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The Minnesota Timberwolves and team president Tim Connelly have reportedly agreed to a restructured contract that will keep him with the team through the 2024-25 season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
Per that report, “Connelly’s opt-out clause has been moved to next year.”
Connelly went from being the general manager of the Denver Nuggets for nine seasons to being hired as Minnesota’s president of basketball operations in May 2022 to a five-year, $40 million deal that also included ownership equity.
Jon Krawczynski @JonKrawczynski
Connelly could have opted out now with the ownership situation in flux. This agreement allows him and the Wolves to focus on a critical summer while also giving Connelly some flexibility to see how the fight between Glen Taylor and Marc Lore/Alex Rodriguez will play out.
He almost immediately made a major splash, trading Patrick Beverley, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, the draft rights to center Walker Kessler, four first-round picks and a 2026 first-round pick swap to the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert.
That trade raised eyebrows at the time, given that the Wolves already had Karl-Anthony Towns on the roster. At the time when more teams were going smaller, preferring perimeter shooting and long, athletic, 3-and-D wings, Minnesota zagged, choosing to go with a two-big lineup instead.
But the Wolves have made the playoffs in two straight seasons and reached the Western Conference Finals this year, upsetting Connelly’s former team in the process.
“I think when Connelly made that [Gobert] trade, everybody was laughing at him like, ‘What is he doing?’ But he made a great team,” Nuggets center Nikola Jokić told reporters in early May. “I think he deserves the credit for doing that, and of course, the coaching staff are making sure things are working. And I think they are a really dangerous team.”
Jon Krawczynski @JonKrawczynski
Tim Connelly says “that’s the goal” to stay in Minnesota long term. He has the ability to opt out of his contract soon.
Says his family feels roots starting to form here in Minnesota.
Granted, some of Minnesota’s success has to be attributed to the skyrocketing star power of Anthony Edwards. And while the team’s big lineup was perfectly built to stifle the Nuggets, it struggled against the smaller, more athletic Dallas Mavericks, led by late-game closers in Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving.
But the Wolves are clearly a team on the rise, and Connelly has them pointed in the right direction.
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