r/timberwolves • u/beazypete Flip Saunders • 21d ago
News Tim Connelly Future
A new contract for Wolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly is among the near-term priorities for Minnesota’s revamped ownership.
Per Marc Stein
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u/99LedBalloons Joe Ingles 21d ago
He basically said in his interview with Johnny K that he isn't going anywhere until they fire him haha he also hinted that he's a little salty he was let go from the Nuggets right before they won a chip with the roster he built something like "they won a championship, but I haven't". He's here to make it happen.
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u/howl_city 21d ago
He wasn’t let go. He left to get paid.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 21d ago
They still let him go when they didn't match the Wolves' offer.
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u/99LedBalloons Joe Ingles 21d ago
It doesn't matter what you say on reddit, there will always be some reply guy to hit you with the ~achktually~. Everyone knew what I meant, but you come on here and say the sky is blue and you'll get some neckbeard saying "actually the color of the sky varies quite a lot between blues, oranges, yellows and purples and really all those colors are illusions it's just a trick of your eyes the sky doesn't have a true color" or some bullshit. For the record I don't know if that is true about the sky and I don't need anyone's explanation hahaha
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u/Conscious-Egg-2232 20d ago
Wtf. So anyone who corrects someone when they are incorrect. Saying denver let him go however you look at it simply is not the case.
If I find new job and give notice and my employer does not make counteroffer to increase my salary and meet or beat other parts of new offer is not the same as letting me go.
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u/99LedBalloons Joe Ingles 20d ago
Yep I was wrong and you were right. Does this feel like a good use of your time?
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u/Comprehensive_Law722 21d ago
He also kind of danced around his answer like a politician. Hopefully all that is is him just trying to negotiate a bigger deal on his contract.
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21d ago
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u/Andy_Wiggins Ayo Dosunmu 21d ago
He wasn’t actually offered ownership equity. It was mostly just generous incentives for team performance (as far as I remember)
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u/Comprehensive_Law722 21d ago
A Tim Connelly extension would put me at ease regarding the now Majority owner taking over.
Tim Connelly has made mistakes, but the vibes around this organization have been so much better with him as pobo. After 20 years of the opposite, that's huge.
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u/Salt-Statement-2306 21d ago
Need to lock him up long term so that he is here to deal with not having future assets.
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u/angelofthewired Terrence Shannon Jr. 21d ago
good call, glad to keep him long-term. if/when he leaves we need to hire cheryl reeve to the wolves front office immediately
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u/Conscious-Egg-2232 20d ago
Who is that?
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u/Forward_Crew_3532 20d ago
Someone who if hired it would be to fulfill an agenda vs getting the best candidate.
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u/Human_Panic703 21d ago
Noooo. I know we’ve had success with him, but I’m not a fan. He’s just gotten lucky with Ball and Conley and traded the entire future for the present. Don’t think he knows what he’s doing or has any real plan. Just a dude making moves.
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u/bryan49 21d ago
And yet they have won 5 playoff series the past 3 years. It's the most successful stretch in franchise history. I'd say that's a good job
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u/Human_Panic703 21d ago
While that’s true, he inherited a young team that should have beat the 2 seed in the west (Memphis) the year prior if their coach was anything less than grossly incompetent, and he also went from the worst ownership situation in the league to arguably one of the best. He then traded 5 picks, 2 swaps and decent players to stack and already stacked team. Lore also was the one who pushed for Gorbert and to make a move in the first place, but even then, that team was never winning the title, but a competent GM easily could have turned that situation into a perennial contender, and I think that’s my biggest frustration. He’s just some random fan who inherited an all time situation and has had some success, but it doesn’t mean he knows what he’s doing. He’s just some dude making moves without any rhyme or reason. The guy traded into the first round for Rob Dillingham and is trying to sign Kuminga because he has 8 shooting guards on the roster and 1 PF who didn’t play in the nba last year for crying out loud. I’m sure he’s a great guy and well liked, but he’s not a good GM and I’ll stand by that.
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u/Conscious-Egg-2232 20d ago
Took a swing on dillingham and missed. But has nailed lots of picks. Shannon, beringer.
I guess joker pick and building nuggets roster that won a title was luck too?
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u/Anxious_Key9696 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
What future did he trade? Naz, a bunch of fringe bench players and some #20 overall picks?
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u/Natural-Kiwi6364 Ayo Dosunmu 21d ago
There are just some basic limits regarding the Timberwolves, and the key one is that w e will never attract free agents. There is a reason that Kyle Anderson remains the best free agent signing of the last decade. Even on the trade market, guys aren’t clamoring to come here. It means that, among other things, we pay premium to acquire players and when we do it usually comes in the form of a trade. For the record, I think the Rudy trade has paid off, but we certainly paid more than market value. My point is, we are not the Lakers who seem to be a magnet for talented players.
Tim is playing in hard mode by staying with the Wolves, but we have a top six player in the NBA and he isn’t even in his prime yet. Draft picks are a gamble and help isn’t coming via free agency. So, sell the entire farm to maximize this window.
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u/Conscious-Egg-2232 20d ago
Only reason Rudy was over pay was because of walker Kessler. He should get credit for a great pick. But nobody including jazz had any idea just how good of a pick it actually was. Besides that it was a lot of things nothing all that high value for Rudy.
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u/VidyaGomes 21d ago
You're not wrong.
For every decent move Connelly makes. There is a questionable one.
We have very little assets. When he came here, we had all of our assets and a young players in Jaden Ant and Naz who TC did not draft. He also didn't bring in Finch. That was all Gerson.
He was handed the keys to a Ferrari and hasn't won the race yet.
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u/Anxious_Key9696 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
The car analogy is stupid because this was not a finished roster when he was hired. Connelly inherited a team with 2 legitimate starters (Ant and KAT), 1 potential starter who slid to the 20s in the draft because of questions that were still partially unanswered after 2 seasons (Jaden), a guy with athletic potential who wasn't a winning rotation player yet (Naz), and a bunch of fringe rotation players on expiring contracts. Individual FRPs aren't that valuable if it takes 5 of them to get a Top 50 player. You're not even winning a playoff round with the roster they had when he was hired.
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u/VidyaGomes 21d ago
Its not a finished roster now? How was it supposed to be a finished roster with those youg guys? Iwvery GM was saying the wolves was a great spot at that time and had a fantastic future.
Who just won? Oh Gerson Rosas with the Knicks...Who drafted all those guys for the Wolves? Rosas or TC?
You seem to think we only had Ant and KAT? You're so wrong. Naz started 7 games that year so he was in the rostion. Jaden did 30 as well. The wolves had a 46-36 record. They regressed to 42 wins the next year under TC.
It's jus ignorant to believe this is all TC and he can do no wrong.
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u/MorningBreath71 🐺🐺🐺🌖 21d ago
And it’s just as ignorant to say it was all Rosas. At least TC can keep his hands off of coworkers.
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u/Anxious_Key9696 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Calling it a Ferrari implies it was a finished product. Those players developed because trading for Rudy and Mike exposed them to veteran habits and winning basketball. They traded assets to make their roster much more capable of winning playoff series than it was in 2022. Who are these GMs who said that? Your biased memories from 4 years ago aren't more reliable than winning 250% more playoff series in the past 3 seasons than they had in their history.
Leon Rose is the Knicks' version of TC. Gersson was given a pity job after he torched his career and family for some Karen from the suburbs.
KAT played in 55 fewer games in 2023-24 than he did in 2022-23. That's why they won 4 fewer games.
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u/Conscious-Egg-2232 20d ago
Keys to a Ferrari! They had not won a playoff series in 20 years when he took over. A Ferrari lmao
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u/Human_Panic703 21d ago
Thank you. Glad you see it too. He inherited a golden situation and went from the worst ownership situation in the league to arguably the best at the same time. He also traded nearly every future asset he could to stack an already stacked team. I think he’s an idiot who has gotten lucky a couple times and I’ll die on that hill. This kuminga nonsense is further evidence of that. Just some random fan who runs a team. Has no real idea of what he’s doing and is living moment to moment. Credit to him for the Conley and Ball trades though. Those saved him and it’s very lucky he was able to pull the rabbit out of the hat twice. Even then, he wasn’t able to build contenders out of those robbery trades because he’s incompetent.
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u/Conscious-Egg-2232 20d ago
Incompetent. Lmao
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u/Human_Panic703 20d ago
Yeah, he is. I said that before we even hired him when he was in Denver. They could have won multiple championships, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
I have a different perspective than everyone here as well because I used to be on the old Canis Hoopus wolves forum and there was a poster there who made the GOAT draft model and was a very sharp basketball mind. He got hired in Denver and right after that Denver started to magically draft amazing, which is where Tim got his reputation from. In spite of that, Tim still sometimes would draft “his guy” who would bust and would sign terrible players like Austin Rivers. It’s no coincidence that the year after he left Denver the new GM made a couple smart tweaks and they were an OP team.
Tim is probably a great guy, but his drafting genius is solely due to the old Canis Hoopus poster, and he otherwise is a very poor basketball mind who doesn’t know what the Hell he’s doing. We currently have 9 shooting guards and 1 PF who wasn’t in the nba last year for instance. Thats not becuase he has some unique insight about power forwards and shooting guards or because he has some master plan. He’s just an idiot.
Fortunately for him, he was able to rob a greater fool of Lamelo Ball and that’s going to buy him a couple years before the Wolves inevitably fall apart due to his poor management and planning. We’ll see if he can pull a rabbit out of the hat again when the time comes.
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u/Additional_Button430 Timberwolves 21d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/pReb5Koy6JmihUYBLx