Preparing for his 19th NBA season, Mike Conley will turn 38 years old on October 11. Utilized as the Timberwolves' full-time starting point guard since joining the team, it’s fair to ask how much longer he should be in that role. While they have Rob Dillingham waiting on the bench, it’s not yet fully clear how he’d handle a much larger role. There is a point guard still available in free agency that has been linked to the Wolves and wouldn’t look out of place in the starting lineup.
Malcolm Brogdon has been a rumored free agent target
That point guard is Malcolm Brogdon. The nine-year veteran is 32 years old, so he certainly has less mileage on his body than Conley. Brogdon has won hardware in his career as the 2016-17 Rookie of the Year and 2022-23 Sixth Man of the Year.
Now, last season was far from Brogdon’s best while playing for the Wizards. He missed the start of the year after thumb surgery and the end as well with an ankle sprain. Altogether, the 6-foot-4 guard only appeared in 24 contests.
Brogdon had his struggles from outside connecting on just 28.6% of his three-point tries. That can be seen as an outlier, though compared to the rest of his career, and it came on a rather small sample size (56 attempts). The previous two seasons, he combined to shoot 43.1% from beyond the arc. Brogdon made 39.1% for his career before last season.
Otherwise, he continued his nearly flawless shooting from the foul line with Washington. His 6.3 assists and 19.5 points per 36 minutes are higher than his per-36 career marks. As a larger point guard, Brogdon has always done solid work on the glass. He nearly had an assist-to-turnover ratio of greater than 2.5, right along the lines of what he has done throughout his career.
Brogdon provides more upside than Mike Conley
At this point, Brogdon is much more capable of creating his own offense than Conley. While the latter is still a capable outside shooter, he often relies on others to help get him those open looks.
Unfortunately, injuries have often been part of Brogdon’s career, not just last season. In 2023-24, while with the Trail Blazers, he only played in 39 games. Since his rookie year, Brogdon has only appeared in more than 56 outings in two of eight seasons.
While that’s a major issue, it’s not necessarily a huge risk to bring him in. Signing him for the taxpayer mid-level exception at a little over $5.5 million or on a veteran minimum isn’t an enormous investment. At this stage of his career, he provides more upside than Conley. If/when Brogdon misses games, they still have Conley and Dillingham to turn to.