As Timberwolves face key summer, Tim Connelly says he isn't going anywhere

New York Times

2 days ago

Before the Minnesota Timberwolves can get down to business in a summer filled with important roster decisions, they need to know who will be leading the charge on those decisions. Team president of basketball operations Tim Connelly made it clear on Monday that he is not going anywhere.
'Super happy here,' Connelly said at his end-of-the-season briefing. 'It's been great, not just working with the team, but this whole community really feels like home. I think you guys are stuck with me.'
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Connelly reworked his contract last summer, pushing an option back until after this season so he could see how the team's ownership dispute played out. He drew interest from the Detroit Pistons last summer, league sources said, and several other teams have been monitoring his situation this season to see if one of the league's top executives would become available. Helping to build a team that made the Western Conference finals in back-to-back seasons only increased his value.
There has been no official announcement from the team yet, but Connelly's declaration on Monday laid to rest any concerns that he could be on the move. He was recruited to Minnesota by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, who are expected to receive NBA Board of Governors approval as majority owners of the Wolves and Lynx at some point this summer. Connelly said on Monday that the investment from current owners Glen and Becky Taylor, and the transfer to Lore and Rodriguez, has the team well-positioned to build on its success.
'Glen and Becky, Marc and Alex, we've been spoiled,' Connelly said. 'But those conversations have been ongoing, and it'll be fun to really game plan now that the season is over.'
Among the primary orders of business for Connelly will be to determine how many of the team's possible free agents will be retained. Julius Randle and Naz Reid each have player options for next season. Reid is widely expected to opt out and become a free agent, but he said he is still open to returning to Minnesota, the team that has developed him from an undrafted rookie into last season's Sixth Man of the Year. Randle has an option for $31 million, and it remains to be seen what he will do.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is the third valuable veteran on the roster. He will be a free agent this summer and is due a big raise from his $4.3 million salary. Retaining him could be difficult, but Connelly said he sees an avenue for all three to return.
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'The goal is to keep everybody,' Connelly said. 'What's neat is the players are all very happy here. They love the coaching staff. They love the teammates. They love the community. When the player wants to be here and the team wants to have them back, there's always room for optimism.'
The Wolves operated in the second apron this season, and it is hard to see a realistic scenario where they keep all three players and drop down into the first apron next season. Being in the second apron for multiple seasons brings severe team-building restrictions, including the loss of the mid-level exception and the inability to aggregate salaries in trades. If a team is in the second apron for three out of five years, their first-round draft pick is frozen at the bottom of the round.
'It's not just super expensive. We have great ownership this year that allowed us to spend a lot, a lot of money,' Connelly said. 'But it's so restrictive with dealmaking, so how can we be sure that we're as nimble as possible?'
Connelly did not rule out the Wolves spending like they did this season, if they believed that would allow them to contend for a title. They have been eliminated 4-1 in the conference finals each of the last two years, and Connelly's messaging on Monday differed slightly from when they were knocked out last year. When the Dallas Mavericks handled them in 2024, Connelly was thrilled with the season as a whole, an out-of-nowhere leap into pseudo-contender status for a franchise that had not been that deep into the playoffs in 20 years.
Connelly was equally proud of his team this season for enduring a major trade right before training camp opened, for weathering some key injuries and for coming together late in the season to push right back to the doorstep of the NBA Finals. But he also said that the team fell short of its ultimate goal.
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'On the whole, we're pretty proud of the year we had,' he said. 'Not happy with it. Not content by any stretch. But pretty happy with how the guys competed and where we got.'
It only figures to get more difficult from here. The Wolves were outclassed by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who begin play in the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday. The Thunder are one of the youngest teams in the league and do not figure to fall off anytime soon. The rest of the West is forecast to be even more competitive than it was this season.
'There might not be teams in a quote, unquote rebuilding phase next year,' coach Chris Finch said after losing to OKC. 'They might have 15 teams going for it next year. A great season in the West, for some teams, might be 42-40.'
In three seasons at the helm of Minnesota's front office, Connelly has been one of the most aggressive executives in the league. He traded for Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Alexander-Walker, Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, surrounding Anthony Edwards with veterans in their prime. While saying he always prefers to have roster continuity, Connelly did not rule out another big move this summer.
The Wolves had discussions with the Phoenix Suns about Kevin Durant at the trade deadline in February. They could also use another ballhandler and creator with Conley potentially being in Year 19 next season and rookie Rob Dillingham still unproven.
'We feel very happy with the core we have. We don't feel like there's tremendous pressure to do much,' Connelly said. 'But until you're raising the trophy, you've got to be active and as creative as possible to get to the point where you're the final team.'
All of that aggressiveness has made for a challenging coaching job for Finch, Connelly said. He lauded the entire coaching staff's ability to adapt on the fly and develop young talent. Edwards, Reid, Alexander-Walker and Jaden McDaniels all saw huge improvements in their games under Finch. Randle had real success in the first two rounds of the playoffs for the first time in his career, and Finch has made the playoffs in all four full seasons that he has coached.
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'His ability to identify how this group can best play at a high level together is as good as anybody I've been around,' Connelly said. 'It's not easy what we've tasked him with the last couple of years.'
Having Edwards at the center of it all makes things much easier for Finch and Connelly. Edwards has emerged as a rising star in the league, adding to his game each summer as he climbs the league's ladder. This season, it was 3-point shooting. After working on his catch-and-shoot and off-the-dribble 3s all last summer, Edwards made more from deep than any player in the league. Connelly knows it won't stop there.
'The sky's the limit. We think he's going to be one of the best players of all time,' Connelly said. 'We think he's on that track. This summer will be even more challenging for him as we raise the bar, not just personally, but collectively as a team.'
Edwards raised eyebrows after Game 5 against the Thunder when he said he wasn't 'hurt' by losing in the conference finals two years in a row. Some took it as a sign of immaturity and unseriousness. But Edwards has been one of the team's hardest workers since he arrived as the No. 1 pick in 2020.
He lost his grandmother and mother to cancer when he was 14 years old, so losing in the playoffs doesn't hit him as hard as it might others. But Connelly has no questions about Edwards' commitment to improvement or his will to win.
'We're either going to win a championship or not get there on the back of Ant,' Connelly said. 'The greatest thing is he embraces that responsibility. He's such a positive teammate. Obviously, he's supremely talented, but I think there's nobody in the league that we could choose who's more ready for that level of responsibility.'
(Photo of, from left, Julius Randle, Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)