Incoming Timberwolves owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore won’t assume majority control of the the franchise from Glen Taylor until 2023, but they’re operating in some ways as if they’re already the team’s primary owners, says Marc Stein of Substack.
Shortly after Gersson Rosas was dismissed this week, Timberwolves reporter Dane Moore suggested (via Twitter) that rumors have circulated for months that Rodriguez and Lore want to bring in a “top-five” front office executive. Stein doesn’t specifically confirm that rumor, but he corroborates it, writing that word circulated at Summer League in August that A-Rod and Lore would have loved to make a run at veteran executive Masai Ujiri, who ultimately re-upped with the Raptors.
While those reports suggest that the Wolves’ new ownership group wants to make a splash, league sources tell Stein that Sachin Gupta is expected to get every chance to impress the team during his time running the basketball operations department. According to Moore (Twitter link), Gupta – whose title is executive VP of basketball operations – doesn’t technically have the “interim” tag attached to his position, an indication that he’ll receive serious consideration for the permanent job.
Here’s more from Stein’s latest NBA roundup:
- According to Stein, teams around the NBA are skeptical that the Sixers genuinely want to bring back Ben Simmons, viewing Doc Rivers‘ media comments on Wednesday as an attempt to regain trade leverage rather than a legitimate effort to mend the team’s relationship with Simmons.
- It may seem odd that Warriors owner Joe Lacob was fined for comments about Simmons that didn’t even mention him by name and made it clear that Golden State isn’t really interested in the Sixers star. However, Stein says the tampering penalty was “as automatic as these ever get,” since there was no doubt Lacob was referring to Simmons, and his comments could be viewed as an attempt to diminish the 25-year-old’s trade value.
- It doesn’t appear that any deal involving Goran Dragic is imminent. Stein writes that the Raptors want to be as competitive as possible this season, and Dragic can help with those efforts. Toronto also believes that more appealing trade scenarios could arise once the season gets underway and more teams need a point guard due to injuries or underperformance.
let me fix that for you Stein. Since Morey Sixers GM hate the warriors with a passion he complained to the NBA about the comments. It did not hurt Simmons value. Morey just wants to place blame for his mishandling on everyone else besides himself.
Why would Daryl Morey give a crap about a random team in the other conferernce?
Rodriguez and Lore want to bring in a “top-five” front office executive.
Who is the most likely?
Gar forman and john paxon for sure…they made my lovely bulls being a joke….imagine if bulls never got derick rose…really really top 5 front office, in bad way of course.
Sixers please just make a Simmons trade.
He’s clearly not going to come back and play, so people can’t talk about running it back. The Sixers have title aspirations, we can’t start the season off with all this negativity surrounding the whole team.
We need to be realistic, Dame Lillard isn’t coming, Bradley Beal isn’t an option, Kings aren’t parting with Fox, GSW said they aren’t interested, Minny won’t give up KAT or Ant.
We just need to face facts a settle for less.
Move on and look forward to the future.
1. Ben Simmons for Colin Sexton, Kevin Love and 3 first round pick (all top 8 protected)
2. Ben Simmons and Isiah Joe for DAngelo Russell, Tauren Prince, Jaden McDaniels and a first round pick.
3. Ben Simmons for Bogi Bogdanovic, DeAndre Hunter, Cam Reddish and a first round pick.
4. Ben Simmons and Isiah Joe for Malcom Brogdan, TJ Warren and a first round pick
5. Ben Simmons and Shake Milton for Spencer Dinwiddie, Kyle Kuzma, Deni Avdija and a first.
6. Ben Simmons and Seth Curry for John Wall, KPJ and 4 first round picks
As a Sixers fan, trying to be realistic, these would be the only deals I would accept from other teams.
Also being reported a lot recently, of a sleeper team in talks with the Sixers which is expected to be the Nuggets.
With Aaron Gordon having recently signed an extension it would mean it has to be between Murray or MPJ.
They all make us worse…not sure why we would be in a rush to get worse.
Oddly 6 is the one I find the best…bust scary on our end
Make us worse?
Ben isnt coming back. He’s not going to play. Without him we would struggle to make the playoffs, the locker room and owners will be pissed that we wasted a year not trading him and competing.
I think 6 has the biggest potential to be a major win but also has the biggest potential to be a bust
Do the Sixers have a world class medical team or magic elixir to keep the dudes you mentioned in every trade in the court? All of those guys are either injured, coming off injury, or about to get injured. Rather keep Simmons in all those cases because it’s the same if he’s not on the court or they are not on the court but all of those trades make them worse.
Sexton no injury concerns, Prince and McDaniels no injury problems, Bogi no injury concerns, Brogdon no injury problems, Kuzma and Avdija no injury problems, and KPJ no injury problems.
Simmons will literally never play for the Sixers again, if we traded him for the 30th pick in last years draft we would be getting better cause atleast we would be getting someone who will step on the court. We literally can’t get worse trading Simmons cause we would be getting back players for someone who is refusing to play.
Now if your going to say we shouldn’t trade for someone who has had an injury your going to have a very tough time trying to find someone. Most players have atleast had 1 or 2 injuries atleast.
Dude..a lot of these trade offers just aren’t very good. The Sixers aren’t going to get that much unfortunately.
Why is Cleveland giving you Sexton and 3 firsts, but Wolves give DLo and only one first?) DLo has one of the worst contracts in the league (with 3 years left on it), Sexton is on a rookie deal
Sexton deal needs to be extended and that’ll likely cost the max. Don’t think the Cavs are interested in maxing him. Plus because it includes taking Kevin Love off you guys and he’s got arguably the worst deal in the league after John Walls. Atleast Wall gives you 20-10 and is a leader when fit, your lucky to get 14-8 from Love these days coming from the bench
Not to mention the Wolves deal, Dlo was an all star before he got injured and is still only 26, Prince has some value as a forward, and McDaniels who was a first round pick last year looked solid.
Aren’t we glad to have a stellar new owner in Alex Rodriguez! What a positive, great role model in leadership… I’m sure he’ll be able to vet new leadership that won’t have extramarital affairs and provide a positive, healthy culture throughout the franchise!! :)