Minnesota Timberwolves minority stakeholders Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore’s attempt to assume majority ownership of the franchise failed after financial projections that forecasted sizeable roster pay cuts alarmed majority owner Glen Taylor.

In documents shared with Taylor, the NBA, and private equity firm The Carlyle Group, Lore and Rodriguez rendered a budget projection that would have lowered the team’s payroll to $171million next season – assuming they would become majority owners, sources told ESPN.

The projections would have put the Timberwolves from a team with approximately a $25m-plus tax payment to receiving roughly $6.5m in tax distribution.

Rodriguez and Lore’s cost-cutting projections led Taylor to void a contract that would have finalized the sale of both the Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA, per ESPN’s sources. The decision proved right, with the T-Wolves becoming the first-seeded team in the Western Conference after decades of futility.

The decision ended a three-year process that would have given Lore and Rodriguez majority control over the franchise this spring.

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Glen Taylor voided Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore’s bid to own majority the T-Wolves franchise

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Lore (L) and Rodriguez’s (R) proposal suggested a roster pay cut that concerned Taylor

Minnesota is en route to having the NBA’s fourth-highest payroll for the 2024-25 season with $198m. The payroll includes Anthony Edwards, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Rudy Gobert’s maximum contracts.

Following through with Rodriguez and Lore’s proposal would have made it challenging to maintain a competitive roster without trading one of the team’s key players.

The payroll will place Minnesota $27m over the luxury tax and exceed the second apron when free agency begins in July. Taylor has paid the luxury tax in four NBA seasons, amounting to $25m as the owner of the T-Wolves.

Although Lore and Rodriguez had green-lighted contract extensions for Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley in recent months, there were still questions regarding their ability to buy and operate the Timberwolves as a tax-paying team in a low-revenue market, per sources.

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The Timberwolves have Karl Anthony-Towns, Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert on max deals

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Minnesota holds the No. 1 seed in the NBA’s Western Conference after years of futility

The Rodriguez and Lore group made two initial payments to obtain 36 percent of the Timberwolves and Lynx in 2022 and 2023. They then said they filed the paperwork to buy an additional 40 percent for $600m – giving them majority control by the end of March.

Sources told ESPN that they looked for ways to raise the capital in the months leading up to the deadline.

In a statement that came out late in March, Taylor revealed that Lore and Rodriguez had not transferred the money by the deadline on the 27th. Meanwhile, Lore and Rodriguez claimed they could have closed the deal by then, but the NBA did not formally approve their purchase.

Both Taylor and the Lore-Rodriguez group declined ESPN’s request for a comment. According to sources, the NBA instructed both parties to avoid discussing the dispute in public.