Is this real life? The Minnesota Timberwolves are the talk of the NBA world after a statement week that saw the league’s former laughing stock win four straight games, handing the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics their first losses of the season. Anthony Edwards and the Wolves led SportsCenter on Wednesday night as Scott Van Pelt’s “best thing I saw today” bit. The usual haters are falling over themselves to get on the Wolves bandwagon before it’s too late, and Timberwolves fans in Brazil are a little too horny for pre-Christmas basketball.
It’s a great time to be a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, and most of the hoopla is because of a suffocating defense and Anthony Edwards becoming the greatest basketball player of all time. Both are valid reasons for the end of the world as we know it. The Timberwolves are playing excellent, exciting basketball.
There are a lot of people contributing to Minnesota’s early success. But one player’s insane stat sticks out, pointing to how this team is changing its identity to succeed.
Mike Conley turned the ball over 43 seconds into the opening game against the Toronto Raptors. Minnesota’s first offensive play of the NBA season was Conley’s lazy pass that tipped out of bounds off Edwards. It looked like it would be a harbinger of the season to come. The same old sloppy, unprepared Timberwolves sleepwalking through a game against an opponent they don’t care about, racking up losses they could have avoided.
But out of that bad pass, something amazing is happening. Mike Conley hasn’t turned the ball over again since his turnover on the first possession of the season. The numbers I’m about to list are absurd for a primary ball-handler in the NBA. They are also a crucial reason the Wolves are 5-2 in the young season.
Conley has played 200 minutes across the last six-plus games without committing a single turnover. That’s 421 straight possessions without a miscue. It’s not as if Conley is running to the corner and barely touching the ball when he’s on the floor. He is Minnesota’s primary ball-handler when he’s on the court. Conley has touched the ball 448 times since giving the ball away on the first possession.
During this crazy streak, the 36-year-old point guard has also assisted on 30 made buckets, giving him an unreal 30-1 assist-to-turnover ratio to lead the league. Of every player who has committed at least one turnover this season, Conley has the league’s lowest turnover rate. It’s an amazing feat of composure and decision-making that I’ve probably jinxed and will end with Victor Wembanyama lurking as the Wolves take on the Spurs on Friday night. But Conley must keep his mistakes to a minimum as the season goes on to help stabilize the Wolves when things inevitably get tougher.
For as careful as Conley has been with the ball, the Timberwolves are 23rd in the NBA in turnovers. They turn the ball over almost 16 times a game, with Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns leading the way with 3.6 and 2.6 giveaways per game, respectively. Over the years, an overabundance of turnovers has been a hallmark of this young Wolves team. That’s why they brought in Conley in February. Conley has always been a caretaker of the basketball across his 16-plus seasons as an NBA floor general. He averages just under two turnovers per game in more than 1000 NBA games with the Memphis Grizzlies, Utah Jazz, and Timberwolves.
The pressure on Conley to keep his streak going is only increasing. Presumed backup point guard Shake Milton has struggled to begin the season, and a sprained MCL has sidelined Jordan McLaughlin for at least a few weeks. Edwards, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Kyle Anderson, and maybe even Jaden McDaniels someday will take their turns as primary ball-handlers when Conley sits, or Finch puts him off the ball for a spell. However, the Wolves need Conley to continue his sure-handed ways as long as possible.
The turnover streak will end sometime soon, and the Timberwolves will have to return to being the team that plays the best defense and produces highlight-reel dunks nightly. But for a few weeks in October and November, Mike Conley is amid one of the most interesting statistical streaks of the early NBA season that is directly attributed to Minnesota’s hot start.
Joe DiMaggio got a hit in 56 consecutive games. Brett Favre made 297 consecutive starts. And the Boston Celtics won eight straight NBA Championships. Now Mike Conley can add his 200 minutes and counting without a turnover to the record books. The Timberwolves should stop the game the next time Conley commits a turnover and hang a banner in the Target Center rafters right next to Malik Sealy and the Moon.
