Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Michael Scotto: The Minnesota Timberwolves have expressed interest in extending team president Tim Connelly, league sources told HoopsHype.
The Mavs had preliminary interest in some current lead basketball executives of other franchises, particularly Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, sources said. However, the Mavs moved on in part due to doubts that the Timberwolves would grant permission to engage in discussions with Connelly, who has one season remaining on his contract.
Marc Stein: STORY UPDATE: As the week progressed, even before Minnesota Timberwolves' Game 6 win, sources tell @TheSteinLine there has been a growing resignation in Dallas that permission to speak with the Wolves' Tim Connelly in search of a new head of basketball operations is unlikely to be granted.
Within league circles, there’s a strong belief that Dallas will eventually pursue Timberwolves president Tim Connelly for their lead executive position. Amid that buzz, the Minnesota Timberwolves have expressed interest in extending Connelly as their lead executive for the foreseeable future, league sources told HoopsHype.
League sources say that the Mavericks continue to have strong interest in the pursuit of Wolves lead executive Tim Connelly, who is suddenly awash in plaudits given how much damage two players he traded for — Rudy Gobert and Ayo Dosunmu — are inflicting upon a third-seeded Denver team that Connelly also largely assembled. Dallas is searching for a new head of basketball operations and, while Connelly is said to no longer hold an opt-out provision in his current contract, belief persists in various league circles that there are scenarios that would render him "gettable" once Minnesota's 2025-26 season is complete.
Advertisement
Vinny Benedetto: Stan Kroenke and Alex Rodriguez have been chatting for a good 15 minutes now. Tim Connelly and Josh Kroenke talked before TC greeted Zeke Nnaji, Aaron Gordon and others in the Nuggets organization.
Per Tim MacMahon of ESPN, Tim Connelly stands as the "primary target" for the Mavs for their basketball leadership role. But the possibility of hiring the top executive would be challenging given his current contract status and duties for the Minnesota Timberwolves. "He has a job. He had an out in his contract last year. He does not have an out in his contract. So, the Mavericks would need to get the Wolves permission to even talk to him, much less hire him. At this point, I don't know what the likelihood of that is," MacMahon said in the Howdy Partners podcast. "That's not the kind of thing you find out while a team is in the playoffs. Frankly, the Mavericks want to make this hire by mid-May, which I would hope—this is an absolutely critical draft. It's the last time they control their own draft pick on Cooper Flagg's rookie contract. The next time they have their own pick under control is 2031."
Some names have begun to emerge as potential candidates for Chicago’s lead executive position. Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd, who began his career working for the Bulls, is a rising executive who’s been on the radar of several teams over the years. One factor to consider is whether the Bulls would want to hire another one of Tim Connelly’s right-hand executives after hiring Karnisoves, who worked for Connelly in Denver. Ironically, Tim’s brother, Pat, also remains on staff as Chicago’s assistant general manager.
Chris Mannix: Sam Presti's not leaving Oklahoma City for Dallas. Brad Stevens is not leaving Boston for Dallas. Could Tim Connelly be in the mix? I think maybe. We'll see how his situation plays out in Minnesota. There's a lot of moving parts out there. I think Koby Altman is someone to keep your eye on in Cleveland. Something could potentially be in play there, but this is really ownership you know, coming out and saying, well, like wow, we've got this job. Let's go big game hunting. Let's go shoot for the stars there. But I think the two biggest names are not in play. Connelly, Altman maybe. I also wouldn't dismiss Jason Kidd as a candidate for this job. I mean, Jason Kidd is very well respected for what he's done in Dallas. And he's very well liked by ownership. And if he wasn't the head coach of this team doing a great job developing Cooper Flagg, he might be in consideration more strongly. But I think the only thing holding Jason Kidd back or or preventing him from being a real candidate for this job is the fact that Dallas wants to keep him on the bench and wants to keep some stability with Cooper Flagg in his second year in the NBA. But I would still keep my eye on that. I think that's something that Jason is, let's say he's interested in. I would say he's very interested in that job in Dallas.
It is likewise believed that Dallas would have strong interest in Minnesota's Tim Connelly if Connelly were to leave the Timberwolves at season's end as some rival teams have forecasted. The Mavericks recently hired former Wolves executive Ethan Casson as their new team president on the business side, establishing Casson as a natural advocate for Connelly. The Wolves, though, are said to be eager to hammer out a long-term extension with Connelly after back-to-back trips to the Western Conference finals.
Advertisement
Jon Krawczynski: Tim Conelly on motivations behind the Dosunmu trade: "I think we have a real puncher’s chance to win a championship."
Jon Krawczynski: The Wolves deal for Ayo Dosunmu emerged late in the process. The Bulls weighed several options, including keeping him or moving him elsewhere, before Tim Connelly came over the top with his offer. As late as yesterday evening, this wasn't looking like a real possibility.
“Lucrative career paths” emerged on Wall Street, according to Connelly, who tried to keep Wallace from leaving the business of basketball by pitching him on a front office job with the Nuggets. Wallace has described it to The Post as “basically an intern” position. “I called him, like, ‘We have an entry level job. I don’t know where it’s gonna lead. Certainly not as well paid as some of the options you have in the business world. But I think you’d have a lot of fun,’ ” Connelly told The Post. “I said, ‘The only thing I can promise you is you’re gonna learn a lot and have a lot of fun. Above and beyond that, there’s no promises. I don’t know what your career might look like. But those two things are here, and they’ll be here.’ ”
The two men who are now tasked with bearing that superstar burden, longtime Nuggets executive Ben Tenzer and former Minnesota Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace, are seated on metal folding chairs to discuss their widely-celebrated first summer together as co-heads of the new Nuggets front office. There’s no mention of the seats being hot — not yet, anyways — but they’re well aware of the pressure that comes with this position. Truth be told, they see it as a privilege. “There’s an obligation to it,” said Wallace, a former Georgetown point guard who spent his last six seasons (three in Denver and three in Minnesota) with the architect of the Nuggets’ celebrated core, Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations and former Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly. “The word ‘pressure’ just keeps coming up, (but) I don’t think of it as pressure. I think even when you sit and talk with Nikola a lot of times, he’s very upfront about what he needs. He (gives) that reassurance that you’re on the same wavelength of him in terms of seeing the game from his perspective, and seeing what the team needs to be successful. He’s so unselfish, so you want to take advantage of that white hot space.”