Tim Connelly’s Trade Record is FLAWLESS | Timberwolves Always Taking On the Right Amount of Risk

Tim Connelly’s Trade Record is FLAWLESS | Timberwolves Always Taking On the Right Amount of Risk

Hello and welcome in to another episode of Locked on Wolves. Today on the show, Tim Connelly has been largely mistake free but yet not really riskaverse as the Timberwolves president of basketball operations. I’ll talk about why that’s so important and what I mean by all that on the show here today. Welcome in. You are Locked on Wolves. [Music] You are Locked On Timberwolves, your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Wolves podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I’m the host of Lockdown Wolves. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Happy Thursday, everybody. Today on the show, I want to dive into a bit of a kind of high well, we’ll get a little in the weeds on Tim Conny’s tenure so far in Minnesota. It’s not like a full unpacking, but what really spurred this on is an ESPN article about the worst mistake each team’s made in the last five plus years in terms of front office moves. and Minnesota ranked toward the bottom half in terms of um their moves. Their worst move wasn’t actually all that bad. And I actually still think they messed up where they ranked it. We’ll talk about that in a second, what it was, why I don’t necessarily agree. But then that also got me thinking like, hey, look, that wasn’t even a Tim Connelly move. It was a Gerson Rosas move. Tim Connelly has been largely mistake free. I want to talk about specifically the trades he’s made and uh o over his tenure. We’ll close the show with a couple of Wolves notes here for the last couple of days. So all that is coming up here today. A big thank you off the top for making Locked on Wolves your first listen every single day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find Locked on Wolves. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV. All right, so first let’s talk about this article and and I want to talk about a trend that emerged as I was looking through this article. Um, so the title of this article on ESPN is all 30 NBA teams biggest roster mistakes since 2020. So that goes back to the beginning of the calendar year of 2020. Of course, trade deadline of 2020 is included in that. That offseason of course being the COVID offseason. So weird offseason there. Um, so it’s like five and a half years is is ultimately what it is. It includes an extra trade deadline and offseason in there. Um, so the bottom like the least consequential what they’re calling small scale problems. will give a couple examples like Cleveland was 30th. Their biggest mistake was declining as a Hartinstein’s qualified offer in 2021. Nobody knew he was going to be as good as he was. Um, and they, you know, the Pacers at 29 hiring Nick Bjorkin Bjorkrin as their head coach. That felt like it could have been a little higher, but it was only a one year allowed them to then hire Rick Carile. The Knicks signed Evan Forier for four years and 73 million, uh, 28 and on and on and on. The Timberwolves are number 16 on this list within the category entitled draft disasters or I’m sorry they’re actually first of the next tier. So that goes up through 17. Tier three is miscellaneous mid-tier mistakes. So Minnesota’s 16 out of 30 in terms of teams that have made like the 16th worst mistake is what they’re saying. One per team, right? And the move that they have listed is trading for D’Angel Russell in 2020. Now remember that deal Minnesota, you know, it there were a lot of guys involved. It was, hey, we need to find somebody that can play off of Carlton Towns. We need to find a pick and roll partner for Carl Anthony Towns. We need to make sure Cat’s happy and wants to stay in Minnesota. That was definitely a little piece of it as well. Remember that trade was um was Andrew Wiggins along with picks, one that ended up becoming Jonathan Kaminga. um that remember it was protected top three and then it ended up conveying because it was a se the seventh overall pick and the Warriors got Kaminga with it and then a second round pick that same year. So, a first and a second in Andrew Wiggins. The Wolves got Jacob Evans and Amari Spelman along with Russell. I don’t believe either. I think Spellelman brief No, Spellelman never played in a game. I think Evans briefly played in regular season games with the Wolves. That was the trade. And then that was on the heels of the massive trade they made with Denver, of course. Uh, ironic there where they traded out um, Robert Cington. Well, that was actually that was a 14 trade. That was Robert Cington, Jordan Bell, Kada Bates, Shabbaz, Napier, Novonlay. They got back Malik Beasley, Juan Hernang Gomez, Jared Vanderbilt, and picks. That was a much better trade. This DLO trade, it’s interesting. It doesn’t stand out. Like, I wouldn’t have guessed that was their biggest mistake. I would have thought that they would have gone with one of the draft picks. Like, they’ve obviously picked guys that haven’t panned out like um I think Jared Culver was the 2019 draft, so it would have like that just missed this this um this list. But it like it just never felt like obviously Russell didn’t work out in Minnesota in the sense that they eventually moved on from him anyway. But it was hard to really argue with that at the time given what the Wolves were giving up and it was kind of a change of scenery thing for both and and I don’t know like I it just seemed like a like a weird move to pick and also to rank at 16th. So then I started looking at the teams that were in the top 10 on this list and nine of the top 10 are just straight up trades are just bad trades taking on bad money. Number 10, by the way, is committing $400 million to Paul George and Joel Embiid. And I know that one was a resigning and one was a free agent signing, but that I’ll put that in the big swing category, right? Number nine, the Bulls trading for Nicole Vuch. Number eight, the Grizzlies trading for Marcus Smart. Number seven, the Hawks trading for Dejante Murray. The Pelicans. number six trading for DeJonte Murray um who I’ve never been a big fan of and has has been a bad trade for both of those teams or or was acquired in a bad move for both those teams. Number five was the Kings uh messing up the Hallebert and Fox situation. Number four, the Nets trading for James Harden. Number three, the Bucks trading for Dame Lillard. Number two, the Suns trading for Kevin Durant and Bradley Bill in the same year. And number one, the Mavericks trading away Luca Donic. So, nine of the top 10 were straight up trades and eight of the top 10 were acquiring somebody in a trade, like making an active choice to acquire a star for the team. Okay. Now, remember when the Timberwolves traded for Rudy Goar, we’re going to talk about this in in the context of Tim Conny’s moves, and that was in summer of of 22, just a couple months after Tim Connelly was hired by the Timberwolves. at the time people many people hated it for Minnesota and what was it Rasillo or was it Simmons I don’t know one of those guys on on the Simmons show were talking about how this was one of the worst trades in NBA history like nobody’s saying that now people may still argue it was an overpay and and I I will hear that argument fine they gave up a lot of picks right they’re still paying in picks however it can’t be one of the worst trades of all time when the team improved and went to back-to-back conference finals just can’t Then the next year immediately they were slightly worse and that was just because of the acclamation period for Rudy injuries etc. really young Anthony Edwards year two Anthony Edwards they were the eight seed that year after being the six seed the year before but then consecutive conference finals in years two and three to go bear. So that cannot be one of the worst trades of all time. And I want to talk a little bit about well actually we can do this now why it was obviously not a bad trade for Minnesota. it. Sorry. In the moment, I understood the the weeping and nashing of teeth over the value that the Wolves placed on Rudy Gobear, but the reason why it wasn’t a massive risk and not in the same category as a lot of these other trades on this list is because Rudy Gobear as a player is the ultimate floor raiser. We’ve talked about that before on the show, but he’s only been on a not top 10 defense one time in his career. Like, he’s a walking top 10 defense. And for a team that was middle of the pack defensively prior to his arrival and prior to that even worse. Um that made a ton of sense. He’s a floor raiser defensively. Like he is a known quantity trading for aging Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to be the second star somewhere where he’s never had to be the second real star. Um that’s a huge question mark. Trading for Damen Lillard at that point in his career. That one maybe is is was a little less risky and it ended up obviously not good. Trading for James Harden is always a risk. I don’t care who you are. Trading for DeJonte Murray at that point in his career, nobody really knew what he was, a massive risk. Trading for Marcus Smart, if you’re the Grizzlies and you already have John Morant, um, trading for Marcus Smart and obviously injuries were a part of this, still a little bit risky. That one I’d maybe put in the same category as Dame were like turned out worse than maybe you would have thought of in the moment. Trading for Vuch. I mean, that was a weird kind of like we don’t want to fully tank thing for the Bulls. Obviously a mistake. Like there was no world in which Rudy Gobear wasn’t still going to be a walking top 10 defense. The question was the cost that you gave up to acquire him. And in Tim Conny’s mind, the cost to improve the Wolves from a borderline playoff team to a floor of a 56 seed with a a much higher ceiling because of the anchor because because the floor is raised. The ceiling is also raised for what you can be if you’re a top three defense like they were two years ago, their first conference finals year. Um, it was not that big of a risk. It was only a risk in terms of, man, you gave up a lot of picks for this guy, but Goar was always going to be good for the next two to four to five years. And, and hopefully that continues to be the case. Has he regressed a little or not regressed? Has he aged a little? Sure, everyone does. But he’s still a walking top 10 12 defense. There’s no question about that. I want to talk about some of the other moves that Tim Connelly has made and why it’s I mean like you had to go back to the previous regime to find a bad trade for this list is what ESPN had to do. We’ll do that here next. Today’s episode of Locked Out Wolves is brought to us by our title sponsors at FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action, so why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. You can use FanDuel to track your favorite matchups, no matter what sport it is you’re following this summer. The app will keep it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. It is super easy to use. They pay out fast and they make even regular season games, which in baseball, we’re about to be in the dog days of baseball. Not every game feels super meaningful. It’ll make them feel like mustwatch events. If you’re placing the same game parlay, maybe the most exciting thing you can do, or you just want to watch your bet ride into the ninth inning, FanDuel will make it feel like you’re part of the auction. If you’re new to FanDuel, new customers can bet just five bucks and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit FanDuel.com to get started. All right. Um, so going through time, like I I spent a little time clicking through. I like using proports.com. I know that sounds weird, but like it’s I like the way it’s formatted. It’s got everything laid out. You can sort by draft pick transactions. You can look at future pick. It’s a really like little random plug there for this site. Proportransactions.com is great. So, you go through the Tim Connelly tenure and I literally just kind of click through every page on this. Um Tim Connelly starts off with the bang, right? Like first he’s got to deal with the draft. I’m not going to get into every draft trade transaction. Like I’m I’m talking beyond that. I’m not going to get into extensions. I really just want to focus on trades today. Um so like in that first draft he messed around. He got the Josh Minot pick. He he acquired the pick that eventually became Jaylen Clark. The following year he of course drafted Walker Kesler or traded up to draft Walker Kesler. Um or I’m sorry he didn’t trade up to get him. He drafted him drafted window Jr. He did trade up for that selection which I mean you could argue that’s his worst move was actually packaging assets future secondary on picks the rights to Tai Tai Washington who obviously hasn’t been a player either to trade to draft Wendell Moore Jr. who never turned into what they thought he could be. But then that July, so like less than two months after he was hired, he hauls off and makes the go bear trade. He trades out Beasley, Beverly, Bal Marorrow, uh Jared Vanderbilt, the rights to Walker Kesler just been drafted and four future firstrounders, three future first rounders and two future swaps, a ton of stuff, right, to get Goar that and the moment everyone thought was an absolute disaster. What other trades has he made? Well, um, his next trade he made at the following trade deadline, so the following February was a slam dunk of a deal and it was the other side of the D’Angel Russell deal. Remember that whole offseason, he had to answer all these questions about are you going to trade DLO and the whole thing. And everyone kind of figured he would because DLO is not a Tim Connelly guy. Like you, if you know Tim Connelly, you know what he’s looking for. He’s not looking for a guy who’s empty calories offense and lack of days defense. He’s a big guard, which Tim likes. He’s, you know, good passer, which Tim Connelly obviously likes out of his point guards. Um, who doesn’t? But like he wasn’t a long-term fit in Minnesota. What did he do in a three-team trade? He sends out DLO and that’s all he sends out. He acquires Mike Connley, Nikquil Alexander Walker, and three second round picks, which is just crazy. That’s just an insane trade. And in the moment, I liked it because I thought Mike Connley was a better fit for Minnesota. I thought Nikil was a throwin. I think everyone did. Uh, you don’t have to go far to find that. I I think I did like a half segment on Nikquil at the end of the show after that trade happened. I like the second round picks that he got. I was like, “Look, straight up, I would have done conley for DLO because of the fit for Minnesota, not because like and in the moment, my argument at the time was in a vacuum, you could still argue DL is a better player than at the time what, 35-year-old Mike Connley, 34y old Mike Conley.” Like, I thought you could still make that argument. But for Minnesota as they were constructed, getting a guard who is better as a in the team concept defensively and a true I know DLO is a veteran and guys like DLO, but like a guy that could really lead the team and help them take that next step. And clearly Chris Finch didn’t trust D’Angel Russell. Remember the playoffs prior before Rosas came on board when they lost to Memphis? That was the series when he played Jordan Mclofflin over DLO down the stretch in game five. He didn’t trust D’Angel Russell. He wanted to move off of him. Chris Finch did. So, the trade made a ton of sense and it’s aged spectacularly. Easily one of the best moves that’s been made by uh by Tim Connelly to date. He didn’t make another trade for a while like a lot of draft moves and again I don’t want to get into that. A lot of you know free agency type stuff. The next trade was the following trade deadline. No trades in the offseason when he traded for Monte Morris. Now, this one was a bit more of a wash because he traded a pair of guys who were going to be free agents anyway and Troy Brown Jr. and Shake Milton and he did trade a 2030 second round pick for Monte Morris. Monte Morris was actually good for the close in the regular season for Minnesota. Wasn’t great in the playoffs and and was never consistently part of the rotation. Chris Finch never really seemed to trust Monte Morris either. And clearly the I think it was a quad or hamstring he had injured with the Pistons in the fall was lingering and even since then with Phoenix and elsewhere the there just hasn’t been much there yet or left for Monte Morris. That one was kind of a whatever trade and in the moment it made a lot of sense and it didn’t really hurt Minnesota. They didn’t give up any real assets and Monte Morris was not the reason Minnesota got to the conference finals nor was he the reason they lost in the conference finals. So kind of a nothing trade. And then the next trade was in the draft last summer where Minnesota did take a big swing, but it’s still it’s similar to the Go swing in that there’s limited at least limited immediate actually in some ways it’s the opposite, right? Because the Go trade there was immediate backlash. Like how could you trade all these first round picks for Rudy Goar? But at the same time, it was safe because Rudy had a floor of a walking top 10 defense or whatever. this trade there’s no immediate backlash because you’re trading a 2031 first round pick and the option to swap in 2030. So nothing for at least six years and no tangible assets for seven years. And so nobody’s going to be like how dare you do that. They got the A pick in the draft to draft Rob Dillingham. So while there’s certainly volatility in that and we’ve seen it in the last what 13 months with Rob Dillingham. He’s not a rotation player yet. We saw the volatility but you know some good signs in summer league this year. We don’t know how that’s going to play out, but the risk is relatively limited. Nobody said this is a bad deal. You’re talking about an asset seven years in the future. And so they got Dillingham for the swap of 2030 picks and the 2031 first round pick. That’s a good trade. Unless Rob Dillingham takes a hard left turn and is terrible this year, that’s a good trade. Even if he turns out to be a, you know, a a good backup point guard, instant offense off the bench, that’s still a good trade based on what that asset’s worth way down the line. some signing trades mixed in there, the Kylie Anderson thing. So, you know, I don’t really want to spend too much time thinking about that. The Wendel Moore Jr. trade to get a second round pick back, which was um you know, essentially getting him off the roster and getting something of an asset, even if it’s a limited asset back. And then, of course, the cat trade, which the jury’s very much still out. And while that was risky in terms of you’re trading your second best player, the EVA of training camp, there’s also a flaw on that one too because Julius Randle’s still an all-star player. And what was the worst case scenario? They were a 500 team this year and actually they were only what four games better than 500 when it was all said and done in the regular season. They still went to the conference finals. So could it have absolutely tanked the team? Yeah, I guess so. But you got back two good players for one really good player and your roster didn’t get obviously worse. You probably got deeper over you did get deeper overall because it was a two for one and you avoided the second apron issue and some of the stuff they would have had to deal with this summer. So, I was critical of the trade at the time and and you could still, you know, it’s hard to quibble too much as they did go to the conference finals, but like you could still not like it, but it was always not that dangerous of a trade. Like Julius Riddle’s a good player. Dante Dez is a good player. This is another again I Tim Connelly is not risk averse. He’s just really smart. He’s pushing the right buttons, pulling the right levers, knowing that none of these moves he’s going to make. There isn’t a massive downside to any of them except for the immediate reaction to the Rudy trade, but he was paying the price that he felt it would take to take Minnesota from a borderline playoff team to a solid playoff team with a chance to be a championship team. And that’s exactly what he did. And he said, “I I’ll I’ll do a slight overpay here.” And the funny thing is, you look at the other team that Tim Connelly ran, the Denver Nuggets. Both of these teams are teams that the national media and and others will tell you they need to take a big swing because they’re not going to win in free agency, right? They need to acquire a superstar via these big trades or they’re not going to they’re not going to be able to win because they can’t sign the big free agents. What did we talk about in the first segment? Nine of the top 10 of these bad moves were teams taking big swings and taking big swings as a you know making a trade. And actually if you want to add in the others those are free agent moves free agency related moves. none of them are drafting somebody because the draft as much as it as much as it’s terrible to swing and miss with a top four pick or whatever. Um, you’re not you don’t want to burn through assets, don’t get me wrong, but you’re not hamstringing your franchise for the future years because you drafted the wrong guy at number three or number four. And in Tim Conny’s case, he’s right more than he’s wrong. And there have been draft misses, but look at how many draft picks he’s acquired. He was the one that picked Nicole Yokic in the second round. He certainly had some misses, more so with Denver than than so far in Minnesota. We talked about missing on the window more pick, but again, if you’re missing with the late first round pick, there’s a lot less consequence there. And he certainly I know Ant was a Gerson Rosas pick. That was pretty much a slim dunk with that selection. Um, but everything else Tim Connelly has done has been a measured risk in the trade market and he hasn’t given out crazy contracts that aren’t tradable later. What have I said after every extension? the first Nause extension, the second Nause extension, the Rudy extension. These are all movable contracts. There are no Albatresses albatresses on this on the books for Minnesota. Tim Connelly knows what he’s doing. He knows what will be a movable contract later and what will not be a movable contract later. And every that the roster has been malleable. It’s it’s a puzzle that can can mix and match. There’s multiple windows that have opened and closed. what whatever analogy you want to use, Tim Connelly has done the right things in nearly every one of these trade situations. Um, and obviously jury is still out on on what he’s done so far this off season, the extensions for Randall and Nas and letting Nikil Walk, but there’s a lot of evidence to suggest this dude just is really really good at what he’s doing. And you look at some of these other terrible moves that teams have made, a lot of them by regimes that are still in place in their respective markets. Timber are lucky to have Tim Connelly. I want to talk about another couple Wolves news and notes things. Uh switching gears here as we close out the show. And that’s what we’ll do today to close. All right. Um couple of notes here. First, I didn’t I meant to bring this up on on Wednesday’s show and I I forgot to do it, but Taran Shannon Jr. was um rightfully justifiably named to the first team for all summer league. It’s not just Vegas, it was summer league and the the Salt Lake City one. And uh Terry Shannon on on the first team along with Jordan Miller from the Clippers, David Jones Garcia from the Spurs, Kyle Philip Powaskky, of course, second year player from the Jazz, and then Nick Clifford, who I liked and I picked in the mock draft, uh the locked on mock draft at 17 for the Wolves. Um, Nick Clifford was on the first team for the Kings. Second team was Ron Holland with the Pistons. Isaac Jones with the Kings. Conppel of course the Hornets who won the uh the championship in Vegas. AJ Mitchell with the Thunder and KJ Simpson with the Hornets. Um, like we talked about this at at at length. There’s not a whole lot else to say about TJ Shannon other than he did exactly what was asked asked. And he also like I talked about looking like a pro, looking the part on the floor. I it’s fair to remind everyone the dude’s 25. Like he’s five, six, in some cases seven years older than some of these guys that are on the floor. Um like think about that. He’s seven years older than than Jean Binger and Roco Zakarsski, which is crazy. And he has a full year as a pro, five years in college. That’s all true, but it’s on him to improve from last year to this year. And he did that. The shot obviously looks better. He does all the stuff we expected him to do really well. the the the playing hard in transition, competing defensively, working on the glass. Um, and then the facilitation and distribution looked that much better, which is what I was looking for most. Um, and obviously again the shot looking really nice. Like I expected that, you know, as a reminder as a prospect, you know, look at Illinois, it was more volume and and, you know, rangebased terms of distance from the rim that like TJ could pull from anywhere, but the accuracy wasn’t as much there, partly due to the volume. And if the accuracy like he he’s unlikely to be a true star at the NBA level in part given his age but also the team he’s on like he’s not likely going to score 20 a game at least in the next couple of years at the NBA level. He could kind of be a late bloomer. Maybe he gets an opportunity in the future with the Wolves or someone else to to have more of a scoring role. I think he’s more of a bench spark plug plug at this point. All that to say the catch and shoot percentage is going to be paramount for him. like can he catch and shoot at a 42 43 plus percent clip that’s where he’s going to get a lot of those opportunities and then also if he can facilitate a little bit play the nikil roll off the bench and have some 20 point games here and there remember he did when he started against the Lakers this year I think that’s all very doable for TJ Shannon and what we saw from him in summer league absolutely suggests that he could do just that uh which is super encouraging so congrats to him for getting first team in the uh in the Vegas summer league and then the other thing would be the New York Knicks were granted position permission from the Timberwolves to interview Pablo Pion about joining Mike Brown’s coaching staff. Of course, Pidgeone has been in Minnesota uh for a long time now, like six seasons. He was hired by Ryan Saunders and and it was I think the only or maybe one of two holdovers on the actual coaching staff to Chris Finch’s staff and uh Pion has the opportunity to interview with the Knicks now. Of course, he played for the Knicks for three plus seasons um you know, several years ago, so perhaps there’s more appeal to playing there. and you know, maybe he’s he’s already a front bench assistant, was the offensive coordinator under Ryan Saunders, like he’s got a nice job in Minnesota, but if he ends up like as the lead assistant or whatever, um I’m sure there’d be some attraction for him to go to New York and do that. So, congrats to Pione for getting that opportunity. Um, you know, I I think it’s a there’s already been some turnover on the Timber’s coaching staff, too, so that’ll be something else to keep an eye on. Typically, it feels like mid late August is is kind of when we start to get more traction on who’s on the coaching staff. They’ll do a press release eventually between now and training camp less than two months away of course um on you know who ultimately is on the coaching staff, front bench assistance, etc. here in the next few weeks. So that’s something we’ll keep an eye on here as we move forward. Um that’s all I got today. And uh what what we’re going to do here over the next week or so, we’re still daily through next week is we’re going to have a couple of guests. We’ll talk off season to this point. Still a couple of roster spots open for Minnesota. So what could they look to do? Of course, once they do that, we’ll have um a lot to kind of break down. What impact could it have on the rotation? If it is somebody like Abalco Brogden, would he be in the rotation or are the Wolves going to go more somebody who knows that they’re going to have a bench role, a Luca Garza role, a deeper bench role um where they’re not expecting to have a rotation um rotation role, I guess. Um so, that’ll be something to keep an eye on because they could go either direction there still. And uh I’m curious to see what they do. So, we’ll obviously talk about that on the show here in the next couple of weeks, too. Um, okay, that’s all I got for you today on the show. Big thank you for making Locked on Wolves your first listen every single day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find Locked On Wolves. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV. A reminder, you can also follow an X at Lockdown T-Wolves. Don’t forget the T and also at BB Beacon with two B’s, two E, CKN. And a reminder that for your second listen, you can check out the Locked on NBA podcast. Our guys Doug, Matt, and Hayes will keep you informed all offseason long up to date on everything. Contract negotiations, rumors, anything and everything. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube, wherever you listen to podcasts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And again, a reminder that we are daily through next week and then in August, we’ll go to three shows a week here at Lockdown Wolves. So, we’re with you throughout the offseason. We’ll get you to midepptember with the Timber’s final report for media day training camp and the whole thing. Um, schedule releases in there. Man, there’s so much that still happens over the next couple of months. The NBA is almost as good as the NFL is like keeping people engaged year round. There’s so much going on still. Um, of course, Lockdown Wolves is also part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Remember, the Lockdown Network is your local experts on all the biggest stories. Once again, I’m Ben Beacon. This is the Lockdown Wolves podcast and we’ll catch you next time.

Tim Connelly has yet to make a bad trade since taking over the Minnesota Timberwolves — an incredible track record that shows more about Connelly’s ability to be judicious than simply being risk-averse. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) breaks down the full list of trades that Connelly has made thus far, and just how calculated he’s been, from the Rudy Gobert trade to the Julius Randle move last year. Turns out, he knows exactly what he’s doing. Plus, notes on Pablo Prigioni and Terrence Shannon Jr.

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FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)