Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly feels “unbelievably fortunate” after landing Leonard Miller and Jayen Clark in the second round of last week’s NBA Draft.
“Toughness. Competitiveness. As people, you guys should pat yourselves on the back, pat your support systems on the back, everybody swears by these guys in terms of what they bring to the building everyday,” said Connelly when asked what Miller and Clark bring to Minnesota. “Positivity. High IQ. Just guys you want to be around. So, I think, we got two of the most competitive, toughest guys in the draft. If you’d have told us when the night started we were going to walk out with Jaylen and Leonard, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
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“Ideally you just keep adding talented players and quality individuals, they certainly check both of those boxes,” Connelly said about mixing the young and veteran core of the Wolves.
“There’s no linear path to a perfect roster but we think if we can keep adding guys who can play, who are really good people, who are self-motivated people, who are competitive, who care, I think our time will come sooner rather than later. On Thursday night we had no expectations that we’d get these two guys but I felt pretty fired up Thursday night and I know these guys are excited to be here.”
The Wolves selected 6-foot-10 forward Leonard Miller with the 33rd pick in the draft. Miller chose to play for the G League Ignite instead of the traditional college route, averaging 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds last season.
“I always work so hard and I’m always working towards these things that’s happening to me. And so when it comes I don’t get surprised or rattled by it, I just keep working towards the next,” Miller explained. “That’s just always been my approach. I just stay level-headed and don’t let it phase me too much.”
With their second pick in the draft the Wolves selected National Defensive Player of the Year Jaylen Clark from UCLA. Clark suffered an Achilles injury at the end of the last season that kept him out of the Pac-12 tournament and March Madness, but he’s on the mend with a team that has a big picture mentality with him.
“It’s just another stepping stone,” said Clark. “I’m not the first to go through this. There’s people that went ahead and made their return. Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant all of them have something different about them. Their work ethic wasn’t as normal as other players that didn’t come back from it. So I’m just ready to work. I was telling Tim [Connelly], in my mind I’m walking around here like, ‘Ok, we’re like 3-4 months away from the season but in my body I’m like 7-8months away.’ So, yeah, I’m just going to be in here working every day. Trying to get started rehabbing tomorrow and just get this process going.”
When he is health, Clark plans to focus his energy on being an elite defender.
“There is a lot of people that feel they need to save their energy for offense and they just don’t give love to it [defense],” said Clark. “It’s easy when you see a screen to just run into it and say ‘I got hit.’ It’s hard to get around it and stay with your defenders. So I just have that constant will and I take it personal. I didn’t get scored on very much in college. I never got my ass busted. I wasn’t that guy. I know it’s going to be different in the NBA. Obviously, you see a guy like Steph Curry or somebody like that that’s different. You can just contain those guys. I just take every matchup personal. Whether that’s in practice, the G-League or in an NBA game, that’s all the same to me.”
