Alex Rodriguez Aims to Model Timberwolves After West Powerhouse

Alex Rodriguez Aims to Model Timberwolves After West Powerhouse originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The NBA is a major copycat league as owners around the league look at others to see how they ae running their organizations, especially if they are able to build championship contenders.

This has been a mainstay in the NBA for a while, and in other sports as well, as owners and front offices look at how others are building their teams to try and do the same with their franchise.

Now it appears that one of the newest owners in the NBA looks to model his team around the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

Of course, that person is former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who is now part of the ownership group of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“We want to be very, very disciplined and patient, but with a sense of urgency. We paid the second-highest tax last year. This year we're going to be in the tax again. When we played against Oklahoma City, we had a play-in game three years ago. Shai and all those guys were still young and we beat them at home. It was a very good game,” Rodriguez said. “If Sam Presti turned around and was like, 'You know what? Let's break it up. Let's change directions.' They wouldn't have been world champs this year. Then when they got close, they brought in Caruso and a few others. And boom. We look at that as a good model for us. And hey, it pays to be patient.”

With this statement, it appears as though Rodriguez is ready to do whatever is needed money wise to build the Timberwolves into a title contender no matter what it takes.

He mentioned how Presti continued with his squad instead of breaking it up, which led Oklahoma City to a championship last season, and Rodriguez is looking to do the same thing in Minnesota with Anthony Edwards leading the way.

Of course, the Timberwolves have reached the Western Conference Finals the past two seasons and Rodgriguez will now look to help them get over the hump and make an appearance in the Finals in the coming seasons.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.