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Timberwolves’ clutch-time offense is vastly improved this season. You can thank Mike Conley for that

jace frederick, pioneer press
·6 min read

Mike Conley and Chris Finch have both previously described a strong working relationship. Such a dynamic between point guard and coach is invaluable for a basketball team.

It’s especially important in winning time, when a possession here or there — and the decisions about what to do with it — can change a win to a loss, and vice versa.

Sometimes, in those moments, Conley said he will lean on Finch for play calls or directions. But there are other times when Finch will look at the 36-year-old veteran and ask, “What do you got?”

“And I’ll go out there and run something,” Conley said.

Saturday’s win in Charlotte, in which Minnesota turned a four-point deficit with fewer than five minutes to play into a six-point victory, was a case of the latter.

“It was more me feeling out the game and realizing what was working, and we kind of milked the same actions over and over again and took advantage of it in different ways,” Conley said.

It resulted in the Timberwolves scoring 21 points over the final five minutes on 5-for-7 shooting. Conley accounted for two of those made buckets, and assisted on two others.

“The guys just trust me with the ball, and I was able to make the right reads at that time in the game,” Conley said. “And coaches trust me to be able to do the same thing. So I just try to go out there and do my job.”

One at which he’s particularly adept. In the past 10 seasons in which Conley didn’t miss a large portion of games due to injury, five times Conley has led a clutch-time offense that finished in the top seven in the NBA in offensive rating.

That doesn’t include this season, in which Minnesota sports the seventh-best clutch-time offense. The Timberwolves are averaging 121 points per 100 possessions when the game is within five points in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime.

That’s a stark contrast to where Minnesota has been in recent years. The Wolves ranked 25th in clutch-time offense last season. They were 19th in 2021-22 and 21st the season before that.

Wolves fans will recall the three different fourth-quarter leads of 10 or more points squandered in Minnesota’s first-round playoff series loss to Memphis in 2022, an NBA record for a single series. Their clutch-time offensive rating in that series was 91.7

Finch said in the past that the Timberwolves’ clutch-time shots were often difficult jumpers that came from isolation situations. Remedying that weakness was a major focal point entering the season.

The primary difference between those Wolves and this team is Conley, a true floor general capable of controlling the terms under which the game is played.

Finch noted Anthony Edwards has done a better job picking his spots of when to score versus play make. In the past, Edwards was highly susceptible of falling into “hero ball” mode, as was D’Angelo Russell.

Conley, meanwhile, executes play calls that get the ball to the right guy in the right spot. That’s why, not counting Troy Brown Jr., who just recently entered the rotation, Conley sports the team’s best clutch-time offensive rating this season.

Minnesota has played nine minutes of clutch-time basketball since Edwards has been injured, which forced the ball primarily into Conley’s hands. In those minutes, the team is scoring a staggering 163 points per 100 possessions.

“He’s the head of the snake, a poised point guard, does a great job with executing and making sure we’re all in the right spots,” Brown said.

Conley said late-game offense is such a difficult thing for many teams to master because they’re changing identities on a nightly basis and never knowing who’s going to be “the guy.”

“Or some guys want to be the guy every night and it takes away from opportunities that your team could win because you’ve still got to be able to read the game. If you get double-teamed, can you make the right read? Can you trust a teammate to make the right play? Coaches, can they trust the players to do the right thing?” Conley said. “So it’s trickle-down effect from top to bottom. Luckily right now we have just a good connectivity going from our coaching staff to our players. We’ve been able to figure it out so far.”

It all starts with the floor general.

“I try to make it easier on everybody else, so they don’t have to think as much. I can do all the thinking and just put you in the right spot,” Conley said. “It’s about us repping those certain plays that we’ve done a million times and trusting each other in those moments. I was happy with the way we finished the last game (in Charlotte). We ran a couple of plays back to back to back that kinda got three different reads off of ’em and won that game. So I think guys are getting more accustomed to it and trusting each other during those times.”

Finch said he gives Conley “a lot of freedom” on what to call. The coach noted the Timberwolves have a lot of variance in what they can turn to offensively with the game on the line.

“We used to close games with the same type of structure last year and the year before a lot. Now we switch it up a little bit more,” Finch said. “Actions that get the ball back into Mike’s hands have been key for us, too.”

Where else would you want it? Finch said late in games is “absolutely” when it’s most beneficial to have a true point guard like Conley running the show.

“Luckily, I’ve been in this league long enough to have seen every single coverage, every single moment of a game,” Conley said “Understanding down four or up four with 10 seconds (to play), you can still win or lose that game. Like, how important just getting the ball in bounds can be at that point. Or getting the ball over half court with a certain amount of time on the clock to preserve a two-for-one situation,

“All that stuff has to be going on in your mind when those opportunities present themselves. It’s a lot to think about, but, like I said, luckily I’ve been around long enough to where you just look up at the clock, look at the score and you kinda revert right back to a moment and you be like, ‘Alright, I know what to do here’, and try to settle everybody in.”

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