Twelve players in NBA history have played 20 seasons in the league, and Mike Conley proved to himself during this year’s playoffs that he can be the 13th.
“Who knows what that looks like,” Conley said Saturday morning during his exit interview, “but definitely, it’s going to happen.”
Many times this season, there were moments where it seemed likely this would be Conley’s last year in the NBA. Even the morning after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season-ending 139-109 loss in Game 6 to the San Antonio Spurs, one of Conley’s sons told his dad he was glad that he was done playing basketball for good.
However, Conley had to break the news to his youngin — he still wants to play, and he proved to himself down the stretch this season that he is still capable. Conley also proved that the Timberwolves still benefit from having him on the roster.
“I think I might have proved to myself that I can keep playing a little bit longer,” Conley said.
The night before this year’s regular-season opener — Conley’s 19th of his career — Finch approached him and Anthony Edwards about an abrupt decision he wanted to make, swapping Conley for Donte DiVincenzo in the starting lineup. Finch hoped to ease some pressure off Conley, get more shooting alongside Edwards, and allow Minnesota’s star to take on more of a lead-guard role.
Overall, that change worked. The lineup of DiVincenzo, Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, and Rudy Gobert played 710 minutes together in the regular season, more than any other 5-man lineup in the league. During those minutes, the Wolves registered a 118.8 offensive rating (3.2 points better than the team’s regular-season average) and a 110.9 defensive rating (1.6 points better than the regular-season average).
However, as Finch looked back on that decision Saturday morning, he believed the abruptness of the altercation set the Wolves and Conley behind schedule.
“It was also in an effort to preserve Mike,” Finch said during his exit interview. “But it hurt Mike’s ability to find any kind of consistency throughout the season.”
Over his three and a half seasons with the Timberwolves, Conley has been willing to man whatever role that makes the team better. However, he admitted this was a challenging year for him.
Conley’s role changed drastically right before the season, and his minutes were sporadic. When he did play, Conley struggled to find a rhythm and was a negative asset on offense. Then, the Wolves traded him at the deadline to the Chicago Bulls. He didn’t know what was next for his career until the Wolves re-signed him two weeks later. But when he rejoined the team, Conley wasn’t playing at all.
With his career in the twilight years, Conley wasn’t sure what the future held.
“It was just a lot to kind of soak up and try to figure my way through it,” Conley said. “Because you just didn’t know when opportunity would be there, or when you get a chance. Just try to stay ready through it all.”
Still, Finch had never lost confidence in Conley. Ask a Wolves fan about that earlier this season, and they might have told you Finch has too much confidence in him. However, that built up confidence helped Conley down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs, where he played some of his best basketball of the year — a level that proved he still has gas left in the tank. Gas that the Wolves still need moving forward.
“There’s always a role for Mike Conley,” Finch said after Minnesota’s 104-102 Game 1 win over the Spurs, where Conley scored 12 points on 4 of 7 from deep with 6 assists.
Conley finished the playoffs averaging 4.4 points and 2.7 assists on 50% from the floor and 50% from deep in 14.1 minutes. He played in every game for the Wolves, starting in five after Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles and Anthony Edwards suffered a hyperextension and bone bruise in his left knee, which caused him to miss two games and be limited to a minute restriction in his first two games back.
As they navigated those injuries, the Wolves greatly struggled to generate offense against San Antonio’s aggressive, connected defense. Players missed shots and turned the ball over frequently. But not Conley. He connected on threes and set up quality offense for the Wolves when nobody else could.
Conley finished the playoffs dishing out 32 total assists to just five turnovers, the third-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the playoffs.
Finch also praised Conley for his defense in the playoffs. Conley is physically limited at this stage of his career. Battling through screens and chasing players around the court is difficult for him now.
Still, a big reason why Finch leaned so hard on Conley both in the regular season and playoffs is that he can also count on him to make winning plays on defense and never has to worry about him deviating from the defensive game plan by making the mistakes that plagued the rest of the Wolves this season.
Naz Reid called this year’s team moody. Finch doesn’t think the team was disciplined enough. And through all of that, the Wolves didn’t build championship habits in the regular season. They didn’t build the habits that Conley has had for years. The habits he has been trying to get his teammates to recognize as important as he does.
“It’s something that you don’t just flip a switch for,” Conley said. “It’s something you have to inherently have or want to do from training camp on. And it just becomes a part of you. I think those are things we battled back and forth throughout the year.”
Conley will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. During his exit interview, he wasn’t sure where he would be playing next year, but his focus is on winning a championship. The Wolves want to get him one, and Tim Connelly should try his best to keep Minnesota’s veteran floor general on the team next season.
Conley will almost certainly make the veteran’s minimum, which would be relatively easy for the Wolves to swallow. Joe Ingles — who the Wolves had on a veteran’s minimum — is reportedly finishing his pro career next season in Australia.
The Timberwolves don’t just need Conley around to be a leader behind the scenes like Ingles. The playoffs proved Conley is still a valuable chess piece on the court — a dependable ball handler with high IQ. Conley believes it is important for championship teams to have as many players like that as possible. And even if he doesn’t get consistent minutes next season, or if the Wolves make a move for another guard who will eat up most of the rotation minutes alongside Ayo Dosunmu, keeping Conley in Finch’s back pocket would be a good thing.
A few months ago, that statement wouldn’t have been true. Conley seemed to regress hard as his time in the NBA neared its close. But he proved to himself that he can make it to Year 20, and he proved to the Wolves that he should hit that milestone with them.
