Minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez's failure to acquire a majority stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise may be attributed to one specific reason.
Glen Taylor, the team's current majority owner, believes the duo's potential action could endanger the franchise's chances of competing for a title.
Lore and Rodriguez provided a budget projection to decrease the Timberwolves' payroll to $171 million next season, falling just below the anticipated $172 million luxury tax threshold, according to league insider Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
For the 2024-25 season, Minnesota is projected to have the league's fourth-highest payroll at $198 million. This includes three players on maximum contracts: Karl Anthony-Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Anthony Edwards.
Achieving such a significant reduction in payroll would likely require parting ways with one of the team's best players.
Glen Taylor expresses concern over 'cost-cutting'
Concerns about Lore and Rodriguez's cost-cutting projections were among the factors that caused Taylor to cancel a contract that would have completed a sale of the majority stake of the Timberwolves and WNBA team Minnesota Lynx.
By avoiding the luxury tax threshold, the Timberwolves would have prevented facing a tax payment of more than $25 million instead of receiving a tax distribution of around $6.5 million.
The Timberwolves are currently the top seed in the highly competitive Western Conference.
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