MEMPHIS – D'Angelo Russell had helped the Timberwolves survive the past two-plus months without Karl-Anthony Towns in the lineup. His shooting lifted the Wolves to a number of wins and kept them above .500 as Towns recuperates from a right calf injury.
But Towns is going to return eventually, and the Wolves are going to be a different team when he comes back. Anthony Edwards will need the ball in his hands. As will Towns.
Those are big reasons, according to coach Chris Finch, why the Wolves parted with Russell and brought in the lower-usage Mike Conley, who made his debut Friday in Memphis along with Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Finch said it was "bittersweet" to bring in Conley while Russell left for the Lakers.
"[Russell has] grown to have a lot of fans around the league and we were able to make a move that we felt matched us up a little bit better as we grow into this roster, get a little bit healthier," Finch said. "We get KAT back, Ant's ascendancy — we just kind of needed a connector. I felt we needed a guy who was a connector there. When you have a chance to get a guy like Mike, you don't think too much about it."
There's also a need for the Wolves to maximize Rudy Gobert on offense, and Conley brings three years of experience working with Gobert in Utah. Gobert said Wednesday he was happy the trade was happening.
"Rudy's been smiling ear-to-ear because I'm sure he feels he's going to get more touches in more appropriate places and times," Finch said. "They've spent a lot of time already connecting on the likenesses and differences in our offenses and how we can marry up some of the things that they did within the framework of what we already do. It's been cool to listen to those discussions."
Conley is a different style of point guard from Russell, and when Towns returns, Finch said they'll also need a point guard who can help "connect" Edwards and Towns. Russell could do that, Finch said, but he required the ball in his hands more.
"D-Lo had the ability to do that, but he was also a wired scorer," Finch said. "Ant and D-Lo developed a great chemistry over the last couple months, but we knew the future of our team looked a little differently too, and if we really wanted to evaluate anything that we've done with this roster, we felt like we just needed to re-balance that usage coming into that."
Edwards said Russell was "still my brother" and said he wished Russell would keep draining threes in Los Angeles.
"D-Lo never changed. He always was the same, man," Edwards said. "Still my brother. Still gonna talk to him. Still gonna play the game [video games] with him. I want him to go over there and do the same thing he was doing over here over there. Go over there and ball. I told him that and we going to stay connected. We playing him in a few weeks. We'll see him."
