The Minnesota Timberwolves’ final regular season game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday served as a microcosm of what this year has been like for this team – success matched with disappointment. Despite miraculously coming away with a 113-108 win and securing the 8th seed in the Western Conference, the Wolves still somehow managed to come out on the losing end of things. Jaden McDaniels fractured his right hand by punching a wall in frustration late in the first quarter, and Rudy Gobert threw a punch at Kyle Anderson in a heated second-quarter team huddle. Things spiraled a bit out of control, to say the least.
Less than 24 hours after the game, reports came out that Gobert would be suspended for Minnesota’s play-in-game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday and that McDaniels is out for the rest of this season. After the game, Chris Finch called Gobert and McDaniels’ actions immature. He also suggested that Minnesota’s poor record against sub-.500 teams was also a result of immaturity, disappointing for fans who fell in love with last year’s 46-win team.
The Wolves would go on to lose Tuesday night against the Lakers, 108-102, in an overtime game. While the Wolves came out surprisingly strong in the first half, the 2nd half and overtime went mostly the Lakers’ way. The Wolves’ offensive struggles, lack of depth, and inexperience all played a role in the Wolves’ letting that game get away from them after halftime.
It will be difficult for a relatively inexperienced team like the Wolves to overcome a day like Sunday and an arduous loss on Tuesday night. However, it is moments like these where a team should turn to an experienced and veteran leader. Thankfully for the Wolves, Mike Conley serves as just that for the Wolves during this crucial point in the season.
Following the turn of events in that final game against the Pelicans, Conley responded by saying, “We’ve got to be mature, especially late in the season like this. We can’t let our emotions get the best of it.” Conley also reportedly was one of the leaders in the locker room at halftime, calming the team down and regrouping.
Without this type of leadership, the Wolves could have easily folded. They may have come out the second half against the Pelicans totally deflated and lost the game to end the season at .500. Instead, the Wolves came away with what Conley called a “gritty” win and finished with 42 wins.
Conley was also arguably the best player on the floor in Tuesday’s play-in-game against the Lakers. While Anthony Edwards struggled immensely all night, Conley stepped up in a huge way, putting up 23 points on incredible shooting splits (64% from the field, 75% from three on 8 attempts). Conley’s biggest moment of the night would come at the very end of the 4th quarter. With the Wolves down three, Conley would get fouled on a three-point attempt by Anthony Davis. Conley then proceeded to knock down all three free throws, giving the Wolves a fighting chance now going into overtime. While the Wolves would lose in OT, it is moments like this that put on display how Conley could be an important part of Minnesota’s success in the near future, including in this year’s playoffs – if the Wolves make it.
Minnesota’s best players lack playoff experience. Edwards, 21, is in his third year. Towns, 27, is in his prime but has only made the playoffs twice and has had a rotating door of executives, coaches, and teammates. Conversely, Conley has now played in the league for 16 seasons and can provide the Wolves with a level of consistency and stability that comes from his substantial playoff experience. He has averaged 16 points, 6.5 assists, and 3.5 rebounds in 73 games in the playoffs in his career. Conley was one of the primary players for the “Grit and Grind” Memphis Grizzlies during the 2010s, which Conley helped lead to the playoffs in 6 of 7 seasons from 2010 to 2017.
Conley had good showings throughout most of those playoff runs with the Grizzlies. However, his best postseason performance arguably came 10 years ago during the 2012-13 season. In 15 playoff games, Conley averaged 17 points, 7.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. Conley was a +37 throughout those playoffs, and he helped lead the Grizzlies to the conference finals for the first time in the franchise’s history.
He experienced a small playoff drought on a couple of struggling Grizzlies teams from 2017 to 2019. But Conely returned to the playoffs in 2020 after Memphis traded him to the Utah Jazz. In the first round of the 2020 playoffs, Conley would miss the first two games due to injury. But he came back with a vengeance, averaging 19.8 points and 5.2 assists per game on amazing shooting splits (48.4% from the field, 52.9% from three). The Jazz eventually lost in a memorable seven-game series against the Denver Nuggets. However, Conley proved just how valuable he could still be in the postseason.
Conley and the Jazz returned to the playoffs in 2021 and faced Memphis in the first round. Conley would again show up in a big way, averaging 16 points and 8 assists per game. He had great shooting splits again (43% from the field and 49% from three). Conley helped the Jazz defeat the Grizzlies in 5 games. However, he would be mostly inactive for the entire second round of the playoffs with a strained right hamstring, and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the depleted Jazz in 6 games.
Last season, Conley and the Jazz made it to the playoffs once again and faced the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. While the Jazz would lose in 6 games to the Luka Doncic-led Mavs, Conley averaged 9 points and 5 assists per game with a 21-point outing in Game 3 of that series.
Conley, 35, may not be able to provide the consistently high level of production he could while with the Grizzlies or first couple of seasons with the Jazz. However, he could still offer this team immense value as a floor general and as a voice in the locker room.
In his 24 games with the Wolves this year, Conley averaged a solid 14 points and 5 assists per game on efficient shooting splits (46% from the field, 42% from three). Conley has also brought this team a source of savviness and leadership that can only be attributed to Conley’s extensive experience in the league and who he is as a person and teammate.
As a three-time NBA Sportsmanship Award Winner, and a former NBA Teammate of the Year Award Winner in 2019, Conley is one of the most respected and liked players around the league. Not only does he do an excellent job of helping to bring ease to a team during a difficult time, as evident during Minnesota’s final game on Sunday, but he also helps to control the pace of the game and run the offense when needed – something that could be dire for the Wolves come this postseason.
Ultimately, Minnesota’s success in this year’s playoffs will be determined by their young stars. However, a veteran and highly respected player like Conley will showcase his value to this sort of team more than ever during this portion of the NBA campaign. We can only hope that Conley is able to deliver a few more games as he had in Tuesday’s matchup against the Lakers (cross our fingers that one of those games will be in Minnesota’s next ‘win or go home’ play-in-match). But just having Minnesota Mike on the floor and in the locker room will be a big win for this Wolves team when the going gets tough during these playoffs and in upcoming seasons.
