The Minnesota Timberwolves have signed guard Mike Conley to a contract extension.
Per the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the deal is “a two-year contract extension worth $20.75 million overall.”
Conley, 36, is in the midst of his 17th season in the NBA, second with the Timberwolves, seeing action in 50 games (all starts), averaging 10.6 points on 44.4% shooting, including a career-best 44.2% from deep, 2.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 28.9 minutes per game. Conley has a career-high 6.08 assist-to-turnover ratio, ranking second in the NBA. Since 1977-78 (min. 50 games played), no player 36 years of age or older has had an assist-to-turnover higher than Conley this season.
Per the St., Paul Pioneer Press, “Conley has been a lynchpin for Minnesota’s massive success. The point guard — with his ball movement generation, lethal outside shooting and capable defending — has proven to be the missing piece that tied the Timberwolves’ two-big experiment together and turned Minnesota from a laughingstock into a title contender.”
The Ohio State University product has tallied four point/assist double-doubles this season and has dished out 10+ assists on five occasions. In the 118-103 Jan. 18 victory vs. Memphis, Conley added 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-6 from deep and a season-high-tying 10 assists. His performance marked his second 15+ point/10+ assist game this season (52nd career), both coming against the Grizzlies, and his first such game doing so while shooting 63.0%+ from the field (fifth career). While dishing out 10 assists against Memphis, he did not commit a single turnover, the second time this season with 10 assists and zero turnovers (Jan. 12 vs. Portland) and the 16th in his career. In the Timberwolves 128-91 win at Portland on Feb. 15, Conley ended the game with seven points, four rebounds, six assists, two steals and a career-high-tying three blocks. It marked the second time over the last five seasons where Conley has had multiple blocks and multiple steals in the same game (also Oct. 24, 2022, Utah at Houston). At 36y-125d years old, he became the second-oldest player in Timberwolves history with 3+ blocks in a game.
For his career, the 6-1 guard has appeared in 1,075 career regular season games (1,038 starts) with the Grizzlies, Utah Jazz and Timberwolves, averaging 14.5 points on 43.9% shooting, 3.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game. Conley has seen action in 78 career playoff games (all starts) and has averaged 15.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game.
Conley is one of only seven active players and 19 in NBA history to total more than 15,000 points, 6,000 assists, 3,000 rebounds and 1,000 steals (James Harden, Jrue Holiday, LeBron James, Kyle Lowry, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook).