Tim Connelly here to stay after doubling his salary

[kekgeek]

Also Connelly has not resigned yet. Doogie mentioned today this “extension” might he from Arod camp to make Taylor look bad if it does not happen. Going to be a weird offseason

[Lipoli390]

I see the potential value of that trade, Lip, but as Q pointed out in another thread, Rudy is consistently a critical and productive player in all manner of 2. 3, 5 man groupings. Connelly would have to be convinced that the players coming in would be net positives overall. The offense *has* to get better but trading the anchor and quarterback to the best defense in the league may be tricky.

I agree. But there’s no alternative to improve our offense via trade. Trading KAT or Naz to improve offensively would be nonsensical. Trading NAW won’t move the needle given limited salary we could get in return and the net loss of NAW’s defense.

The reality is that the second apron precludes moves a team in our situation would typically be able to make to significantly improve in certain areas. We don’t have that luxury. The Wolves traded for Rudy to get what they got from him this season. But what they gave up to get him now seriously constrains the organization’s to improve except through the development of the team’s current players and/or this summer’s draft. That’s the reality. Perhaps we could use Miller or Minott paired with both our picks to move up in this summer’s 1st round to get a player who would significantly improve our offense at least by the latter portion of next season.

Lip, SloMo was an anchor on the offense. No matter how savvy he was as a secondary ball handler and floor general, his non-existent outside shot tanked our offense when he was on the floor. He will hopefully move on.

We shouldn't underestimate what the vet minimum could bring us. There might be some ring-chasers out there willing to take the vet min and take SloMo's spot. I think Nic Batum is a semi-realistic option.

I completely agree with your take on Slo Mo. But I would caution against overestimating what the vet minimum could bring us. If the 35 year old Batum is only a “semi-realistic” option I have a hard time being positive about the prospect of meaningful free agent signings that significantly improve our offense - or more importantly - result in significant net offense/defense improvement.

[Lipoli390]

Also Connelly has not resigned yet. Doogie mentioned today this “extension” might he from Arod camp to make Taylor look bad if it does not happen. Going to be a weird offseason

Hmm. Interesting. But if the source is Doogie, I’m not too concerned. We’ll see.

[Lipoli390]

I think we have to do something or next year is going to finish the same way this year did. I'll let the $15 million dollar man figure out the best course of action.

One trade that I think would improve our offense consistent with NBA cap rules would be Rudy to Atlanta for Murray and Bogdanovic.

I'd do it for Murray, if they want to give us Bogdanovic too so be it.

We’d have to take Bogdanovic for the deal to work under cap rules. We’re over the 2nd apron and Atlanta’s over the 1st apron. So the match has to be really close on both sides.

[WildWolf2813]

Officially staying, but the opt out got pushed to next year

[AbeVigodaLive]

Officially staying, but the opt out got pushed to next year

Connelly gets his cake... and gets to eat it, too.

Amazing deal for him. And possibly a sign of desperation from the Wolves?

[Lipoli390]

Officially staying, but the opt out got pushed to next year

Connelly gets his cake... and gets to eat it, too.

Amazing deal for him. And possibly a sign of desperation from the Wolves?

Here’s the report from Jon K (different from Doogie’s silly “reporting”):

“After a run to the Western Conference Finals, the Timberwolves and President Tim Connelly have agreed in principle on a restructured contract, locking him in for the 2024-25 season, sources tell me and @ShamsCharania. Connelly's opt-out has been moved to next year.”

I agree this is a great deal for TC. But what does this really mean for the Wolves? I think it’s good to have him locked in for at least one more season. But it’s troubling he gets that huge salary yet still gets an opt out opportunity after next season. It might be a bit too much to view it as an act of desperation, but maybe not. An opt out after one more season doesn’t align with the goal of building a sustainable winning program over the long haul. Typically, after a season like this one, an organization would give a huge new contract to their head of basketball operations without an opt out. Perhaps, as some have suggested, TC is concerned about the ownership situation. Lore and A-Rod hired him and turned him loose to make the Gorbert deal. Taylor didn’t think they should even try to hire TC. Add to that Taylor’s reputation as a bad owner presiding over a long-term losing program and you start to get the picture.

I don’t like the idea of paying huge money to get TC here in the first place, letting him make a trade that gave up half our draft assets and put us into cap hell, and then letting him walk if things go south after which we need to hire someone to clean up the mess.

[Sundog]

Would you have let him walk then, Lip, rather than offered him this deal? I’m not sure that’s a reasonable option. This team is already surrounded by ownership uncertainty, I don’t think we’d want to add GM uncertainty to the mix. It’s not my money, pay the man and let this play out.

[Carlos Danger]

Officially staying, but the opt out got pushed to next year

Connelly gets his cake... and gets to eat it, too.

Amazing deal for him. And possibly a sign of desperation from the Wolves?

Here’s the report from Jon K (different from Doogie’s silly “reporting”):

“After a run to the Western Conference Finals, the Timberwolves and President Tim Connelly have agreed in principle on a restructured contract, locking him in for the 2024-25 season, sources tell me and @ShamsCharania. Connelly's opt-out has been moved to next year.”

I agree this is a great deal for TC. But what does this really mean for the Wolves? I think it’s good to have him locked in for at least one more season. But it’s troubling he gets that huge salary yet still gets an opt out opportunity after next season. It might be a bit too much to view it as an act of desperation, but maybe not. An opt out after one more season doesn’t align with the goal of building a sustainable winning program over the long haul. Typically, after a season like this one, an organization would give a huge new contract to their head of basketball operations without an opt out. Perhaps, as some have suggested, TC is concerned about the ownership situation. Lore and A-Rod hired him and turned him loose to make the Gorbert deal. Taylor didn’t think they should even try to hire TC. Add to that Taylor’s reputation as a bad owner presiding over a long-term losing program and you start to get the picture.

I don’t like the idea of paying huge money to get TC here in the first place, letting him make a trade that gave up half our draft assets and put us into cap hell, and then letting him walk if things go south after which we need to hire someone to clean up the mess.

This is sort of what they do now though....GMs/coaches have to go all in. If they play the long game, everyone quickly loses patience and they lose their jobs. It's unfortunate. But we see it more and more. Thibs did the same thing when he was here. They know the only way to get any sort of job security is to win sooner vs. later. Then when they move on, they will be replaced with a sacrificial lamb like Ryan Saunders who just buys them time until they find the next guy. But I will say as of now, everything TC has done has been worth it (to me). And I do have confidence in him to navigate going forward if he stays long term. But he will get very, very expensive.

Also, I'm now hungry for cake.

[Lipoli390]

Would you have let him walk then, Lip, rather than offered him this deal? I’m not sure that’s a reasonable option. This team is already surrounded by ownership uncertainty, I don’t think we’d want to add GM uncertainty to the mix. It’s not my money, pay the man and let this play out.

I definitely would have offered him the same deal if that’s what was necessary to keep him. I was just riffing on Abe’s insight that this seems a bit like an act of desperation. But when you’re desperate, you take desperate measures. If ownership had passed to Lore and A-Rod as intended, then I doubt TC would have insisted on the opt out, and even if they gave him the opt out I’d feel better about our chances of keeping TC long term because I think he has a strong connection to Lore and A-Rod.

If the team runs it back next season and falters, then next summer will be a re-set/re-tool summer with some significant changes. At that point, I want a stable organization with a proven long-term PBO like TC at the helm. While I disagreed with TC’s trade for Rudy, we’re all seeing the payoff from the risk he took. Given what we saw this season and TC’s track record in Denver, along with his brilliant deal for Conley and Naw, I trust him to guide this organization through a re-tooling process around Ant, Jaden and NAW - which is where I think we’ll be next summer.