It is fairly evident that Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley doesn’t have much time left in his career. While the point guard is moving up career leaderboards, it also means that he has been in the league for quite some time. Conley is preparing for his 19th season and will turn 38 years old on October 11. Minnesota would love to have a player similar to his archetype take his place in the lineup once he leaves, but players like Conley certainly do not grow on trees.
Mike Conley called the glue for the Timberwolves
Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo! Sports sat down with Steve Jones Jr. on his KOC Show podcast to give a preview of the Northwest Division. Jones Jr. had this to say regarding Conley:
"Mike Conley is the glue for this team in a sense because you might look at the play creation and say well they need more, but at the same time, he doesn’t need the ball in his hand as much, so Anthony Edwards is allowed to spread his wings, Julius Randle is allowed to spread his wings in a different way."
While Edwards isn’t yet on the level of a Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, we saw both the Bulls and Lakers use point guards similar in that vein. Derek Fisher was a great outside shooter who didn’t need a high usage rate. Likewise, with Jordan as he often played with John Paxson or B.J. Armstrong manning the point guard position.
Conley was more scoring-minded than any of those players earlier in his career, but has transitioned more into that role as he has grown older. The problem is that Conley has regressed (although still an accurate three-point shooter), and while it would be nice to replace him with someone like him, there are very few point guards like that around the league.
Conley season finished with career-low scoring average
In his 18th season last year, Conley put up a career-low scoring average of 8.2 points. The only other time that the 2020-21 All-Star averaged in single digits was during his rookie year of 2007-08.
Things got even worse for Conley once the postseason began. While the Timberwolves reached the conference finals for the second-straight season, Conley shot a miserable 30.2% from the field in the 15 playoff outings. He would average just 6 points and only reach double figures in scoring twice.
Many have their doubts about Minnesota reaching similar heights in 2025-26 due to the age of Conley (and to a lesser extent, Rudy Gobert). It isn’t yet clear if second-year player Rob Dillingham is ready to take on a much larger role after not much playing time as a rookie. Some even believe Chris Finch may turn to Donte DiVincenzo to be the team’s starting point guard, a player who isn’t a traditional point guard.
Tim Connelly hasn’t been afraid to make a big trade, and new team ownership has made it clear they want to win. If things aren’t going swimmingly to start next season, the team could be looking for an available point guard via trade, likely one that doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands all the time in order to succeed.