessarily out of character for Glenn Taylor um but it’s uh it’s an unfortunate distraction at least for the fans um you know and and around the league it’s an unfortunate look for the wolves in it in in the midst of as you
Said one of the best teams or best seasons in franchise history yeah it’s definitely an unfortunate look all around and hopefully at this point it doesn’t impact too much of the the day-to-day operations of the team hopefully the the team itself you know everybody in charge from front office to
Down to the players and and you know coaching staff assistants whatever can continue doing what they’re supposed to be doing which hey they have been since the Carl Anthony towns injures so this team uh currently eight and four since cat went down due to injury um including
Some big wins on the road against the Clippers and the Nuggets how have the Wolves really been able to kind of maintain their high level of play in the absence of one of their best players yeah it’s been um an certainly stepped up his game and naz’s been great he’s
Mostly started he came off the bench still the first couple games they started Kyle Anderson for a few games but there just wasn’t enough shooting with Kyle Anderson in the starting lineup the um the the spacing wasn’t where it needed to be for Minnesota and so nazri join the starting line he’s had
Some big games an has stepped up not just scoring but also playmaking and then they’re getting contributions across the board guys are hitting open threes they shot over 50% from three in a game against Golden State last weekend um they beat Denver the other night held
Denver to just 98 points so it’s been a combination of a little more volume from nas a little more volume from Ant more playmaking from Anthony Edwards um and then the defense has been spectacular you know they’ve held since the cat injury they’ve held opponents I think 12
Games they’ve held three opponents under 100 points and I uh five opponents to 100 or less they held a couple teams to right at 100 points so it’s been the defense just how they’ve done it all year now they did lose to Chicago on Sunday and that was a function of they
Didn’t have enough three-point shooting and turns out Carlon Town’s their best three-point shooter they shot under 30% from three that a bunch of guys uncharacteristically just miss open threes down the stretch in that game mostly um and that was really what the downfall was so in terms of like offensive rating defensive rating
They’re right in line with where they were all year with cat they’re middle of the- pack offens they’re the League’s best defense before and after the cat injury so it’s really been more of the same it’s just for the most part the guys that have increased their volume
Have held up their end of the deal um the Chicago loss was disappointing but I mean as long as those shots fall and ant continues to play the way he has been they should be okay and and I mean they jumped into first in the west with their
Win over Denver on Friday they fell to third in the West after they lost on Sunday and both OKC and uh and Denver won on Sunday so it’s going to be a roller coaster down the stretch they have one more game against Denver um it’s going to be tough It’s unlikely
Cat plays at all before the end of the regular season but there is some hope it sounds like for him to get back on the floor for the first round of the playoffs so then of course comes the can can you and how do you reintegrate Carl
Py towns um you know after he’s been gone for what’ll end up being probably five or six weeks at least so um overall though pretty good results without Carlon towns over the last couple of weeks I know when we originally talked about the cat injury here at lock on NBA
Uh and kind of looking ahead at what this lineup could potentially look like without cat you mentioned probably you know inserting Kyle Anderson into the starting lineup you know as opposed to going with nas Reed it sounds like you know Chris Finch kind of tried that a little bit didn’t like the spacing
Didn’t like the lack of shooting eventually settled on having Nas Reed out there I want just to talk about Nas Reed for a minute because is is there a better piece in the NBA a better backup big man a guy that you can throw in and and have the flexibility even at times
Run like a triple big lineup right with his spacing with his shooting it feels like he’s just had a phenomenal season he has and and really last year was kind of his breakout it’s what led to the big contract and restricted free agency three years 50 plus million or whatever
It was um and he he is I mean like they played a three big a three Center lineup with with Carl towns Rudy goar and Nas Reed at at times and against certain teams it worked really well uh they they did it sparingly when all of them were
Healthy but um to be able to insert a guy off the bench who I mean he went 20 and 10 in consecutive games last week against Golden State in Detroit he had been uh 17 or more points in the first five games after after the towns injury
Um or I guess it was it was five straight games shortly after the injury he also had a 34o game and an overtime loss so um he is like a basically a 40% three-point shooter from three he’s struggled a little bit the last couple of games but he’s overall for the month
Of March was 40% from three that’s about where he is on the season he can put the ball on the floor he could pass a little bit he’s a little bit more versatile defensively he’s improved on that under the floor quite a bit he’s not a traditional Center defensively he’s more
In the vein of cat he’s just a little more athletic than Carl towns and so he’s a little bit quicker laterally and he’s a little bit better he’s you could get away with switching with him where you can’t as much with Carl towns so um he actually provides a reasonable I
Guess you could say fact simile of what Carl towns is right he’s not quite as skilled offensively he’s not quite as efficient but there’s some things he does better he does have a little more athleticism he is a little bit more versatile defensively and it allows you
To to kind of you know either play with him as your as your five or play him alongside Rudy gobear which is basically what the wolves are doing with CAD anyway the challenge now though is with both them in the starting lineup there’s no size coming off the bench so it’s
Kyle Anderson and essentially three point guards or three three guards really with uh Monte Morris and Jordan mlin and N Alexander Walker are your only other guys in the rotation so slow-mo now is your main big Off the Bench and so it leads to these kind of weird lineup combinations that the
Wolves have uh for the most part though it has worked and and Nas really is a starting caliber big in this league the wolves have it’s it’s expensive so it’s not like they’re not paying for it but kind of an embarrassment of riches in terms of three starting caliber centers
On this team when they’re fully healthy yeah it’s been I’m I’m a huge nasre guy um love what he does you know on the basketball floor last thing I got for you here Ben though the Wolves had an Uber successful season right it’s been a great season in Minnesota when you look
At what chrisfch has done with this team um you know I I think a lot of the signs right now if you look at some of the betting odds right now Mark dagal is the favorite to win coach the year at minus 370 but Chris Finch is not not too far
Behind him at plus 410 what would be your argument for why Chris Finch deserves the coach of the year award yeah I think it’s that this roster and they’ve made some changes here mid-season but it was effectively the same roster as they finished with last season and and Conley was you know
Acquired mid-season last year but with the way the season closed they were playing roughly 500 ball they reintegrated Carlon towns they gave Denver a fight in the first round but still lost in five games to then run it back when so many people were saying hey
This was a disaster of a trade the r go bear trade it’s one of the worst in history you know it’s not hard to find those quotes uh you know podcast articles Etc but to just be like no this is going to work and and here’s what
We’re going to do um and to also have the team maintain that level of confidence in what he’s doing right like it would have been easy for the players to be like all right well you know this didn’t work last year we were barely you
Know we were a 44 win team I think last year 43 win team something like that why why is this going to be any different but instead he’s LED them to you know fastest team in franchise history to 50 wins and we’ll see they probably won’t have the best record in franchise
History but um you know it’s it’s at the very least the second best year ever in the history of the team and clearly what he’s done so much of coaching the NBA is is obviously managing personalities and managing that locker room and Chris Finch’s laidback style has worked really
Really well there’s some big Personalities in there um he’s he provides you know with the players the the they were asked there was some some feature the Wolves did recently of like you describe Chris VCH in one word and direct honest like those words come up which is what you always hear players
Say they want their coaches to be they want them to tell it like it is but they also in a lot of cases want them to be hands-off laidback right they don’t want a drill sergeant it’s not college so having the Right Mix there has been huge
For the Wolves locker room and uh the numbers don’t lie they’ve been the best defense of the league all season long they’re like third in in uh you know net rating at League wide still and they’ve got a real shot at the top seat in the
West so um if it’s I understand the case for dno but Chris Finch should be right there you know similar odds when it when it comes down to it how will this Minnesota team continue to fa without Carl Anthony towns in the lineup what ultimately happens with the Wolves ownership situation involving Glen
Taylor Glen Taylor and the minority owners as well you’re going to have a cover for all of that and so much more over at locked on wolves Ben thanks for stopping by locked on NBA with me of course thanks for having Me
Minnesota Timberwolves Sale Stopped? + Surviving Karl Anthony-Towns Injury With Naz Reid
Jackson Gatlin (@LockedOnRockets) is joined by Ben Beecken (@LockedOnWolves) to discuss Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor stopping the sale of the team to minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez and the impacts it may have, how the Wolves have survived losing Karl Anthony-Towns in large part due to Naz Reid’s production, medical update on Towns and a possible return date, and why Chris Finch deserves NBA Coach of the Year.
#Wolves #NBA #KarlAnthonyTowns
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