Mike Conley’s successful layup with 1:50 to play in Minnesota’s 116-114 home loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday night was Conley’s first clutch time points of the season. He also had a 3 with nine seconds to go, doubling his number of clutch field goals. Still, this remains the only game in which Conley has scored in clutch time this season.
Until Monday’s game against Sacramento, Conley had gone 0 for 6 from the field, including misses on both his 3-point attempts. He has a career-low in points and minutes played this season, which may surprise supporters who already feel as though Chris Finch relies on Conley too much.
Conley’s regression at age 37 has been brutal, though not surprising, given that smaller guards often fall off as they age. The incredible longevity of players such as Steph Curry and Chris Paul makes it easy to forget that for many players, the mid-to-late 30s is the point when the speed and athleticism of the game simply them by.
However, it means the Wolves have a genuine problem at point guard and potentially an issue to address before the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Finch still trusts Conley despite cutting his minutes; Conley is playing four minutes fewer than last year. It’s also clear that Finch doesn’t fully trust Rob Dillingham to play in key moments despite the spark and excitement his game provides.
Until he got hurt, Donte DiVincenzo had plugged the gap between the past and the future. The Wolves were without a recognized point guard, but Julius Randle’s ability to play point forward meant the starting five were already less reliant on Conley’s ball handling.
While DiVincenzo and Randle are out for an undetermined period, it complicates matters ahead of the trade deadline. Both players can share the ball-handling load while playing alongside Anthony Edwards. Despite an efficient 30-point game against the Kings, Naz Reid doesn’t offer the starting unit the same level of ball-handling as Julius Randle, even if the overall fit and 3-point shooting is much better.
The Wolves are already looking at a complicated trade deadline, given they must decide if they want to keep Randle and allow him to exercise his $31 million player option or risk losing him for nothing in the summer. They must also decide if they want to re-sign Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
At the 2024 trade deadline, the Wolves sent Troy Brown Jr. and Shake Milton to the Detroit Pistons for Monte Morris, which gave them some degree of insurance at point guard. They did so even though they had more point guards on the roster. Jordan McLaughlin was usually in the rotation, and Kyle Anderson regularly played as the primary creator.
However, after McLaughlin, Anderson, and Morris left in the offseason, the Wolves lost their ball-handling insurance.
Conley’s regression and Rob Dillingham’s inexperience mean there’s almost no way that the Wolves can compete for the NBA title this season as it is currently constructed. Therefore, it might be wise to pivot the plan slightly to make the roster more competitive or look to build for the future.
The results will probably look the same by continuing to play Conley for 25-30 minutes a night, including in crunch time. If they wish to change direction, the Wolves can either attempt to bring in a point guard via trade using Randle’s deal or other pieces or embrace the youth movement and give more opportunities to Dillingham, particularly in crunch time when the offense completely dries up.
If the Wolves continue to play the way they’ve played, they are likely heading for their third play-in appearance in the last four years. They might finish slightly hire in a messy Western Conference, but they will be some way off the most competitive teams in the league. Competing for an NBA hampionship with a regressing 37-year-old and a teenage rookie as your point guard options is impossible.
While Randle will be the focus ahead of the trade deadline, his ability to play at point forward and ease ball-handling duties on the Wolves guards must be considered. They must explore a trade for a new competent point guard.
The position is an issue right now, and this team’s consistency and crunch-time issues will continue to plague them until they address it.