TIMBERWOLVES COMMENTARY "Carpe Diem Tim" is becoming the most interesting man in Minnesota. Tim Connelly, the Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations, isn't pushing all of his chips to the center of the table — he's buying the table and repurposing it for roulette. Connelly has run three drafts for the Wolves, and has made trades in each, one of which set up his megadeal for center Rudy Gobert.
For Connelly, impatience is a virtue. He took over a team that had made the playoffs and immediately reconstructed it. He took his team to the Western Conference finals, then entered an off season in which he would be able to do little maneuvering because of the salary cap and luxury tax.
Or that's what we thought, until he made another bold move, trading future draft considerations for the eighth pick in the draft. With that pick, Connelly chose Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham. With the 27th pick, he chose Illinois scorer Terrence Shannon, Jr.
The Wolves had two obvious needs entering the draft — a backup point guard who could score and an offensive-minded wing. Connelly got them both without trading away a key player. Matt Lloyd, the Wolves senior vice president of basketball operations, called Connelly's moves "savagery.
" He compared Connelly's ability to gather information to the famous meme from the movie "A Beautiful Mind." Lloyd even said Connelly's moves in this draft will create a template for cash strapped teams trying to improve without adding salary or free agents.
