Deep Dive: Tim Connelly Has Taken His First Steps Out Of The Storm
Minnesota's front office leader made some early missteps, but he is making the most out of his second summer in charge.
Almost as soon as he had arranged his desk and slid his President of Basketball Operations nameplate into the head office of Mayo Clinic Square, Tim Connelly walked himself into the eye of a raging storm.
Whether there was pressure from a changing ownership to make a big splash or he was advised by his new team to push his chips into the middle of the table doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. Connelly was wrenched from his cushy championship-level home in Denver, showered in an enormous paycheck, and tasked with being the organizational face of a franchise that had only just pulled themselves out of the dusty doldrums of the league.
After an overwhelmingly fun season that ended with their second postseason run in 18 years, the skies were finally feeling cloudless again for the Minnesota Timberwolves. So, it was as surprising as it was ominous when they shipped off multiple rotational pieces and even more draft currency to acquire Rudy Gobert.
Still, trying to win at a higher level is always admirable. So many teams, especially those who haven’t swilled from the chalice of success, are all too happy to survive merely a morsel above mediocrity. Connelly (and whatever other forces conspired alongside him) wanted to change that and seemed to have no reservations about doing so immediately.
However, those sun rays quickly started to fade, and before long it was an all-out shitstorm pelting down on the franchise once again. Gobert limped into training camp and waded gingerly through the most disappointing season of his storied career. His teammates never gelled with him, either, and the Wolves felt more like a hodgepodge of talent rather than a cohesive unit.
When Karl-Anthony Towns — who was also struggling with health and form from the season’s outset — tore his calf muscle, the thunder only grew louder. And when Walker Kessler, who Connelly had drafted and then promptly shipped to the Utah Jazz in the Gobert deal, quickly became one of the league’s best young bigs, the lightning was striking the franchise in every crevice imaginable.
At that point, understandably and unsurprisingly, Connelly became public enemy number one. He wasn’t a smooth-talking media mogul like his predecessor Gersson Rosas, so he wasn’t able to iron out the wrinkling within the fan base. And, while the Wolves crawled back into the playoffs, they were punted back to the curb by the champions-elect and the entire season retained its sour-tasting bile.
All of that misery still feels like yesterday. Many of the wounds that cut deep into the fan base’s core are still scabbing. And yet, the storm clouds feel like they’re beginning to part. The tempest still incubates overhead, but it’s not the same franchise-shattering rage that it was.
Connelly hasn’t and may never absolve himself from that big move. The likelihood is that Gobert bounces back somewhat, he’s got a long track record of being the league’s best role-playing destroyer. And, apart from Kessler, the players that Minnesota shipped off have all seen their value fade like tendrils of smoke drifting from a fire that once burned with much more verve. But it’s a steep mountain to climb in the fan base’s keen eye.
The chatter that claimed it was one of the worst trades in the history of the league was always bordering on nonsense, but the Wolves gave up substantially more than they took back and they’ll have to navigate the self-created typhoon for years to come. That took a chunk out of Connelly’s previously sterling reputation and it’s not easy to rejuvenate that around the basketball landscape.
And yet, the storm clouds still feel like they’re starting to part.
Connelly has taken the first steps away from his initial all-in move and, while they haven’t been as enormous as his first decision, they all look as shrewd as they can before we get to actually see them in action next season. Furthermore, they all seem to intertwine and lay the seeds for the future — traits the Gobert deal distinctly lacked.
Building The Identity For The Now …
It felt like the Timberwolves traipsed through a multiverse of offensive identities during such a turbulent season. The storm brewed above the landscape consistently, but below it the four seasons played out, shifting and changing seemingly without warning or reason.
When the two-big experiment was fresh in the infancy of the campaign, they tried to lean into it. Gobert was being asked to do more with the ball in his hands and Towns was hellbent on facilitating that change. Obviously, Anthony Edwards and D’Angelo Russell found ways to butter their own bread, but the Wolves had predetermined their identity and it was going big or going home.
They so often ended up going home, though, and when Towns went down the sands shook beneath their feet once more. All of a sudden, it was the Ant Show. With doom digging its spindly fingers into the eyes of the franchise, Edwards strapped them to his back like a parachute and soared into new heights.
The team went about as well as one could possibly imagine while being barnacled to the back of a 21-year-old, winning every other game and maintaining the same air of unpredictability that they had all season long.
In the final stanza of the season, Minnesota changed its spots again. Mike Conley arrived and took some responsibility from the exhausted shoulders of Edwards, Gobert seemed to overcome his nagging groin injuries somewhat, and Towns eventually returned to add another strange shape to the field’s crop circles. During that run into and then back out of the playoffs, it felt like the offense was talent-laden and rudderless.
They were still able to win games with a more snug-fitting roster, but they couldn’t shake off their season-long foibles and understandably lacked the cohesion that longer tenured groups possessed.
And yet, throughout all of the smoke and all of the mirrors of the offense, they were a good defense. Sometimes they were even a great defense. It doesn’t feel that way for every yard of an 82-game marathon, but when the dust settled it was hard to dispute. If you look at the Wolves through the lens of a defense-first roster that needs to put their offensive weapons in better positions to succeed, those storm clouds begin to part once more.
They finished their topsy-turvy campaign as the eighth-best defense, allowing just 0.3 points per 100 possessions (113.4) more than the culture-esteemed Miami Heat and surrendering fewer than Phoenix, Philadelphia, both Los Angeles teams and, of course, the freshly crowned Denver Nuggets.
They were even better in the halfcourt, allowing the seventh fewest points per 100 halfcourt possessions (96.6). They struggled at the beginning of the season to guard in transition, but after they reconfigured at the trade deadline, they locked into a rhythm and ranked eighth again in points allowed per 100 transition plays (123.3) over the 21-post-deadline games.
Whatever one thinks of Gobert — and there’s no doubt that’s a boggling spectrum — there’s no denying his part in cementing that defensive-minded culture.
The team allowed 5.7 points fewer when the Frenchman was on the floor compared to when he was off, an elite mark that ranked in the 91st percentile leaguewide. According to Cleaning The Glass, teams took shots at the rim 8.1 percent less often (100th percentile) in his minutes and made their inside looks at a clip that was 3.7% worse than when he wasn’t on the floor (85th percentile).
Of course, Gobert doesn’t get to hoover up all of the credit. Jaden McDaniels was one of the league’s best and most versatile defensive destructors and Edwards had moments where he played his part as well as anybody else. But Gobert, even on a season that entailed fewer blocked shots and more occasions where he seemed a step slow, was the shield that guarded their rear and warded off opponents with his length, timing, reputation and forever-pulsating defensive aura.
That’s what Tim Connelly paid for with his weighty pouch of gold. Then, he went out and found Kyle Anderson’s handsy brilliance, Mike Conley’s steady nous, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s manic hunger to supplement the identity that he was piecing together.
There is no reason to believe that the defensive mantra should dissipate next season, either. Barring another international break containing nicks and bruises, Gobert should come back resembling something closer to his all-timer status on that end of the floor. McDaniels will eviscerate more hapless souls next season. Edwards’ consistency seems to be on a steady incline. While Anderson will lead a more refined army of role players who can hassle teams with more length and better switchability.
Identity breeds reliability, and despite the Timberwolves’ infamous dearth of consistency on offense, they were sturdy defensively all season long. They didn’t meet expectations, but they built a culture of success on the defensive side of the ball and that carried them into another playoff campaign. And, just as identity breeds reliability, postseason appearances build culture.
The upstart squad of 2021-22 was justifiably romanticized throughout this season of peaks and valleys, but it surely couldn’t handle the injuries and curveballs that this past season’s did. For all of their disappointing nights, the Wolves of 2022-23 had a fighting spirit and an innate ability to shrug off body blows and keep rising from the canvas.
Gobert’s defense helped that. Conley’s leadership bolstered that. Alexander-Walker personified it during his immense playoff run. And, maybe above all, Anderson saved them on so many nights last season. The Timberwolves haven’t had that culture since Kevin Garnett departed. They haven’t had a team who could survive games with their defensive identity and their scrappiness. Losing in first round series isn’t something to be celebrated, but escaping the cellar of the league is and this group guarantees that.
Connelly’s moves, combining with the internal improvement from Edwards and McDaniels, helped them escape the cellar and raised their floor immeasurably. Now, they have a team who expects winning. A team who knows what it takes to make the playoffs and then back it up and do it again. A team who has an identity, even if there are still adjustments and upgrades to be made.
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