Timberwolves reach agreement with Nuggets’ Tim Connelly to be Minnesota’s president of basketball operations

At the start of each of his business ventures, serial entrepreneur Marc Lore puts an intense focus on three facets — vision, capital and people.

And people, he often has noted, are the most important component.

“Bringing in the very best people in the world,” Lore said last fall, “and letting them do their thing.”

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, when it came time to select a president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves — of whom Lore became a minority stake holder in 2021 and, along with Alex Rodriguez, is slated to become a majority owner by the end of 2023 — Lore’s search started at the very top, and ended with one of the game’s most lauded executives joining the organization.

Tim Connelly has agreed to join the Timberwolves as their new basketball boss, a source confirmed Monday, leaving the same role in Denver to come to Minnesota.

Connelly is largely credited with the Nuggets’ ascension to a consistent Western Conference force. He is widely lauded by other executives, agents and beyond around the league.

He drafted two-time, reigning MVP Nikola Jokic — whom he flew out to Serbia this month to meet and hand-deliver Jokic’s 2021-22 MVP trophy — Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. to construct the Nuggets’ formidable big three. That was supplemented by later selection gems like Bones Hyland and Monte Morris, and Aaron Gordon, who Denver acquired at the trade deadline in 2021.

Denver reached the Western Conference Finals in the bubble in 2020, and seemingly has only been derailed by significant injury losses the past two postseasons. The Nuggets’ future looks as bright as anyone’s in the NBA moving forward.

So why would Connelly leave Denver? It seems as though the decision, which he took a couple of days to make, came down to compensation.

Lore has said the pursuit of the best people is made without concern for cost. You don’t cheap out, particularly not when filling your most critical positions. Connelly’s deal is worth $40 million over five years. That’s double what he was making in Denver, a source said.

The Denver Post reported the Nuggets countered Minnesota’s offer, but there was still a wide gap between the proposed compensations. Timberwolves majority owner Glen Taylor has a growing penchant for paying up for top executives. He did so with Tom Thibodeau in 2016, and now has again with Connelly.

Connelly comes from a basketball family, with all of his brothers also involved in the game at high levels. He has a wife and two children.

The Timberwolves will empower him to run their basketball operations as he sees best fits. Connelly met with Taylor and other Wolves’ brass over the weekend to earn the final, most important stamp of approval.

Now he takes over a Minnesota roster filled with promise, starting at the top with Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels. There are other young pieces and other key players that Connelly will be tasked to determine whether or not they fit into the Timberwolves’ puzzle.

Recently-extended head coach Chris Finch — locked in for the next four years — and his coaching staff are certain to work under Connelly for the foreseeable future. Will Sachin Gupta, who ran Minnesota’s basketball operations for the past eight months after Gersson Rosas was fired?

Finch — who spoke with Connelly during the hiring process — stumped for Gupta to get the full-time gig at the end of the season. Gupta was a strong candidate to take the position permanently, but now the question is whether he wants to stick around in a No. 2 role, and if Connelly also finds that scenario attractive. If he does, the Timberwolves will have one of the top executive tandems in the NBA.

A number of important decisions face Minnesota’s new head man at the start of what already is proving to be a transformational offseason for the Timberwolves.

Both his track record as Denver’s shot caller since 2013, and Lore’s track record of tabbing decision-makers, suggest Connelly is up to the task.

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