It appears that Tim Connelly wants to finish what he started in Minnesota.
Shams Charania of The Athletic appeared Monday on FanDuel TV’s “Run It Back” and spoke on Connelly’s future with the Timberwolves. Charania noted that the expectation around the league is that Connelly will remain with the team on a restructured deal, no matter who the owner is. Charania adds that the Timberwolves understand Connelly’s value has gone up and that they could give him a reworked contract of over $15 million per year.
Connelly, who serve as both GM and president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves, took over the job in 2022. Over that span, he made the franchise-altering trade for Rudy Gobert, acquired Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker in separate trades, and signed Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid to new contracts. Along with Karl-Anthony Towns and Kyle Anderson, that is the core that led Minnesota to a surprise Western Conference Finals berth this season (their first in two decades).
There was some recent talk that Connelly, who was also the architect of the Denver Nuggets team that eventually won the 2023 title, might leave town. The Timberwolves are facing a muddy and complicated ownership situation, and Connelly was recently revealed to have an opt-out in his contract after this season. But it sounds like the team is willing to bump Connelly up to his true market value in order to convince him to stick around for the long run.
