![]() If Edwards and McDaniels continue the upward arc of their development, it is not unreasonable to expect them to cost a combined $40 million per season after 2023-24. The total amount owed to Gobert and KAT is nearly half a billion dollars, $453 million and change. Among the Wolves top five, only D’Angelo Russell, whose contract expires at the end of this upcoming season, is not solidly in the fold.īut this long-term accrual of top-end talent comes at a steep cost on and off the payroll ledger. The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement enables the Wolves to offer third-year players Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels significantly more money than other teams when they are allowed to extend them beyond their rookie deals after the 2023-24 season, meaning they could be around through KAT’s tenure. The new contract extension inked earlier this week by Karl-Anthony Towns runs through the 2027-28 season. Gobert is signed through the 2025-26 season. ![]() This broad base of talent is remarkably secured. The Wolves accomplished this without relinquishing any of the top four players on their roster. In Gobert, the Timberwolves acquired one of the top two or three defensive players in the NBA, a player who has blocked more shots, grabbed more defensive rebounds, and led his team to more wins than anyone in the league over the past four seasons. The pros and cons of this impetuous effort are stark, sizable, and thus easily defined. Now, new owners Marc Lore and (to a much lesser extent) Alex Rodriguez, are not waiting to take majority control from Taylor before radically transforming the approach and expectation level for how they want this Wolves franchise to be regarded in the community, and in the NBA at large. They would not have generated the vast majority of their still-meager achievements and lasting memories had they not drafted Kevin Garnett. The Wolves would not exist were it not for the heedless gumption of Marv and Harv. Getting Gobert was a message as much as a transaction. You can point to the money if you like – the Wolves will pay Rudy Gobert more money, $170 million over the next four seasons, than it cost Marv and Harv to join the NBA and build Target Center – but in the greater context of things, the dough is just a means to an attitude, a seismic change in the culture. Suffice to say that trading for Gobert last week – the deal was made official on Wednesday – represents the most high-stakes gambit the Wolves franchise has executed since KG was drafted. By contrast, in the 19 seasons when KG was not a member of the Wolves, the team has made the postseason twice. Or how about Kevin McHale and Flip Saunders drafting a kid right out of high school to play in the NBA in 1995 the first time that had happened in 20 years? Doubts about Kevin Garnett making the leap were pervasive, but by his second season he began leading the Wolves to what would become eight straight seasons in the playoffs. Less than a decade later, they were in over their heads and forced to sell the franchise to Glen Taylor for $94 million. A couple of childhood friends from North Minneapolis, they cobbled together the $32.5 million franchise fee that was accepted by the NBA in April 1987, and little more than a year later, in a stunning show of fortitude and naiveté, bankrolled the construction of a $104 million arena – Target Center – with a pittance of public assistance. You can say that the very founding of the Wolves was an audacious wager, given that original owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner were relative paupers in the realm of major pro sports franchise ownership. Is the acquisition of Rudy Gobert the biggest gamble in the 34-year history of the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise?
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