On his most recent podcast, Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo discussed whether or not they thought the Minnesota Timberwolves overpaid Tim Connelly to be their next president. The Wolves offered Connelly a 5-year, $40 million contract with ownership equity to leave the Denver Nuggets.
After discussing his track record, which we broke down here, Simmons revealed that he pitched former Wolves president Tom Thibodeau on Minnesota in 2016.
“I don’t think I’m talking out of school,” Simmons told Russillo.
“I talked to Thibodeau when he was trying to decide what to do after the Bulls and about different teams because we have mutual friends, and they were like, ‘Hey, you know the league so well, why don’t you just talk to him and lay out – just tell him what you would do if you were him.’
“And I looked at all the teams, and I decided Minnesota was the best situation, which I don’t think I’m the only one who would have thought that at the time. This was heading towards the summer of 2016.”
“You still thought you had something really special with [Andrew] Wiggins and [Karl-Anthony] Towns,” Russillo added.”
“Yeah,” said Simmons. “It was Wiggins, Towns. It was cap space. Towns seemed like he was at least as much of an asset as somebody like Anthony Davis.”
“Good airport,” joked Russillo.
“It seemed like Wiggins was already, he was like 21, and he was already scoring 20 points a game,” said Simmons.
“Great Chick-Fil-A in the airport,” Simmons added in jest, acknowledging Russillo’s joke. “I think that’s important. But it just seemed like the best kind of situation. And he picked it, and I was like, ‘Great move by him.’
“And then they get Butler, and then you think, ‘This is awesome,’ and it all falls apart within a year. So the situation can look great.”
Simmons probably wasn’t wrong. Towns and Wiggins had just won Rookie of the Year in back-to-back seasons, and they had a strong nucleus. Ricky Rubio, Nemanja Bjelica, and Gorgui Dieng were good complementary pieces, and Tyus Jones was a reliable backup point guard.
Thibodeau blew it all up after a year, trading for Jimmy Butler and loading the team with many of his former players. A more patient GM may have seen if he could have won with the nucleus he had, but Thibodeau was in win-now mode immediately.
Simmons and Russillo seem sold on the Wolves right now, too. Will Connelly do any better with this core? Time will tell. But Minnesota is no longer an afterthought in league circles.
Leave a Reply