Report: Alex Rodriguez/Mark Lore planned to slash Timberwolves payroll

Let the public relations battle begin.

In the wake of current Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor saying the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to Alex Rodrigez and Marc Lore is off — leading to an increasingly personal fight to control the franchise — comes this from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:

In the documents Woj got, it says A-Rod/Lore planned a severe roster payroll reduction that would have torn apart the core of one of the top teams in the West.

In documents shared with Taylor, the NBA and The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, Lore and Rodriguez rendered a budget projection as potential majority owners that would've lowered the Timberwolves' payroll to $171 million beginning next season -- below the projected $172 million luxury tax threshold, sources told ESPN. The Timberwolves would've gone from approximately a $25 million-plus tax payment to a team receiving a tax distribution of approximately $6.5 million.

Lore/Rodriguez and the Carlyle Group declined to comment.

There's a lot of context here.

• This is the latest salvo in what will be a long and ugly battle for control of the team, with plenty of it being fought through public relations and in the press.

• Minnesota, at 55-25, is having its best season since the Kevin Garnett era, will finish in the top three in the West, and is the first team long-suffering Timberwolves fans can truly celebrate in a long time. This is a team stacked with stars: Anthony Edwards is breaking out and getting MVP ballot consideration, Rudy Gobert is on his way to a fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, Karl-Anthony Towns is an All-Star, and there are good players around them like Mike Conley and Jaden McDaniels. Talking about breaking this team up just before the playoffs is particularly cruel to fans.

• Roster cuts are coming, regardless of who owns the team. How deep those cuts go and when they happen are the questions.

The Timberwolves are a team headed for a financial cliff, no matter who owns them. Next season new max contracts for Towns and Edwards kick in (and Edwards' price tag goes up when he makes an All-NBA team, which he is a lock to do). According to friend-of-the-site Keith Smith and Spotac, Minnesota has $183.7 million in committed salary for nine players for next season — and that's not counting Edwards' All-NBA bonus. The NBA's projected salary cap for next season is $141 million, the luxury tax line is $171.3 million, and the dreaded second tax apron starts at $189.5 million.

Minnesota is going to be deep into the tax and one of the most expensive teams in the NBA next season. Around the league, there have been questions about how long Timberwolves ownership — either Talor or A-Rod/Lore — would be able to afford this before players have to be traded.

• The conventional wisdom in league circles is that Towns will be made available via trade, eventually. The question is more about when the cuts come. This summer? With a team this good, should they try to ride it out another season and chase a ring and think about it in the summer of 2025? And how deep do those salary cuts go? This leaked document getting the Timberwolves out of the tax completely is pretty deep.

• I do not know who Wojnarowski's source for the documents is, but it clearly benefits Glen Taylor's camp. Draw your own conclusions.

• What Taylor gets out of this is the high ground where he can say, "You think these new guys are your saviors? I wouldn't break up this team."

• Which is ironic because Taylor has the reputation of an owner who hates to pay the tax, he's not a free spender with the organization.

• As a reminder, at Taylor's request A-Rod and Lore bought the team in a three-part installment plan spread over several years. Lore and Rodriguez made the first two payments — they own 36% of the Timberwolves/Lynx — however, Taylor said the duo didn’t fully complete the purchase for the final 40% by a March 27 deadline and called off the sale. Lore and A-Rod said they had the money lined up and, under the terms of the sale agreement, should be granted 90 days to go through the NBA's approval process.

• Plenty of people around the league think Taylor didn't really want to sell the team, especially after the value of his franchise likely doubled during the time it took for the sale to be completed. The low-key Taylor and the much flashier A-Rod and Lore clash in style and approach to running a franchise.

• NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the NBA is not getting in the middle of this ownership dispute.

“It’s not clear whether there will be a role for the league to get involved...” Silver said after the NBA Board of Governors's meeting this week. “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."

• Silver added the NBA learned its lesson and not to expect any more extended, drawn out sales of teams like this process.

“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.”