“We Got Lucky We Got Our Guy.” | Tim Connelly Draft Day 2 Media Availability | 06.26.25

“We Got Lucky We Got Our Guy.” | Tim Connelly Draft Day 2 Media Availability | 06.26.25

can you just I mean how did the night unfold how did you see it from from the start there um yeah we were excited uh you know we’re trying to be flexible we have um obviously last night we were super excited to add um Behringer and we were trying to um you know maximize the pick we have a lot of young guys wake on the roster want as much flexibility as possible going to free agency so we’re trying to move around a little bit and then we super lucky to add uh Rockwell Zakarsski ATL kid out of Brisbane um you know 7 foot three no shoes uh was a compet very good competitive swimmer I think near Olympic level um prior to getting into basketball so we’re fired up um I think he’s certainly um a long-term play but a guy that trained locally so he has an appreciation for Minnesota really enjoys being a great workout with him and um we had him much higher on the board and again it’s it’s fun to add young players that energy and we’re fired up is he does he stay overseas do you think for a little bit Tim or like there’s a different options you know he could stay overseas certainly there’s um the G-League we want to maximize Iowa so we’re not sure um but we’re want to ensure that he’s going somewhere where his development continues tim I guess just as you were just analyzing how the draft unfolded overall um you stayed at 17 you moved around kind of what was the stay at 17 and sent Yan there what were maybe some of the moves that were on the table at the time yeah Yoan was I hate to say our guy because I’d be lying if I said he was number one on our board um the kid in Dallas is pretty good um but he was a guy that we were fortunate enough to have a workout with recently we followed closely it’s such a neat story i mean this is his first year playing professional basketball um literally started playing basketball because he outgrew his soccer cleat you know he’s a striker um and as we watched him more and more you know he goes to goes to Cedvita in Slovenia expecting to be a second division player to work on his skills and every time we watch him we’re kind of blown away with his instincts especially for a guy that’s barely played basketball defensively he was covering you know five spots and he’s you know very raw but really bright and has developed at a pace that quite frankly I’ve never seen for a guy that new to professional basketball so he was he was a guy when the night started and we were very fortunate he was there what is the value of those workouts especially I guess late in the process of just maybe I don’t know solidifying feelings or what do you what do you get out of those seeing a guy just up personal and getting a chance to talk i think talking to him is the best i mean we have a pretty good sense of what they can and cannot do um Yan came over late because he was in the Slovenian League playoffs but really talking to a guy and you’re not going to get to know someone that well in an hour or two hours but you do get a sense of what their expectations are both personally and from a team sense and he was wise beyond his years i’m sorry um I mean he went to Slovenia couldn’t speak English and now he’s speaks English probably better than I do um so like again the story is awesome i mean we’re not drafting because of the story but I I I was blown away relative to how little he’s played and how far he’s come and I you know this is I don’t know it’s my 29th to 30th draft and he’s one of the more unique players I’ve ever seen was there anything in the on court stuff where you’re like “Oh maybe that’s better than I even thought.” Well I you know he had a really hard workout it was kind of an old school workout in a high school gym we had Allonzo G kind of playing one and Allonzo played in the league for eight years so his defense is what allowed him play in the league for eight years respectfully um and it was a really hard workout in the end i said “Can you dunk from the free throw line?” And he dunked from the free throw line that was memorable with in today’s uh sorry defensive versatility is that probably the biggest thing that’s attractive to him right now the thing that he can do now is guard you know that’s a very tough league that league’s produced you know a lot of really good players countless NBA players have gone through the ABA league and his ability to guard not just five but all over the court he’s he’s one of the rare elite athletes vertically and laterally so I think he’s going to hang his hat on defensive versatility and offensively we don’t know what he is you know he’s right now he’s a he’s a sprint the floor he’s a lob threat he’s offensive rebound kind of a garbage garbage guy around the rim um but it’s really exciting and especially because we have such great coaches is he’s really malleable you know so however we want to develop him we can develop him he’s coming from a great development school instead of Vita they’re great great coaches um it’s just exciting to see a guy that has all these crazy tools and really no bad habits your second line guys are almost all of them are switchable and and that’s kind of what you’re looking for here i imagine gives you a lot more you know yeah i mean I think again you always love your draft picks time will tell but relative to his ability to guard multiple positions i don’t think we have any doubt um I I hope you you guys will see it soon in Vegas he’s just an elite elite athlete you know a lot of athletes are elite in one area they can jump or they can run but he can do both um and he’s he never gets tired you know he’s um from the soccer background um he’s you know really obsessed with his body and and trying to get better and better game i think 24 pounds this year so his ability to guard all over the court is something that really excites us tim can you just take us through the process tonight of moving around the board and obviously training back and then training back again the cast generations and everything goes into that i mean it was done with our present roster in mind you know we have some free agents we want to retain um certainly we have some first and second apron issues that we want to be cognizant of so there was players we really liked but you um you can’t get draft fever and just add add so when we kind of looked at the board and we were um aware of what the offseason might look like and essentially starts in a day or two um we thought moving down and picking up assets and assets that are down the line you know assets that hopefully we can utilize either with a pick or um in a trade so you know we’ve obviously trade a lot of picks so any any chance we have to kind of um restock some of the um the the pick inventory that we were lacking previously and also just keep those things in play um definitely it’s so so much fun but it’s sometimes it’s like when you buy a car then you drive off a lot you lose half the value so we want to keep as many balls in play so it was fascinating um again I think um it was fun the second night is kind of weird though there was a as the day progressed you know we’ve never had the 31st pick it’s fairly new um it was it was really curious how agent driven the second round became you know um I think we called players left and right and there was 20 deals done before the draft even started so it was fun it was interesting um you know 30 31’s fun but it’s maybe not as fun as we thought it was going to be yeah is it does that change does that become more of a thing now with this two-day system or you know it’s the first time we’ve had 31 i think everything except 31 is the same um but it was it was interesting it was you know I think um you just want to be as flexible and nimble as possible and we were lucky we look we walked away with a couple future assets we walked away with roster flexibility and we walked away with a guy in Zakarski that we had you know high more highly ranked in the 45th pick and a guy that has a real punches chance you know he’s um he he can while he can move really well for his size his dad was an Olympic swimmer um he’s a really unique project and you prospect and a really good kid you mentioned the free agent uh a minute ago sorry sorry Chris perfect can you can you characterize kind of those conversations with their agents kind of where you Yeah going into next week yeah very positive uh you know we have several free agents but certainly we have three guys in a rotation that could be free agents a couple guys with player options nquille will be free um all all you know deserving of um you know a lot of attention both here and outside these doors um um it’s exciting it’s what’s exciting is when you have a good team and the guys want to be back here so we’ll see you know we we have again we have some limitations financially we want to make sure that we um you know avoid that second apron um but we’re really really excited about um the direction of our team we’re excited that the guys who are free all want to come back tim what with the what’s the order of operations like for you where it goes the draft and then it’s free agency and you know like in this year you don’t know exactly what your other players are going to be on the roster when you’re when you’re drafting what what how does that come that’s a good question it’s become one to some degree i mean I you know there’s pre- agency is not a real thing but there’s the innuendo and rumors and you hear things it used to be a clear break all right the draft you breathe this is your family and then you go back to it now it just kind of melds into one um we’re in a unique situation our free agency is going to be primarily a focus on our own guys so we have a little more flexibility and freedom than we would if we’re looking elsewhere um but I’m very much looking forward to um four or five days from now and um kind of a little bit of normaly and just hanging out with the kids and and my wife because it’s um it’s non-stop for the last couple weeks tim do you think is it like mostly right now focused on your guys do you see any like trade scenarios that might come about for rotation types of players that that you’re Yeah we’re always talking i mean I wouldn’t believe all the rumors that always written the last couple weeks right but we’re always talking we’re always until we win it all we got to you know got to challenge ourselves right we’re we’re happy with the team but we’re still not content with the outcome last year um I I think after tonight the league kind of takes a collective breath and I think a lot of the um incumbent free agents will know soon are they going to stay or they going to hit the open market it’s an interesting market there’s not a ton of available capital for these guys um but it that that could spur even more and more trades so um you know we’re always talking we don’t have anything cooking at the moment but I think tomorrow morning you’ll see teams put up their depth chart and then those calls will start more earnest did you think you come in this week get a couple 18y old I I was I I was hoping to get like 14.4 combined and I achieved that goal that was the goal and we’re trying to really grow our both our Aussie and our French audience yeah um trying to get an Irish kid right now for summer league so that’d be cool he’s asleep as we speak um don’t forget the soccer swimmer crow yeah yes it is and you know Rocco’s dad they were German so there’s you know that’s cool as well um you know Rocco I just was told he can dunk without jumping which is a cool kind of a cool thing to do standing reach on that 97 okay yeah 97 it’s about three inches taller than your standing reach right no we’re excited i mean Bearinger was a guy that we focused on and quite frankly we didn’t think it was going to be there and we we were active trying to ensure we were going to get him and so much of it luck i mean the the draft board 16 really really good players went before him that’s that’s not said not not to say that you know we got the best player by any stretch but you know the the draft board fell a certain way we’re lucky we got our guy we think he’s an unbelievable piece to our young core i think he’s different than everything we have um you know he’s a five I think who can defend fours and he’s switchable maybe threes so that was a real focus we we could not be more excited for him and we had him unbelievably board and then when today started we were trying to really extend our our window of assets and add a player and you know we had we liked Roco we think he’s um you know he’s developed a really good coach in Australia i think I think you’ll be surprised to watch his skill set given his size um and we’ll cross our fingers these guys are going to work hard and hopefully in a couple years they’ll develop into um you know something that we can really trust and help us win more games tim you you went kind of bigger and not not point guard is it kind of more of a testament of what you think Rob can do for you kind of going into year two sure yeah i mean we were we were open to any position i guess it was unlikely at 17 the one position we probably would not look at was a straight two guard um you know with with our depth there um but we were going to take best available um with really not eye for fives and potentially ones but I think Rob looks fantastic i think he had moments when he played last year that were not just impactful for himself but they were impactful for team success which is really the ultimate mark for a point guard so we’re excited he brings a dynamic element that we we lack otherwise um I think we’ll have a bigger bigger role but I think the coolest thing about our environment right now is you got to earn it you know Finch has done a great job of challenging our young guys um where they all had moments especially um you know Shannon and Clark and and Josh and Rob and now how do you build off those moments and I think they’ve all created a bit more trust with the coaching staff which should allow them to take on bigger and more prominent roles do you think that trust is there with Dillingham to take on an accelerated role yeah I think it’s built to win right now yeah I think so i mean I think um you know we just saw that the championship team is very youthful the youngest team to ever win it all um I think our environment has allowed these guys to really grow even if it’s not always growing um in front of our eyes in the main games um and I I just trust that a handful of our young guys are ready to take that jump and I think Finch shares that same faith there’s different types of vibes you know you can have a a stretch five and with Rudy more of a a rim protector around the basket on offense it seems like you’re going to chase that way too do you feel like there’s a those guys become a little bit overlooked because in a way you’re kind of doubling down on not playing five yeah I don’t think with Behringer um it’s Rudy’s birthday today too happy birthday Rudy um how do you say that in French bon person went to a good school um yeah I it’s funny with Baron i don’t I don’t really know what he is i don’t know what he is offensively i mean he is you know he’s not going to shoot threes right now he’s a probably a he’s a decent mid-range shooter he’s has a pretty good handle and he’s really quick to attacking the basket um but to your point I don’t know you know the rage obviously was stretch big stretch big stretch bigs and tonight we saw how many bigs went most of them weren’t stretch bigs we saw Hartny’s impact obviously you know he doesn’t really look at at shots behind the arc anymore um so I think just get good players um but I do think switchability is something that is invaluable and I think Behringer as he grows up and kind of gets a more of a feel not just the game of basketball but the NBA um I think he could be as good a social defenders is in the league tim you heard Mark and Alex over the last couple days here talk about you know luxury tax and willing being willing to to pay that in your conversations with them as you maybe think about the long-term planning of you know whether you’re going to be a first a whatever it might look it’s going to require paying the taxes what are your conversations like with them when it comes to their willingness and ability to pay that not just this year coming up but future years i mean the those guys are go-getters that they’re unafraid of risk even having the draft from tonight more more and more let’s let’s take chances um I think the real impact on easy for me to say because I’m not writing the checks of the second apron is beyond these huge financial um penalties is it’s really hard to transact so we have to figure out we have no restrictions relative to building a championship level team but we have to figure out how do we self-govern ourselves um in you know with this you get the second apron you can’t you know you can’t aggregate you can’t it’s got to be dollar for dollar you can’t take cash back and there are all these things that um you know the whole league is learning it’s still a fairly new CBA so there’s nothing that we won’t have at our disposal to build a championship level team and relative to dollars I think it’s more is the cost justify it and can we transact in a way that allows us to stay flexible

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