Mike Conley liked The Palace of Auburn Hills.
The Detroit Pistons’ old home opened in 1988, and they played there until moving downtown in 2017 after Detroit replaced Joe Louis Arena with Little Ceasars Arena. Conley remembers “The Palace” as an old-school Midwest basketball arena. It had charm and character despite lacking the history of Chicago Stadium, the Boston Garden, or Madison Square Garden.
Conley moved from Fayetteville, Ark., to suburban Indianapolis before junior high. Conley followed those Indiana Pacers teams with Reggie Miller, Jermaine O’Neal, and Metta World Peace. He remembers the Malice at the Palace, a brawl between the Pacers and the Pistons on Nov. 19, 2004.
He entered the league in 2007-08, the year Kevin Garnett won the NBA championship with the Boston Celtics. Kevin Durant won Rookie of the Year that season. He was playing for the Seattle SuperSonics, Conley’s favorite team as a kid because he loved Gary Payton. Conley, 37, has played against Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.
His teammates think he’s old.
Donald Dillingham and Lia Tailele gave birth to Robert Deon Potasi Dillingham on Jan. 4, 2005, a year after the Malice at the Palace. Rob Dillingham was two years old when Conley entered the league. He grew up in Hickory, N.C., and averaged 21.2 points, 4.9 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game as a sophomore at Combine Academy in nearby Lincolnton. That year, Conley made his lone All-Star team at age 33.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are in between point guard eras. Conley is winding down, and Dillingham isn’t ready yet. Conley is averaging 8 points on 34.9% shooting while making 36% of his threes – all career lows. His 4.4 assists per night are also near his career low. Time may be catching up to an ageless player.
“I’m still trying to find it individually,” Conley said after going 0 for 4 from the floor and 0 for 3 from three in Minnesota’s 119-105 loss in Detroit on Saturday, which dropped them to 17-17 on the season.
“I’m trying to pour everything into these guys right now, as far as just helping each individual guy get through whatever they’re going through. I’m trying to keep this team headed down the right path and not allowing us to fall into some really bad habits that can lead to a tough season.”
Conley is a facilitator by nature. He’s always been a team-first player, which may be why people have overlooked him throughout his career despite playing on the popular Grit ‘n Grind Memphis Grizzlies and being the league’s highest-paid player when they extended him in 2016. Conley is supposed to create offensive flow while preparing to hand the reins to Dillingham, who the Wolves traded up to draft 8th overall this year.
However, facilitating offense is difficult on a team that lacks scoring outside Anthony Edwards. He had a career-high 53 points on Saturday, but his teammates didn’t help him much. Julius Randle had 17 points and 6 assists. Naz Reid was Minnesota’s next-highest scorer with 9 off the bench. Without outside shooting from Donte DiVincenzo, Jaden McDaniels, or Nickeil Alexander-Walker, teams can take space away from Edwards or let him score and stifle the rest of the offense.
Edwards accounted for 50.5% of Minnesota’s scoring, a franchise record. However, it’s not a winning formula. Finch didn’t believe Edwards’ scoring led to stagnated offense in Detroit, which set off alarm bells in the national media. Instead, poor ball movement and lazy shot selection led to a second-quarter drought that the Wolves couldn’t overcome.
“When we did generate some good movement, we didn’t make the shots,” said Finch, referring to the second quarter when the Pistons turned a 33-28 game after the first 12 minutes into a 52-35 lead with 2:20 to go in the second. “There was a time we took a bunch of one-pass shots when they were making a little bit of a run. We gotta be willing to work for offense a little bit more.”
Rudy Gobert scored only 6 points but was -2 in a game where Randle, Conley, and DiVincenzo finished -20, -18, and -10, respectively. Gobert, 30, tried to keep things in perspective, saying that good teams have poor stretches during the season and that fundamental basketball leads to offensive flow.
“Just play simple basketball,” said Gobert. “Trust what you make, do things with what you make, the space you make. Try to make the right play.
“We try to keep the game flowing,” he added. “It’s a team game. When we play as a team, we can see that the energy is totally different.”
Conley organizes the offense, moves the ball, and helps his teammates keep things in perspective. He creates positive energy on the court.
However, the Timberwolves can only rely on a 37-year-old player so much. Finch bemoaned the lack of energy to start the Pistons game, a common theme throughout the year. Youth brings energy, but Dillingham is out another one to two weeks with an ankle injury.
“He’s got a couple of ankle sprains on top of each other right now in the last couple of months,” said Finch, who doesn’t believe Dillingham has treated a compounding injury like this before. “Part of his process of becoming a great pro is getting the right habits and taking care of your body.”
Finch added that he feels Dillingham has a good routine. Still, until he returns, the Wolves will rely on Conley, DiVincenzo, and Alexander-Walker to bring the ball up. Even then, Dillingham is a developing player who can’t fully run Minnesota’s offense.
The Timberwolves are between point guard eras. Conley is winding down, while Dillingham is adjusting to the NBA. Until Dillingham can fully take over for Conley, Minnesota’s ball movement may suffer, and they may lack the right energy to win on any given night.