The Timberwolves and Lynx are hiring Marquise Watts, an executive with Klutch Sports Group, to a prominent role in their organization aimed at redefining the player experience in Minnesota.
Watts is leaving his position as the president of brand strategy at Klutch to join the Wolves and Lynx, where he will serve as chief experience officer, a C-suite level position that reports directly to CEO Ethan Casson.
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The hiring is the first major addition to the organization since tech entrepreneur Marc Lore and former MLB star Alex Rodriguez joined Glen Taylor’s ownership group. The group has identified player experience as an area that needed to be upgraded, and Watts will come in to lead a reshaping of the image of a franchise that, on the NBA side at least, has often been overlooked by players across the league.
“I’m very excited to join the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx organization,” Watts said in a statement issued by the team. “The leadership team here in Minnesota is serious about building a world-class organization. There is much to untap and explore, culturally and experientially for our players and community. This is just the beginning, and there is a lot to look forward to.”
The 43-year-old Watts has deep roots in Minnesota. He was born and raised in Milwaukee, but played basketball in college at the University of Minnesota-Morris. After school he stayed in Minneapolis, coached at Hopkins High School and eventually went to work in marketing for Under Armour. He went on to oversee Adidas Basketball, working directly with stars including Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Houston’s John Wall and Brooklyn’s James Harden.
At Klutch, Watts was not an agent who represented players in contract negotiations with teams. He focused on linking their clients, including Anthony Davis, Trae Young, Lonzo Ball, Chase Young and Timberwolves Anthony Edwards and Josh Okogie, with marketing and sponsorship opportunities and aligned Klutch with corporate partnerships including JP Morgan Chase, Fan Duel and Coca-Cola. The plan is for him to join the franchise officially in the spring, leaving a high-profile position with Klutch in sunny Los Angeles to come back to the Midwest and help revamp the Wolves and Lynx.
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Ever since they became limited partners with Taylor last season, with the intent on taking over the Wolves and Lynx at the end of 2023, Lore and Rodriguez have been conducting a deep examination of where the Timberwolves need to improve to change their perception around the league.
It all starts with winning more games, of course. The Wolves have taken modest steps in that direction this season, going 20-21 through the first half of the season to put themselves firmly in the playoff mix.
But Lore and Rodriguez have been trying to identify what will breed the kind of sustainable, long-term success that the Wolves have almost never had beyond just wins and losses. One issue that arose in their research was the long-standing issue of attracting talent to Minnesota. The cold winters and lack of winning have been big hindrances to the Timberwolves on the free agent market. On top of that, players who have started their careers in Minnesota and then move on to other franchises routinely speak of the noticeable difference in the way players and their families are taken care of, the programs in place to help them off the court and the amenities that make them feel welcome and supported.
That is where Watts will come in. Many organizations have positions on their basketball operations staff that are geared towards enhancing the player experience. But Watts’ appointment as a highly compensated, senior level executive specializing in this space is unique. The Wolves and Lynx plan to make Watts’ position and initiatives one of the biggest priorities in their vision of where they want to take the franchise.
Rodriguez’s background as a player in Major League Baseball has him emphasizing the importance of creating an environment that players and their families find welcoming and supportive. During his first press conference as a Timberwolves owner, Rodriguez mentioned the importance of doing the little things for players to improve their experience.
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“I think the unique part of where I’m coming from is really understanding players first, both baseball and basketball, especially the NBA, as a league that is led by players,” Rodriguez said in October. “And when it comes to having the best in class, from coaches to management to, believe it or not, like showerheads, right? It’s the smallest little details that make the biggest difference. It’s the food in the clubhouse, right? It’s the bus they travel on. It’s the plane they travel in. In all these little things, we have an opportunity. If you collect those small things, they become really big things.”
When Lore looked at the current Timberwolves organizational chart, he wanted to make changes to blur the lines between business and basketball and create a more integrated operation. Casson and COO Ryan Tanke, who have known Watts for going on two decades, introduced Lore to Watts at Summer League in Las Vegas as a person with strong perspectives on how an organization can support players and what players need to feel supported.
The two hit it off over dinner at the Wynn and Lore immediately started to envision a high-level role for Watts in a reshaped Wolves and Lynx hierarchy, sources told The Athletic. The Lynx, under coach and executive Cheryl Reeve, have a much stronger track record in terms of success on the court and working environment for their players, but Watts will also work closely with the WNBA side of the franchise to upgrade the services and experiences for Lynx players and families as well.
“We look forward to welcoming Marquise to our organization,” Casson said in a statement. “His unique background in brand strategy and athlete engagement gives us the opportunity to establish Minnesota as a top tier player destination.”
There is a lot of work to be done. Fairly or unfairly, the Wolves have often been viewed as more frugal in their investment in player amenities, and this move is aimed at changing that perception.
Watts got to know Casson and Tanke well while working for Under Armour and Adidas, making frequent appearances at Target Center while helping Timberwolves clients like Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio, Shabazz Muhammad and others on the marketing side. He frequently crossed paths with D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns when they were involved in AAU events for Adidas and will come in looking to make big upgrades to an organization often viewed as behind the times. Watts also has a 9-year-old daughter who lives in Minnesota, and he was back here regularly even after relocating to Los Angeles with Adidas and Klutch.
Now he is coming back on a permanent basis, leaving an influential agency to take on the reimaging of a franchise in need of it. It is part of a recent trend in hires outside of the traditional basketball-centric paths to major positions in an organization. The Dallas Mavericks hired Nico Harrison from Nike as president of basketball operations. The New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers both hired star agents in Leon Rose and Rob Pelinka to run their basketball operations. The trend gained steam a decade ago when the Golden State Warriors hired a player agent in Bob Myers to a high-ranking front office position.
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Watts’ position is separate from the head of basketball operations. Executive Vice President Sachin Gupta is the lead decision maker when it comes to roster moves and is being evaluated this season to determine if that will continue for the long term or if they will seek to hire someone from outside the organization. Watts will focus on making the players’ experiences in and around the organization better once they are in the door.
He will make it a priority to foster community engagement, off-the-court business ventures and to roll out the red carpet for player family and friends, all in an effort to get players to start thinking about Minnesota as a destination. There are some things the Wolves will never be able to change, most notably the weather. Winning would go a long way toward opening eyes around the league. Sometimes injuries, bad luck and other circumstances can get in the way of that. One thing that is controllable, and ever more important in this day and age, is the feeling players have about how much their franchise cares about their well being beyond basketball, and that is what Watts is charged with overhauling and improving.
Watts, who is Black, will become another high-ranking person of color in the Timberwolves organization. Gupta is Indian-American, assistant GM Joe Branch is Black, as is Aaron Blackshear, the team’s director of analytics.
“That is obviously something I believe in very strongly,” Lore said in October. “It’s one of the reasons why so many startups have been successful that I’ve been a part of. I think you get to the best answer when you have diversity of thought and diversity when you go around the table. I truly believe that.”
(Top Photo:Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)