- The Timberwolves are a more mature team heading into this year’s playoffs, Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune opines. They don’t have any major injury issues at the moment and Scoggins doesn’t feel the team’s ownership dispute will be a distraction. The Timberwolves have earned respect around the league and created a buzz in their home state but need a strong playoff run to validate their regular season showing.
The 56-25 Timberwolves, battling for the No. 1 seed in the West, have emerged as one of the best teams in the league this season. But Minnesota’s fraught ownership situation has suddenly taken center stage in the club’s best season over the last 20 years, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
As the Wolves look to advance beyond the first round of the postseason for just the second time ever, the grievance between majority owner Glen Taylor and minority owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore has uncomfortably remained persistent. The two sides seem destined for mediation or arbitration, and Krawcyznski believes their very public dispute could linger far beyond the end of the 2024 postseason.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Trail Blazers point guard Dalano Banton is doing the most to maximize his play with Portland, per Libaan Osman of The Toronto Star. “I think everyone wants the chance to show what they can do and make a name for themselves,” Banton said. “I just looked at it that way. I know I’ve been sitting on the bench for three years in this league, I know that time was of the essence in my third year.” Osman notes that Portland is expected to exercise its $2.2MM team option on Banton’s contract. Thanks to injuries to many of the Trail Blazers guards who are ahead of him in the team’s rotation, Banton has been averaging 16.7 PPG on .418/.339/.777 shooting in his 29 games with the team, along with 4.8 RPG, 3.5 APG and 0.9 SPG.
- Center Robert Williams III played just six contests with the Trail Blazers before tearing his right knee ligament in November, which required a season-ending surgery. He spoke with reporters this week for the first time since then, writes Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report. “It was pretty tough,” Williams said. “But it was eye-opening. I got a chance to work on stuff while I was put down for a minute.”
- The rebuilding Jazz have been immersed in something of a half-hearted tank since Danny Ainge began offloading Utah’s franchise cornerstones, but the team hasn’t always been making the right decisions with its personnel-building thus far, opines Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune.
APRIL 11: Towns is on track to return on Friday against the Hawks, according to Charania (Twitter link). He was upgraded to questionable for the game.
APRIL 10: Towns is expected to play in at least one of Minnesota’s final three regular season games this week, according to Charania (Twitter link). The Wolves will visit Denver on Wednesday night before concluding the regular season with home games vs. Atlanta on Friday and Phoenix on Sunday.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), Towns isn’t planning to play on Wednesday, but a return on Friday or Sunday is a possibility.
APRIL 9: The Timberwolves have confirmed in a press release that Towns has been cleared for full-contact 5-on-5 work and is “progressing toward his return to play.”
APRIL 8: Karl-Anthony Towns appears likely to return to the Timberwolves‘ lineup before the end of the season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Towns took part in a team scrimmage on Sunday, marking his first action since undergoing knee surgery on March 12. He has been sidelined since being diagnosed with a lateral meniscus tear in his left knee following a March 4 game.
“KAT will be back,” Wolves teammate Anthony Edwards told reporters after Sunday’s game in Los Angeles.
Charania hears that Towns is “very, very close” to playing again and will likely be on the court for at least one game this week. Minnesota will host Washington tomorrow night before traveling to Denver on Wednesday and then returning home to face Atlanta on Friday and Phoenix on Sunday.
The Wolves have been able to survive for more than a month without one of their top players and are currently tied with the Nuggets for the top spot in the Western Conference at 54-24.
Towns, who earned his fourth All-Star selection this season, is averaging 22.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 60 games while shooting 50.6% from the field and 42.3% from three-point range.
Tim Connelly helped to build the Nuggets’ championship team. He has also been instrumental in turning the Timberwolves into one of the Western Conference’s top clubs. However, Minnesota’s president of basketball operations technically has the ability to move on to another organization, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on FanDuel’s Run It Back program (video link).
The dispute between current Timberwolves majority owner Glen Taylor and minority owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore could cause Connelly to weigh his future in Minnesota.
“Tim Connelly has an opt-out in his contract after the season,” Charania said. “After year two, it was supposed to line up with this ownership transfer with Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore taking this team over.”
Connelly signed a five-year contract with the organization in 2022. Charania adds that Minnesota’s owners could rip up his current deal and give him an extension.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- In an interview with Altitude TV’s Katy Winge (Twitter link), Jamal Murray said he’d like to spend his entire career with the Nuggets. “I love Denver, I want to be here for the rest of my career,” he said. Murray’s current contract runs through next season. He can earn super-max contract eligibility if he makes an All-NBA team in 2024/25; he has missed too many games to qualify this season.
- The Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves, 116-107, in a huge Western Conference showdown on Wednesday. Nikola Jokic likely locked up his third league MVP with a signature 41-point masterpiece, The Athletic’s Tony Jones notes. “I think we are on the right path,” Jokic said. “I think we are playing well. I like how everyone is locked in and focused, especially on the defensive end. I think we are at the point where everyone knows where to go, and everyone knows their job. We played really good defense tonight, especially in important moments. I really like the way we are playing.”
- Karl-Anthony Towns is expected to return before the regular season ends. Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels said the team will get an “extra boost” when he’s back in the lineup. “We’ve just been trying to hold down the fort until he gets back,” McDaniels told Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina. “We’ve been doing pretty well. It shows how deep our team is. All of us can play. All of us are versatile. When he comes back, he will give us that extra boost. He will be another unicorn on our team. We’re going to love to have him back.”
Speaking to the media on Wednesday following a two-day meeting of the league’s Board of Governors, commissioner Adam Silver said the NBA likely won’t get involved in the Timberwolves‘ ownership dispute between current majority shareholder Glen Taylor and minority stakeholders Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, writes Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
“It’s not clear whether there will be a role for the league to get involved,” Silver said. “… They have a purchase agreement and there’s a dispute now in the purchase agreement and in their purchase agreement, they, in essence, pre-agreed to a dispute resolution mechanism that includes mediation and arbitration, and that’s where it stands.
“There is no role for the league in that process.”
At Taylor’s request, Lore and Rodriguez agreed to buy the Timberwolves in three parts over multiple years. Lore and Rodriguez made the first two payments and currently control a 36% stake in the franchise, but Taylor voided the contract when he said the duo didn’t complete their final purchase option for another 40% on March 27. Silver suggested the unique structure of the deal may not permitted in future ownership transactions.
“It’s certainly not ideal to have a stepped transaction like this,” Silver said. “I mean, it met our rules from that standpoint. And it’s what Glen Taylor wanted and it’s what they were willing to agree to at the time. But I think once the dust clears on this deal, it may cause us to reassess what sort of transactions we should allow.”
Here’s more from Silver’s press conference, which covered several other topics:
- Raptors big man Jontay Porter, who is on a two-way deal, is under league investigation following multiple instances of betting irregularities related to his on-court performance. According to Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press, Silver said Porter could be permanently barred from the NBA if what he’s accused of is discovered to be true. “I have enormous range of discipline available to me,” Silver said. “It’s cardinal sin what he’s accused of in the NBA. The ultimate extreme option I have is to ban him from the game. That’s the level of authority I have here because there’s nothing more serious.” Porter has been listed as out for personal reasons for the past 10 games.
- The NBA has multiple partnerships with gambling companies. Silver suggested the incident may cause the league to reevaluate those relationships going forward, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “At the end of the day, there’s nothing more important than the integrity of the competition,” Silver said. “And so, any issue raised around that is of great concern to me and to all commissioners, to all people who are safeguards, who are all people who are in a position and have a responsibility to safeguard the game. Again, this is a burgeoning industry in the United States. It’s been legal in other places in the world for decades. There’s lessons to be learned from the way that sports betting is monitored and regulated in other jurisdictions. And again, I think as these unfortunate examples come along, we may have to adjust our rules and our partner gaming companies and those companies that aren’t our partners may have to adjust their behavior as well.”
- Silver said foul calls are down about four per game since the All-Star break and that’s something the league is pleased about, Mahoney writes. “I think there was a sense earlier in the season that there was too much of an advantage for the offensive players,” Silver said as part of a larger quote. “But again, the context is two fouls per team per game, and the end result, most importantly, we think is a better game.”
- According to Mahoney, Silver once again reiterated that expansion won’t be on the table until the league finishes a new media rights deal. While Seattle and Las Vegas have long been rumored as frontrunners to land new teams, Silver said no talks have begun and “no one has an inside track to getting a deal done.”
- Silver said star players have averaged 15% more games played this season with the additions of the player participation policy and 65-game requirements, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. The NBA will set an attendance record in ’23/24 as well, Silver added.
As part of their final option to purchase a majority stake, Timberwolves minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez projected a team payroll of $171MM for the 2024/25 season in documents shared with current majority stakeholder Glen Taylor, the NBA, and The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
As Wojnarowski writes, the Wolves currently project to have a payroll of about $198MM in ’24/25. $171MM is obviously a significant reduction from that figure. It’s also just shy of the projected $171.3MM luxury tax line.
Lore and Rodriguez are currently in a contractual dispute with Taylor for majority ownership of the Wolves. Both sides declined to comment for the story, which isn’t surprising, as Wojnarowski hears the NBA asked those involved not to discuss the matter publicly. All three owners gave several interviews a couple weeks ago after Taylor announced he was retaining majority ownership of the Wolves and WNBA’s Lynx.
According to Wojnarowski, the reduced payroll for next season was one factor that led Taylor to void the contract with Lore and A-Rod. Taylor was concerned that such a cut “would jeopardize the franchise’s ability to compete for a championship,” Woj adds.
Of course, there’s some irony there, since Taylor isn’t exactly known for being a big spender. Since he bought the Wolves in 1994, he has only paid a total of $25MM in luxury tax penalties, with less than $2MM coming since 2005. The Wolves project to be above the second tax apron next season, with a tax bill exceeding $25MM.
“I just think (we) built this team,” Taylor told The Athletic in explaining why he’s not putting the team back on the market. “We’ve got the players now. And it appears to me that we should have a very positive run for a number of years, and I want to be a part of that.”
While there have been rumors about Lore and Rodriguez’s ability to spend on the team going forward, since neither is a billionaire, they did approve of the contract extensions for Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley as minority owners, sources tell Wojnarowski. Those deals increased Minnesota’s projected tax bill for ’24/25.
Lore and Rodriguez were also reportedly instrumental in hiring president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, who made the blockbuster trade for Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner Rudy Gobert. That move was quite controversial at the time, but it has paid off thus far in ’23/24, with the Wolves currently 55-24, the No. 1 seed in the West.
A Northwest division showdown in Denver on Wednesday night will go a long way toward determining which team controls the No. 1 seed in this year’s Western Conference playoffs. The Nuggets and Timberwolves will enter the evening with matching 55-24 records and only three games left to play.
Both teams will be on the second end of a back-to-back set. On Tuesday, the Nuggets picked up a 16-point win in Utah, with Jamal Murray scoring 28 points in just 27 minutes of action in his second game back following a seven-game injury absence. Murray is still on a minutes restriction, but looked fresh in the fourth quarter when Denver needed him most, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
“Seven games off will do that for you,” Murray told reporters in his post-game media session. “So I feel good. It’s just good to get a flow out there. It’s more conditioning. Your breathing and muscle fatigue throughout the game. … Felt good, comfortable and just ready to play.”
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Timberwolves kept pace in the race for No. 1 by registering a 130-121 victory over Washington. It was a memorable night for Anthony Edwards, who scored a career-high 51 points while also dishing seven assists. After the win, Edwards credited head coach Chris Finch for making sure he didn’t let up against one of the NBA’s worst teams.
“He put me in the office two, three days ago and said, ‘Look man, we’ve got this Washington game, and we need to win it, need to come ready to play and you can’t treat it like any other game,'” Edwards said (story via ESPN).
The Timberwolves hold the tiebreaker edge over the Nuggets, so if they can pick up a win tonight, their magic number for the top seed in the West will be down to just one.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Although Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was noncommittal on Tuesday when asked if Justin Holiday will be part of his playoff rotation, he indicated he would be comfortable leaning on the veteran swingman, Durando writes for The Denver Post. “I trust him 100%,” Malone said. “He’s a veteran. He’s been around the league for a long time, and he’s proven in the one year with us, he’s proven himself to be trustworthy. Disciplined. Stays ready. Makes open shots. Guards. He’s done everything that’s been asked of him. For a while, he was a guy that would play if there was an injury, and then for the last month or so he’s been a rotation player for us.”
- The Thunder likely envisioned Gordon Hayward being part of their playoff rotation when they acquired him from Charlotte in February, but it has been a rough adjustment period for the veteran forward, who has averaged just 4.5 points in 16.5 minutes per game in his 23 appearances since the trade. As Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman writes, Hayward is still trying to get comfortable in his new reduced role. “Obviously would be probably better if I was here at the beginning of the year with everybody,” Hayward said. “Every team across the league will tell you that midseason trades are difficult to get everybody adjusted to everybody. Gotta work with what you’re given.”
- After the Raptors declined to issue him a qualifying offer last June and the Celtics didn’t find room in the rotation for him in the first half of the season, Dalano Banton‘s NBA future appeared tenuous. However, as Jared Weiss of The Athletic details, Banton has enjoyed a career renaissance with the Trail Blazers, averaging 16.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 3.5 APG in 28 games (28.5 MPG) since being sent to Portland in a salary-dump deal at the trade deadline. The Blazers hold a minimum-salary team option for 2024/25 on Banton, who says he “learned a lot” as a reserve in Boston earlier this season.
Naz Reid is making a strong late-season push for the Sixth Man of the Year award, having averaged 19.4 points and 7.1 rebounds on .488/.448/.743 shooting in his past 14 games as he fills in for injured Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns. After racking up 31 points and 11 rebounds in a win over the Lakers on Sunday, Reid admitted that winning that award is a personal goal, per Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
“That’s something that I want. I’m hungry for it,” Reid said. “I want that. I think the impact, the record has shown it, our standing has shown it. I want it bad. I’m hungry for it.”
Reid has come off the bench in 65 of his 77 appearances this season — all 12 of those starts have come within the last month, which is the primary reason for the bump in his production. Still, as Hine points out, it’s the mark of an effective sixth man to be able to sub in for an injured starter without missing a beat.
“I think it’s obvious that Naz Reid is the Sixth Man of the Year,” teammate Anthony Edwards said. “We’re the No. 1 team in the West. He’s had multiple 30-point games. He’s the reason we’re winning. He’s a big reason why. KAT went down a little minute ago and we’ve still been able to win, it’s because of Naz.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Securing the No. 1 seed in the West would be the “cherry on top” of a terrific regular season for the Timberwolves and would give the team a “huge advantage” heading into the playoffs, according to head coach Chris Finch (Twitter video link via Mark Medina of Sportskeeda). However, no matter where the Wolves end up in the standings, Finch expects a difficult path in the postseason. “It might be the hardest playoffs ever,” Finch said, “so any advantage you can get is going to be a big one.”
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was on a minutes restriction on Sunday in his first game back from various leg injuries and that restriction may continue for the rest of the regular season, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required). Murray played just 21 minutes on Sunday, though head coach Michael Malone confirmed his limit isn’t actually that low — the star guard wasn’t needed in the fourth quarter since Denver had the game well in hand.
- In an entertaining feature story for ESPN.com, Ramona Shelburne explores Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s evolution into a legitimate MVP candidate. The star guard doesn’t show up on the Thunder‘s injury report for Tuesday’s game vs. the Kings, notes Clemente Almanza of Thunder Wire, so it appears he’ll return after missing four games due to a quad injury. Jalen Williams (ankle), who has also been out for the past four games, is listed as questionable.
The 20 teams that will compete in either the playoffs or the play-in tournament (or both) have officially been set following the Rockets‘ loss to Dallas on Sunday, per the NBA (Twitter link).
There’s still much to be decided in the season’s final week, including exactly which six teams in each conference will secure playoff spots without having to win one or two play-in games. However, with the Rockets’ elimination, we at least know which teams from both the West and East will play beyond the end of the regular season next Sunday.
The Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Thunder have already clinched playoff berths in the West, while the Clippers‘ magic number for a playoff spot is down to 1. The Mavericks are also well positioned to claim a top-six seed following their win on Sunday. They’re followed in the standings by the Suns, Pelicans, Lakers, Kings, and Warriors.
Four of those teams will compete in the play-in tournament for two playoff spots, but the exact play-in participants and matchups remain very much up in the air. Of the Western clubs in the back half of the top 10, only Golden State is a virtual lock to be a play-in team, since the Dubs are currently four games out of sixth place.
Over in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are the lone club to secure a playoff berth so far and have also clinched the No. 1 seed. They’re followed by the Bucks, Magic, Knicks, Cavaliers, Pacers, Heat, and Sixers, with the Bulls and Hawks well out of eighth place and locked into the No. 9 vs. 10 play-in game.
The East’s playoff race remains tight, with No. 2 Milwaukee and No. 8 Philadelphia separated by only 4.5 games at the time of this writing.
- Timberwolves guard Mike Conley flew from Phoenix to Memphis on Saturday so he could be part of a jersey retirement ceremony for former teammate Marc Gasol, according to Chris Hine of The Star-Tribune (Twitter link). Conley will catch a flight to Los Angeles in time for tonight’s game with the Lakers.