A week ago Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly says he was “pretty confident” he would be working for the Timberwolves next season despite his name popping up in rumor mills as a potential candidate for the vacant presidential role with the Washington Wizards.
Given the opportunity by WCCO Radio’s Chad Hartman to slam the door shut on that possibility, Connelly said he’s “fully committed” to Minnesota but he again did not take the chance to quiet the speculation.
Here’s how Friday’s back and forth between Hartman and Connelly went.
Hartman: “Do you want to, right here, say without any hesitation ‘I am staying with the Minnesota Timberwolves no matter what.’ Or do you just want to be honest and say, ‘This is a unique job, this is home and at this point I cannot eliminate myself from that potential job opportunity’?”
Connelly: “No, I’m just totally focused on the Timberwolves, trying to get us better. We didn’t do better than last year. We gotta figure out how we can make this team better. Just left the office watching draft videos. All eyes are on the Timberwolves and how we can make this team better and hopefully the next time we have this conversation it won’t be this early in the season.”
Hartman: “Respectively though, that isn’t really answering the question, right? You could just say that, ‘I 100% will be the Wolves president of basketball operations next year.'”
Connelly: “Yeah, that’s certainly the plan. That’s why we came here and moved here. Again, we got a lot of unfinished business. It’s been a really fun year on and off the court and we’re fully committed to being a Timberwolf.”
I asked Tim Connelly twice if he would commit to staying with the Timberwolves.
Have gave two non-answers and did not definitively answer the question.https://t.co/BKSKvdVdHz
— Chad Hartman (@ChadHartmanShow) May 5, 2023
Four years ago, while president of the Nuggets, Connelly was reportedly offered a role in Washington’s front office but he elected to stay in Denver. His name has popped up in rumor mills since the Wizards fired president of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard, igniting questions that Connelly faced April 27 after the Wolves were eliminated from the playoffs and again Friday during his chat with Hartman.
Connelly is a native of Baltimore so the job in D.C. would be a homecoming of sorts, even more so considering he got his start in the NBA as an intern with the Wizards.
Connelly has four years left on his five-year, $40 million deal with the Timberwolves, which owner Glen Taylor has said includes a bonus incentive package.
