Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: More Lore talk, no Wolves on SF list

In case you hadn’t heard, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a pair of new big-name owners. But while they’re still officially minority owners, they have big ideas and are ready to make a splash.

Additionally, a recently-released list of the top 22 small forwards in the NBA did not include a single Wolves player.

New Minnesota Timberwolves owner Marc Lore has big ideas for the Wolves

We’ve talked a lot about new owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez here on DWW, and for good reason.

Lore, of course, is a tech billionaire and a big-time idea guy. Rodriguez is a Hall-of-Fame-worthy former MLB superstar and is now an active entrepreneur in a variety of industries.

Since taking a 20 percent stake in the team earlier this summer and agreeing to a plan that will make them majority owners by December of 2023, the duo has talked highly of their new market and how excited they are to be part of the Twin Cities community.

Now, Lore has given an extensive interview with Jace Frederick of the Pioneer Press.

The conversation ranged from Lore’s philosophy and management style when running companies including Jet.com and Diapers.com and leading the e-commerce division at Wal-Mart. Lore’s hiring process is fascinating and perhaps too obviously brilliant, using the acronym SPOTAKE to vet all hires.

SPOTAKE stands for smart, passionate, optimistic, tenacious, adaptable, kind and empathetic. Frankly, it’s hard to come up with a better seven qualities to look for during the hiring process — for any job, really.

Lore goes on to talk about how much he has to learn as an NBA owner, but perhaps most interestingly, it’s clear that he believes that his organization can draw free agents to Minnesota based on culture (and winning, of course) over almost any other factor.

"“I think if the culture of the organization and the team were to a level where people said, ‘You know what? I really want to be a part of that. It’s bigger than dollars and cents, bigger than basketball. It’s winning, not only on the court but off the court. I want to be a part of that organization,’ ” Lore said. “There is going to be free-agents where, if it’s done correctly, would choose to go there based on that set of values.”"

It’s refreshing, and feels almost like a bigger-picture version of what Gersson Rosas was selling when he first arrived in May of 2019.

No Minnesota Timberwolves on top-22 small forwards list

Hoops Hype’s Frank Urbina is in the process of releasing top-22 lists at each position. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his small forward list did not include any Timberwolves.

This season, expect Anthony Edwards to play more at the 3. It didn’t happen much last season because Edwards started the season coming off the bench and Beasley was unavailable due to injury/suspension for much of the latter part of the season. Oh, and Edwards was only 6-foot-4.

Now, Edwards is reportedly 6-foot-6, and it’s likely that he and Beasley will start together on the wing for the Wolves.

The Wolves don’t have many natural small forwards; Okogie is an undersized 3 or a non-shooting 2, and Jake Layman won’t be in the rotation. Leandro Bolmaro could theoretically hit this list next year, but he hasn’t set foot on an NBA floor as of yet.

We’ll be taking a look at Hoops Hype’s other positional lists here at Dunking With Wolves in the coming days, and there will definitely be a few more Wolves players involved once we get to the other positions…