Among the many unpleasantries that have splotched the 2024-25 season for the Minnesota Timberwolves like a bad rash, the desecration of Mike Conley’s wisdom may bring the most melancholy. 

There has been no better trade in the history of the Wolves franchise than the February 2023 deal that brought Conley and fellow guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Minnesota along with a couple of second-round draft picks in exchange for D’Angelo Russell. It transformed the comity and spirit of a stubbornly immature locker room and sowed the seeds that yielded a phenomenal level of trust and defensive teamwork that propelled the Wolves into the Western Conference Finals the following season. 

D’Lo (Russell) affected profundity while fostering passive-aggressive friction, which in tandem with his blatantly uneven on-court performance has made him a vagabond, traded five times in the past seven-and-a-half years. Conley is the converse; a player whose charisma emanates from seamless self-possession, whose authority cloaks itself in amiability.

Coming in the door, Conley’s priorities were obvious. First, help Rudy Gobert make the transition from a Utah team that catered their systems to his unique skill set at both ends of the court for nine years, to a Wolves team boldly experimenting with a double-bigs lineup while rearing a potential superstar still wet behind the ears. Second, hasten the development of that star, Anthony Edwards, by providing him with an appreciation for the organic concept of true greatness.

Gobert and Ant are very different types of players, and human beings. Consciously or not, D’Lo pushed them further apart. Again, Conley was the converse. Coming over from Memphis to Utah, Conley had spent three seasons with the finicky Gobert, knew when he was appropriately exacting and demanding – primarily on defense – and where the thin margins of error existed between his virtues and vices on offense. 

With Ant, Conley found a dedicated worker and keen judge of character, a willing sponge for information if he could intuitively trust the teacher. 

The 24 games (plus seven more in the postseason) of Conley’s service in Minnesota during the 2022-23 season reassured Gobert and piqued Ant enough for Rudy to expand his territory (and faith in his teammates to cover for him) on defense and for Ant to take a consequential leap forward in team leadership. In February 2024, a year and two weeks after being traded to the Wolves, Conley signed a two-year, $20-million contract, which, even considering that he is in the twilight of his career, was a generous bargain, the terms less than half per-season what he earned under his previous, then soon-to-expire, three-year, $66-million pact. 

But it has always been fairly plain that Conley is the kind of player and person who is not primarily motivated by money. There is an aura about the way he carries himself and interacts with people that takes him beyond the realm of a mere teacher/mentor, and more akin to a sage. 

Eighteen years as a successful NBA point guard is by itself a credential of nuanced knowledge. But along with being unfailingly gracious and kind in his interactions with others, there is a sense of rectitude and noblesse oblige about Conley that makes you realize he knows he is a wise man and deserves to be respected as such. He is the embodiment of silk, a presence that reduces tension, promotes well-being, and elevates the quality of the occasion to a regal level. 

All of that is why Conley’s 2024-25 season has been jarring thus far. Losing back-up point guards Monte Morris, Jordan McLaughlin and especially Kyle Anderson (a “point forward” who is perhaps the best playmaker of the trio), strip-mined all the depth behind him, a starter who turned 37 just before the season started and was/is expected to run the Wolves half-court offense as they contend for a championship.

President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly pulled a point guard out of his hat in the June draft, trading the Wolves first-round pick in 2031 to San Antonio for the right to select Rob Dillingham with the eighth overall pick this year. But Dillingham’s performance in Summer League indicated he wasn’t ready to shoulder regular minutes for a team with such high expectations, and a few days before training camp, Connelly made the (now infamous) trade of Karl-Anthony Towns to New York for forward Julius Randle and combo guard Donte DiVincenzo (DDV). 

KAT’s supermax contract, signed before the more stringent NBA collective bargaining agreement took effect, was one motivation for the trade. But it wouldn’t have been made without the availability of DDV, who is earning a bargain rate of $12 million per season, coupled with the reliability of three seasons of team control at that price, making him an attractive, if not ideal, bridge between Conley and Dillingham on the Timberwolves timeline at the point guard position. 

It hasn’t been that simple, however. Randle, the other player coming from the Knicks, is a three-time All Star with an expiring contract (save for a $31-million player option to stay with the Wolves next season) and naturally expected to take KAT’s place in the starting lineup. The rub here is that Randle functions best with the ball in his hands, drawing double teams and kicking it out to shooters from the post, or spinning and scoring versus less spirited coverage. 

One of the reasons Conley was acquired in the first place was to orchestrate the traffic and spacing in a half-court offense crimped by Gobert’s need to play around the rim and Ant’s need for freewheeling space in order to maximize his athleticism. Randle’s inclusion added yet another paint-centric presence while diminishing Conley’s ability to sort out the spacing puzzle because the ball would be in the point guard’s hands less often. 

The problem became even more complex when Conley’s performance at the start of the season after limited duty in training camp and preseason (so as not to prematurely tax his aging body) was markedly diminished from his previous high standard. On the plus side, his defense remained relatively active and effective (although he did foul more frequently). But most everything at the other end of the court – his shooting percentage, the timing, awareness and accuracy of his passes, even his dribbling at times – wasn’t as sharp or self-assured as the sage Mike Conley of yore.

Was this disheartening start to the season the result of Randle complicating the mix or Father Time inevitably taking its toll on Conley? A couple of games into the regular season, Conley added another factor, acknowledging that a chronic wrist injury had flared up more than usual during the off-season, hindering his preparation. It was an extraordinary admission from a proud warrior, especially since he couched it in the context of a minor obstacle that was no longer troublesome. 

By the end of November, the Wolves were below .500 with a won-lost record of 9-10, in part because Conley was shooting 33.3% from the field and had an assist-to-turnover rate of less than 3-to-1, both well below his career norms. On the first of December, when I asked him at practice why the Conley-Gobert pick-and-roll play was being utilized less often, his answer was revealing. 

“I think a lot of (it) is just us learning each other. Obviously Julius, first two weeks, we were like, ‘Man, be more aggressive, this is your team too’ trying to get him up to speed. When that happens I tend to fade to the corner and get myself out of actions and forget that I should be doing more in the pick and roll and have more opportunities with Rudy. We just have to get back to what we do and understand how effective we can be when we are all in comfortable spots on the floor.” 

A season of indomitable mediocrity continued through December and the first two contests of January, when the Wolves endured their fourth three-game losing streak in the first 34 games after never dropping three straight last season. By now, one problem was unavoidably apparent: The starting lineup, featuring last year’s starters and Randle in place of KAT, wasn’t resolving its dysfunction. 

After being steadfast in his position that the composition of the starters were not the main issue, and certainly not in need of remedial change, Coach Chris Finch suddenly flipped his opinion: Without warning, DiVincenzo was announced as the starting point guard in place of Conley last Monday night against the Clippers. 

After the game, after a playfully testy back-and-forth between Finch and the media about him changing his mind, the coach said, “It was all about trying to get Mike into a group of guys that could accentuate his talents better. He plays the bulk of his minutes with that (starters) unit. The usage has shifted in that unit so it was really a way to help him try and get going.”

Pressed on the specifics, Finch added, “I talked to him about it this morning, kind of asked his permission, just given his pedigree and his amazing career. And he was all for it.”

That makes perfect sense. In the locker room moments later, Conley himself had a chance to respond when my podcast partner Dane Moore pointed out that in previous seasons he had been either the primary or (if Ant was on the ball) secondary initiator of the offense, compared to often being the third initiator this season with Randle in the mix. 

“Yeah, I think that is probably the biggest difference between the years. If I’m out there just running corner to corner and not really being myself. You can start anybody at that point. So I think that was the idea behind it. See what it looks like coming in with a different unit where you (meaning him) can be more ball-dominant and not necessarily shooting more but being more injected into the game and playing my role.” 

Two games into the new rotations, the results are mixed, although the Wolves have won both contests. Against the Clippers on Monday, a lineup of last year’s starters and Naz instead of Randle at KAT’s old forward spot, the Wolves went on a 21-7 run in the second quarter to wipe out most of a 19-point deficit. And with Conley playing nearly nine minutes in the fourth quarter with various personnel, the Wolves won a close one via some big shots from Ant, featuring a lineup that put DDV out there instead of Naz. In all, the Wolves were plus 11 in Conley’s 26:24 on the court. 

On Wednesday in New Orleans, the Wolves were a team-worst minus 12 in the 24:44 Conley played, but plus 19 in the 23:16 he sat, as Randle had a quietly effective game bodying up the Pelicans mammoth Zion Williamson and getting off to a fast start with his old Knicks teammate DDV operating at the point. 

At this point in time, at least two things are true. One is that the Timberwolves have no hope of seriously contending, even beyond the first round of the playoffs, if Conley can’t improve his game to the proximity of last season, which was itself typical of his 17 years in the game before this season.

The second thing is that Conley has to continue being put in a role and in situations that evince respect for his stature. His standing as the wise man, the sage, is a crucial ingredient if he is to ascend to his former prominence on the court, and a crucial ingredient in the emotional ballast of this team. 

If he is “washed,” as the saying goes, abruptly aged out of relevancy, the undertow will be significant and could suck the Wolves underwater for the remainder of this season, if not longer. If he is merely aging in slower increments and can bear less of the burden, he needs to perform well enough to keep his wisdom, poise and silk magic from dissolving into indirect engagement, which is just a step away from symbolism.

The Timberwolves need more than that from Mike Conley. And he deserves every chance to try and provide it.

Britt Robson

Britt Robson has covered the Timberwolves since 1990 for City Pages, The Rake, SportsIllustrated.com and The Athletic. He also has written about all forms and styles of music for over 30 years.

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