Tim Connelly referenced studying team-building in different leagues as the Minnesota Timberwolves manage their roster in a new collective bargaining agreement environment with a more punitive system. Last week, the Wolves agreed to trade Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks as he enters Year 1 of a four-year, $224 million supermax extension in what many suspect was one to give them more roster and financial flexibility.
“I mean the new rules are … some of the consequences are unintended, quite frankly,” Connelly said. “I don’t know if anyone intended to make it this challenging to make moves, to make trades when you’re above certain aprons. But you gotta be smart, you gotta be lucky, you gotta hit on some of your draft picks and then I think you have to, as much as possible, build teams that can stay together for multiple years.
“Because I think there will be a lot of turnover just because of the finances becoming rapidly so big for some of these teams. I don’t know if it’ll be exactly like the NFL, but we’ve studied different leagues, we’ve studied the NFL extensively, how they’ve kind of done those things.”