[ESPN] Timberwolves seeking leap to NBA’s top tier, team president Tim Connelly says | “We know our competition is not going to sit still, and nor will we,” Connelly said. “If we mess up, we’ll mess up loudly. We’re going to try to be as aggressive as possible.”
Source 1 – The Associated Press (AP), filed through ESPN:
The message to the Minnesota Timberwolves from the championship tier of the NBA has been delivered clearly and forcefully with their elimination from the playoffs three straight times: You’re not there yet.
Nobody was listening more carefully than Tim Connelly.
“We have a lot of confidence in our guys, but it would be disingenuous to sit in front of this group and say we’re happy with the sixth seed, we’re happy with not being a home-court playoff team, we’re happy that our last three closeout games have been lopsided,” the Timberwolves president of basketball operations said Tuesday during his season-ending news conference.
“We have to be realistic about what we have, which is way more good than bad, but we know that we’re not good enough right now.”
[…]
“We know our competition is not going to sit still, and nor will we,” Connelly said. “If we mess up, we’ll mess up loudly. We’re going to try to be as aggressive as possible.”
The Timberwolves have the 28th overall pick in the first round and the 59th overall pick in the second round in this year’s draft, assets that won’t move the needle much in trade talks, so they will likely have to give up a key player or two to get one. The other disadvantage they have in building the roster for next season is the Achilles tendon injury to starting guard Donte DiVincenzo that will keep him out indefinitely in the final year of his contract.