Timberwolves takeaways: What did we learn from Tim Connelly’s end-of-season press conference?

Tim Connelly opted to stand instead of sit for his end-of-season news conference Monday.

So the Timberwolves president of basketball operations stood at a microphone stand in a little studio adjacent to the Wolves’ practice facility at Mayo Clinic Square for about 25 minutes to break down his team’s season and talk about possible directions for the next few weeks with the draft and free agency looming.

The Wolves have the No. 17 and No. 31 picks in the draft; they also have three key potential free agents in Julius Randle ($31 million player option), Naz Reid ($15 million player option) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (unrestricted free agent).

Here are some of the key answers and takeaways from Connelly’s remarks.

Connelly moved an opt out in his contract last summer as he awaited how the Wolves ownership situation was going to play out. Now that that’s settled, and Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are set to become controlling owners, Connelly seemingly put to rest any concerns that he would leave.

“Super happy here,” Connelly said. “It’s been great, not just as working with the team, but this whole community really feels like home. I think you guys are stuck with me.”

The Timberwolves spent the season as a team above the second apron of the NBA’s luxury tax.

That means they were subject to roster-building restrictions, such as the inability to aggregate salaries in trades, to take on more money in trades than they send out, the freezing of draft picks to use in trades in future years and the inability to use mid-level exceptions.

“You can dip your toe in, but you don’t want to be there too consistently because it just gets so punitive,” Connelly said. “It’s not just super expensive.

“We have great ownership this year that allowed us to spend a lot, a lot of money. But it’s so restrictive with deal making, so how can we be sure that we’re as nimble as possible? I wouldn’t say it’s a steadfast, ‘We’re definitely going to be out of it,’ but if we’re going to be in it, we’re going to be in it for a good reason.”

The Wolves have made moves over the past year — the Karl-Anthony Towns trade and Rudy Gobert extension — that signal they may want to dip back under the second apron, which they can accomplish this offseason. But that depends on their appetite for bringing back their own free agents or making a potentially huge trade.

Related to the second apron issue, Connelly said the goal is to “keep everybody” when it comes to bringing back Randle, Reid and Alexander-Walker.

“What’s neat is the players are all very happy here,” Connelly said. “They love the coaching staff, they love the teammates, they love the community. When the player wants to be here and the team wants to have them back, there’s always room for optimism.”

But there are a few dynamics involved.

Bringing back all three likely would push the Wolves into the second apron. One thing that might operate in the Wolves’ favor when it comes to retaining Reid and Randle is other teams’ inability to spend money above the midlevel exception. Alexander-Walker figures to be a popular target for multiple teams to use that money, around $14 million per year.

“Certainly these guys have finite windows to earn a lot of money,” Connelly said. “We’re very appreciative of what the market might look like. We’re pretty cautiously optimistic we’re in a good place with all of the guys. Most importantly, they want to be here.”

Edwards received a lot of external criticism from talking heads on television and podcasts for how he navigated this postseason, but he’s still in a rare spot among players his age — at 23 he has now been in the playoffs four of his five seasons with two conference finals on his résumé.

Connelly was complimentary of how much winning Edwards has done, and addressed what kind of players the Wolves need around him.

“Two-way players, certainly. … The sky’s the limit,” Connelly said. “We think he’s going to be one of the best players of all time. We think he’s on that track. This summer will be even more challenging for him as we raise the bar, not just personally but collectively as a team. I think with Anthony, his ability to play on both ends mandates that you got to play on both ends.”

One of the hallmarks of Connelly’s tenure in Denver was consistency and continuity. He built through the draft and modeled the roster around a core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.

One of the hallmarks of Connelly’s tenure in Minnesota has been his willingness to shake things up, with the Gobert and Towns trades examples of that.

“Given my druthers, I’m always kind of airing on the side of continuity,” Connelly said. “Patience in professional sports is largely nonexistent. Those organizations that can show patience tend to have a really high level of success. But patience shouldn’t lead to risk aversion.

But the Wolves are prepared to move forward with the core this season’s team in tact if a big move doesn’t materialize or is too costly for the Wolves. They won’t make a move just to make one, as the Towns trade showed. They didn’t pull the trigger on that one until the Knicks made Donte DiVincenzo available.

“There’s something that if we have to shake it up and make us a better team, we’re certainly open to that … It took us a while to get acclimated [after the Towns trade] and we look forward to returning the core next year and hopefully go a bit further,” Connelly said.

Finch gets plenty of flak on social media and in the comments sections, well, any time the Wolves lose a game. Connelly doesn’t have the knee-jerk reaction of the fan base, and has heaped nothing but public praise on Finch since inheriting Finch as his head coach when he came here.

He did so again for the job Finch did this season.

“His ability to identify how this group can best play at a high level together is as good as anybody I’ve been around,” Connelly said. “It’s not easy what we’ve tasked him with the last couple of years. ‘Hey, here’s Rudy.’

“Last year, coming off a 56-win team, here’s two new faces and we’re going to send out Karl, who’s one of the best players who’ve ever played here. So it’s a testament to [Finch’s] intelligence, his ability to be creative and to coach any group we put in front of him.”