Timberwolves seeking leap to NBA’s top tier, Tim Connelly says

MINNEAPOLIS — The message to the Minnesota Timberwolves from the championship tier of the NBA has been delivered clearly and forcefully with their elimination from the playoffs three straight occasions: You’re not there but.

Nobody was listening extra rigorously than Tim Connelly.

“We have a lot of confidence in our guys, but it would be disingenuous to sit in front of this group and say we’re happy with the sixth seed, we’re happy with not being a home-court playoff team, we’re happy that our last three closeout games have been lopsided,” the Timberwolves president of basketball operations stated Tuesday throughout his season-ending information convention. “We have to be realistic about what we have, which is way more good than bad, but we know that we’re not good enough right now.”

The San Antonio Spurs You have been the Timberwolves final week, taking the second-round collection with a 30-point win. Last 12 months, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Timberwolves in 5 video games within the Western Conference finals on the way in which to the NBA title, ending that collection with a 30-point victory. The Timberwolves have been crushed in 5 video games within the 2024 Western Conference finals, falling to the Dallas Mavericks after they nonetheless had Luka Doncic. They misplaced the clinching recreation that 12 months by 21 factors.

Now the Spurs and Thunder have begun what may very well be a convention finals for the ages, two younger groups with psychological toughness, defensive acumen and a celebrity participant. So how can the Timberwolves catch up to that?

Some of the advance effort will come from inside, be it increasing roles for younger gamers or new tasks for established starters. And a few of the actions towards making an attempt to sustain with the Western Conference powers will come from the surface.

“We know our competition is not going to sit still, and nor will we,” Connelly stated. “If we mess up, we’ll mess up loudly. We’re going to try to be as aggressive as possible.”

The Timberwolves have the twenty eighth total choose within the first spherical and the 59th total choose within the second spherical on this 12 months’s draft, belongings that will not transfer the needle a lot in commerce talks, so they’ll seemingly have to surrender a key participant or two to get one. The different drawback they’ve in constructing the roster for subsequent season is the Achilles tendon damage to beginning guard Donte DiVincenzo that may preserve him out indefinitely within the closing 12 months of his contract.

“Donte is one of the most competitive guys in the league. We’ve got to certainly find some more shooting in his absence,” Connelly stated. “We think he’s going to be back. We don’t know when.”

Much of the offseason roster hypothesis will heart across the standing of energy ahead Julius Randlewho had a dismal efficiency over the ultimate 5 video games of the playoffs. His mixed plus-minus ranking over the 4 losses to the Spurs was a minus-93, however Connelly sidestepped questions on whether or not Randle nonetheless suits into the staff’s long-term plan.

“We don’t win because of one player, lose because of one player. I think when we lost in the fashion we lost to San Antonio, they were clearly the better team, and we have to look at the collective, me included, the whole building,” Connelly stated. “What can we all do better to ensure that we don’t see the same result next season?”