Souhan: Wolves near two big deadlines that will affect season and franchise’s future

In the next two weeks, the Timberwolves will encounter two important deadlines.

One could determine the fate of this season.

The other could determine the future of the franchise.

The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 6. Logic would suggest that the Wolves, who have struggled to integrate Julius Randle into their offense, would be foolish to seek more change, but basketball boss Tim Connelly has yet to play it safe with a Wolves roster.

Before Monday night’s 100-92 win over Atlanta at Target Center, Wolves coach Chris Finch said the team’s brain trust is optimistic about the development of the current roster and that there wasn’t much “urgency” to make a change.

You want urgency?

Sometime in the next two weeks, the arbitrators’ decision on the dispute between Wolves owner Glen Taylor and prospective owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez is expected to be made public.

If the arbitrators rule in favor of Taylor, he keeps the team.

If the arbitrators rule in favor of Lore and Rodriguez, they likely will be given the right to a 90-day window in which to finish paying Taylor for control of the franchise, in the hopes that the NBA would approve the sale.

It shouldn’t be that difficult for fans to decide who would be the best owner of this franchise at this moment.

The most vocal portion of the fan base seems to have already chosen Lore and Rodriguez. After all, Lore and Rodriguez got permission from Taylor to pursue Connelly and persuaded Taylor to pay Connelly $40 million over five years.

Give Lore and Rodriguez credit for their aggressiveness, even if it was with someone else’s money.

But as vocal fans root for Rodriguez and Lore to win the arbitration case, they should consider this reality:

If Rodriguez and Lore had had the money to make the final payment on time, they would have.

They didn’t.

The three arbitrators might decide that Rodriguez and Lore intended to honor the language of the agreement and shouldn’t be punished for such a mistake. But it was a mistake, or it was a revelation about the finances of Lore and Rodriguez.

Here’s the analogy I keep using to explain why I think there’s something wrong with the finances of the Lore/A-Rod group:

If I agree to buy a house from you for $1 million by making payments over the course of a year, and during that year the value of the house doubles and the neighborhood it’s in becomes more attractive, wouldn’t I do everything within my power to make every payment on time? Wouldn’t I make payments well ahead of time, so nothing could go wrong?

No matter how many big names Lore surrounds himself with — including Rodriguez and billionaire Michael Bloomberg — he will have to prove to the NBA that he is rich and liquid enough to make all payments required to maintain ownership and pay bills, even luxury-tax bills. Or the NBA won’t approve his ownership bid.

Lore’s wherewithal and liquidity have faced one crucial test to date. And he failed that test.

I became an opinion columnist in 2004 and spent much of my first 19 years in that position criticizing Taylor for bad decisions and hires.

But Taylor, who also owns the Minnesota Star Tribune, is willing to lose money on the Wolves — he recently wrote a luxury-tax check for $100 million — and to allow Connelly to run the team without interference from ownership.

The current version of Taylor’s ownership is stable and wealthy beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Taylor saved the franchise from moving to New Orleans in the 1990s and is willing to lose money to fund a winner.

Maybe Lore and Rodriguez would be good owners, but right now, making that assumption would represent a dubious leap of faith.