Minnesota Sports Forum

Saw this nice write up from Strib on my yahoo feed - nice praise for Conley:


By Chris Hine Star Tribune MARCH 29, 2023 -- 6:48AM

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - Harrison Barnes of the Kings missed a free throw with the Timberwolves ahead 114-106 and 3 minutes, 8 seconds remaining Monday at Golden 1 Center.

After clanging off the rim, the ball didn't land in the hands of the initial rebounders under the basket. Instead, it bounced outside the lane.

There were a number of times this season, and even in last season's playoff series against Memphis, when the Wolves would have surrendered an offensive rebound in this scenario, and almost inevitably an opponent would hit a backbreaking three-pointer off that miss.

On Monday, Mike Conley came to the rescue. Conley got in front of Barnes, and got in position to get the rebound. Possession over. Wolves ball. They would go on to win 119-115.

The play typified what Conley has brought the Wolves since coming over in the three-team trade that sent D'Angelo Russell to the Lakers. He is another veteran presence, a player who tends to make the right, fundamentally sound play on a team that doesn't always do that.

"He's the perfect piece, in my estimation," coach Chris Finch said recently. "He really is. He can make all the big plays, he can run the offense, he can get the ball to the guys where and when they need."

Even though Conley's contributions are rarely flashy, they have been important. Take, for instance, what Finch said about the Wolves' two-big lineup and the defense after they played Golden State. Finch was asked what the Wolves learned defensively about deploying a lineup that included Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.

"Some of the lineups we were playing with earlier in the season, we weren't able to get to the matchups we wanted because sometimes we had guys we couldn't always put on the ball," Finch said. "Now we have a multitude of guys we can put on the ball. When you can do that you can now move guys around. Sometimes you have to hide players, but we don't really have that anymore."

Finch didn't mention any names, but it's easy to deduce he was speaking about Conley replacing Russell on that end of the floor. Conley's defensive tenacity has been noticeable, as he chases guards like De'Aaron Fox who are a decade younger than he is. It may have taken awhile, but the Wolves are starting to see the effect Conley has had on and off the court.

Guard Anthony Edwards has said he loves Conley, while Naz Reid said even though Conley hasn't been with the Wolves long, he has a commanding voice.

"Tremendous," Reid said of Conley's leadership. "He doesn't talk much, but when he talks everybody stands, because when he talks, that means it matters. When he talks, it's like all right, we're locked."

After one of his first games against the Wizards, a game in which the Wolves lost a large lead, Conley mentioned how he noticed the Wolves had bad habits they needed to clean up, such as shot selection and taking care of the ball when games started to go sideways. What has he thought of the team's play since then?

"We're still fouling a little bit too much," Conley said. "It slows the game down, which you don't want to do late in the game."

But he had plenty of good things to say about how far they have come on offense.

"We're executing," Conley said. "It helps me a lot knowing I have a better feel of the offense, better feel of timing, the areas on the floor people are effective late in the game and also the areas on the floor where people aren't effective late in games, so I can stay away from certain actions late. It limits our turnovers, it limits our areas and allows us to get better shots and chances to be efficient."

When asked how much smarter his team was in recent weeks, Finch said, "significantly." It's no coincidence that has come while Conley has been the team's starting point guard. Conley said he sensed a "heightened awareness" when he joined the Wolves, that the whole organization was devoted to winning now. It's when he knew he could be a good fit.

"It felt like everyone was locked in," Conley said. "It's the reason why I'm still playing. I want to play until I'm 40 if I can be a part of these situations where we can compete at the highest level against the best competition in the world and do it with some guys like this."

https://www.startribune.com/why-did-timberwolves-get-mike-conley-jazz-kings-minnesota/600262681/

While I do think Finch probably is saying Russell wasn't a guy they could play on ball (this isn't new from Finch about Russell) I also think the addition of NAW is another upgrade he is speaking to as well. Before adding him their next best perimeter defender after starters was Rivers and he was someone that was good or solid against guards but some guys were too much for him and he couldn't guard SF types that did more than shoot 3's. NAW can guard guys 1-3 and gives them another guy they can put on perimeter players to make them work for it. I'm not suggesting he is a stopper or anything but he helps. This allows them to deploy someone like Nowell when healthy when they need him. McLaughlin is undersized but he is a better on ball defender than some other players that got minutes when he was out for all those games which helps. Basically the Wolves now play 2 PG sized players then mostly everyone else has at least big SG size and when Nowell plays he is at least a bigger combo guard guy. The Wolves overall are a pretty big team.

Nice article, Anthony. I think the veteran leadership we now have combines nicely with our young emerging stars, and the results have been very positive. We have SloMo who never stops talking, and Conley who says little but is highly respected...a nice tandem. Russell had a nice offensive half season this year and won us a few games with hot 4th quarter shooting, but Finchie's comments make it clear how much easier it is to coach this team AD as opposed to BC.

I was a big fan of the Conley trade from Day 1 because he has always been a winner, but I have been surprised about a few aspects of his game. I knew he was a smart, effective defender, but I didn't expect a 35-year-old to be as active and quick as he has been on defense. Hine talks about Conley chasing Fox around at the end of the game, and that was really fun to watch. Finchie has to be happy that he has a PG that he doesn't have to worry about when he gets switched on to a prolific scorer...it has had a huge positive impact on our defense. I also have been pleasantly surprised with his 3-point shooting...he was only a 36.2 % shooter this season with Utah, so his 41.6% with the Wolves has been a blessing (but shame on me for not knowing that Conley has been over 40% on threes 4 times in his career...I've always looked at Mike as more of a game manager than a 3-point shooter, but I guess he is both.)

On the other hand, I thought Conley would be ball-dominant and put up big assists numbers and connect often with Rudy, but his assists numbers have been rather paltry (only 5 in the past two games combined). But it seems that Finchie is using Mike differently than I would have thought. SloMo has become the primary assist guy...almost 8 assists per game this month...while Mike is more often off-ball while still directing the offense. I thought that Mike would have a big impact on Ant and Rudy, but it turns out he seems to have the biggest impact on SloMo.

But one thing I expected from Mike has come through big-time...protecting the ball. He had 3 turnovers in his first game with us on February 10, but hasn't had more than 2 in any of the 19 games after that (he's averaging only 1.1 TOs per game during March)...that's extraordinary and one of the biggest reasons we are peaking at exactly the right time of the season.

Let's hope he can stay healthy and keep up this level of play...he could really be a positive factor in the playoffs.

FNG wrote:Nice article, Anthony. I think the veteran leadership we now have combines nicely with our young emerging stars, and the results have been very positive. We have SloMo who never stops talking, and Conley who says little but is highly respected...a nice tandem. Russell had a nice offensive half season this year and won us a few games with hot 4th quarter shooting, but Finchie's comments make it clear how much easier it is to coach this team AD as opposed to BC.

I was a big fan of the Conley trade from Day 1 because he has always been a winner, but I have been surprised about a few aspects of his game. I knew he was a smart, effective defender, but I didn't expect a 35-year-old to be as active and quick as he has been on defense. Hine talks about Conley chasing Fox around at the end of the game, and that was really fun to watch. Finchie has to be happy that he has a PG that he doesn't have to worry about when he gets switched on to a prolific scorer...it has had a huge positive impact on our defense. I also have been pleasantly surprised with his 3-point shooting...he was only a 36.2 % shooter this season with Utah, so his 41.6% with the Wolves has been a blessing (but shame on me for not knowing that Conley has been over 40% on threes 4 times in his career...I've always looked at Mike as more of a game manager than a 3-point shooter, but I guess he is both.)

On the other hand, I thought Conley would be ball-dominant and put up big assists numbers and connect often with Rudy, but his assists numbers have been rather paltry (only 5 in the past two games combined). But it seems that Finchie is using Mike differently than I would have thought. SloMo has become the primary assist guy...almost 8 assists per game this month...while Mike is more often off-ball while still directing the offense. I thought that Mike would have a big impact on Ant and Rudy, but it turns out he seems to have the biggest impact on SloMo.

But one thing I expected from Mike has come through big-time...protecting the ball. He had 3 turnovers in his first game with us on February 10, but hasn't had more than 2 in any of the 19 games after that (he's averaging only 1.1 TOs per game during March)...that's extraordinary and one of the biggest reasons we are peaking at exactly the right time of the season.

Let's hope he can stay healthy and keep up this level of play...he could really be a positive factor in the playoffs.

FNG it's worth remembering that Conley has been playing next to a high usage scoring guard since he went to Utah. Even this season he was playing with Clarkson and Markkanen was putting up numbers and. Only was putting up a career high in assists at 7.7 per game. Obviously before that he was playing with Donovan Mitchell for a few seasons. He has been playing a lesser more complimentary role for a while.

Meanwhile the last season he was in Memphis he led the team scoring over 21 ppg as a 31 year old. One of his teammates that season? Kyle Anderson. I didn't think about them overlapping for a season. I don't know how much they played together that year but it's always nice to have some familiarity even if it was a number of seasons ago.

Conley has never been a high assist guy. He is another guy people that didn't see him play will look back and wonder why he was considered a pretty good player. His teammate for many years Marc Gasol's value as a player will absolutely not match the stats he put up. I'd consider Gasol an even better player than Conley but Conley was a really good player for quite a while.