Why Alex Rodriguez Was Done With Tim Connelly to Mavericks Rumors Before Masai Ujiri Hire
Alex Rodriguez had enough. For months, the Dallas Mavericks ran a not-so-quiet campaign to pull Tim Connelly out of Minnesota and install him as their next president of basketball operations. The Timberwolves co-governor publicly signaled he was done hearing about it. And then the Mavericks hired Masai Ujiri instead.
Problem solved. Sort of.
The Connelly story has dominated NBA front office talk all year. The Mavericks fired Nico Harrison in November and immediately began searching for a high-profile replacement. Connelly, the architect of Minnesota’s current contender, was the obvious target. He has an opt-out in his contract that runs through next summer. The window was open.
Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, who took control of the Timberwolves in a long ownership transition with Glen Taylor, were never going to make this easy. Connelly is the man who put together the trade for Rudy Gobert, drafted Rob Dillingham, and built the front office that has Minnesota in the Western Conference Semifinals two years running.
Per Rodriguez’s reported comments, he was tired of every podcast and rumor account treating Connelly’s exit as inevitable. The leaks were not coming from his front office. The leaks were coming from Dallas, where the new ownership wanted everyone to know they were aggressive and serious about a marquee hire.
The Wolves’ counter is straightforward. They will extend Connelly. The reporting from Sports Illustrated and others suggests the Timberwolves have already begun preparing an extension offer that will keep Connelly in Minneapolis through the next several years. That is the only response that makes the Mavericks chatter go away.
Here is why Connelly is worth that kind of commitment. He runs a true scouting-first operation. He believes in player development. He does not get spooked by short-term losses. The Timberwolves’ current roster is a multi-year project, and the construction is starting to pay off. You do not break that up for a windfall payday somewhere else.
For Rodriguez personally, this was also about ownership credibility. Lore and A-Rod are still proving themselves as NBA owners. Letting your basketball boss get poached in your second year is a bad look. Keeping him and locking him up is the move that tells the league you are serious.
The Mavericks landing Ujiri actually helps the Timberwolves’ case. Dallas got a Hall of Fame executive. Minnesota gets to keep the guy who knows the roster. Both teams come out of this with what they wanted, even if the Mavs took the long way around.
Anthony Edwards should be happy. Karl-Anthony Towns is in New York now, but the Wolves’ core of Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid still has championship runway. Continuity in the front office is exactly what that group needs.
What is left for Rodriguez is the actual extension. Connelly’s market value just went up in real time. He turned down Dallas. He is still standing in Minneapolis. That is leverage. Expect an extension in the $30 million range over multiple years and a clear signal from the ownership that this front office is here to stay.
For NBA fans, the story is finally ending. Connelly stays. Ujiri goes to Dallas. The two best front office men in basketball have settled into their chairs. Now we can get back to actual basketball, which is where Rodriguez wanted the conversation all along.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
