Chris Finch Sold on Tim Connelly After Watching Him Work Wolves Draft

The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the midst of an offseason that has a lot of moving pieces. Most of the movement, so far, has been by addition. They hired a new President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, but retained (for now) interim PoBO Sachin Gupta and most of the key members of the previous front office.

The new PoBO and tenured executives then “collaborated” (a lot, just ask them), to produce four new draft picks, two of which were first rounders expected to contribute immediately. So now, Mayo Clinic Square is overflowing with front office executives. And the roster has more young talent than minutes available.

Finch: Offseason is in good hands.

But there’s still plenty of time to shake and bake the depth chart this offseason and if you ask Chris Finch, he isn’t concerned. Not after watching Tim Connelly work the draft room last Thursday. In an interview he did on Monday with KFAN Radio‘s Paul Allen, Finch made it clear how impressed he was watching Connelly work in his element. His praise starts at the 00:50 mark of the video below (transcribed underneath).

“It was awesome to watch Tim and his guys work, you know. We had about an hour and a half of complete boredom and then it was like somebody hit the start button. Tim was wheeling and dealing and they had a half-dozen guys on the phone. Moving up, trading back, all kind of assessing the deals on the fly. He knows the board. He knows the value of players, he knows the value of picks. He’s got such great relationships across the league that it was easy to do business on the phone, on the clock. You only get that, Paul, through trust. When your colleagues trust you then they’re willing to do business with you in those short moments. And that speaks highly of Tim and the relationships he’s built and how good he is as a dealmaker.” – Chris Finch – KFAN Radio (video above).

In Tim Connelly We Trust

We were told about Tim Connelly’s draft expertise when rumors of his hire started floating. But Chris Finch has been all over the world and he’s seen front office executives operate at every level. If he’s blown away by the way Connelly operates then Minnesota Timberwolves fans should be excited about what’s coming next.

Finch was most impressed by the trust Connelly has built up with other executives across the league. He attributed that built-in trust to why Trader Tim was able to maneuver around the draft board with relative ease last Thursday night.

Now that the draft is over, Tim Connelly has more ammo at his disposal. And the time of year is perfect for more “wheeling and dealing”, as Finch described it. Let’s hope Finch’s trust is foreshadowing a run of moves this offseason that pushes the Wolves into the next gear.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan