Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley spoke in more detail this week about the left wrist injury he has dealt with for the last few years, admitting that it prevented him from golfing over the summer after he fell on the wrist last season and aggravated an old ligament issue, per Jerry Zgoda of The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Still, Conley has gotten used to playing through the injury and plans to continue doing so.
“When I’m 50, I’ll get surgery, not right now,” he said. “The surgery is a little bit complex and I’ve been playing with it for years, so I feel like I’ll just finish it.”
Entering Friday’s bout with Denver, Conley was shooting just 22.6% from the field through Minnesota’s first four games this season, including 27.3% on three-pointers. While the wrist issue may be a factor in the veteran’s shooting struggles, the sample size is small and he’s confident those numbers will improve once he gets through an early-season adjustment period.
“I’m just trying to work back the strength of it,” Conley said. “That’s the biggest thing. The pain and stuff is gone. But there are some times when I’ll shoot it and think, ‘Ah, that’s good,’ and it’ll be like two feet short. So you’re just trying to gauge the differences and work through that as the season goes forward.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray exited Friday’s loss to Minnesota in the third quarter and entered the NBA’s concussion protocol, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN. The injury occurred following an inadvertent collision with Timberwolves forward Julius Randle (Twitter video link). Murray, who is off to a somewhat slow start this season, had just six points on 2-of-7 shooting in his 22 minutes on Friday.
- The Nuggets have lost three of their first five games and required an overtime period to get their two wins against a pair of Eastern teams (Toronto and Brooklyn) coming off lottery seasons. Still, one silver lining has been the play of Christian Braun in his new starting role — the Nuggets are “very pleased” with what they’ve seen from him this fall, writes ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Braun was a team-high plus-13 in Friday’s loss and has scored double-digit points with a positive net rating in each of Denver’s five games so far. The third-year wing will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next offseason.
- Rayan Rupert doesn’t have a significant role for the Trail Blazers this season, but the second-year forward is making the most of his limited playing time and making a case for more minutes. As Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian (subscription required) writes, Rupert was a plus-12 in 19 total minutes on Monday and Wednesday and earned praise from head coach Chauncey Billups for his impact in Wednesday’s one-point victory. “Rupe’s minutes were amazing,” Billups said. “I was just so, so happy for him, given that he works his behind off. We really celebrated Rupes in the locker room.”
- Malevy Leons‘ new contract with the Thunder is a non-guaranteed one-year deal worth the prorated rookie minimum, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Leons has a cap hit of $1,097,300, though a portion of that money would come off Oklahoma City’s books if he’s cut before the league-wide salary guarantee deadline in January. That’s what happened to Alex Reese, whose release left $79,804 in dead money on the Thunder’s cap.
The melee between Braun and Gobert shows the favoritism some players get. If Green did the same as Gobert did by hitting Braun he would have been kicked out of the game and suspended. Gobert all he got was a T when he threw a shot to the head. Braun should have flopped down.
Favoritism is out of control because of endorsement $$$. I look back on the history of the game and Jordan Rules started the craziness (favoritism). When Abdul Jabbar was in college the NCAA out-lawed dunking to even the field, in the NBA they made rules for Jordan to make it easier “for him” and we all know why! He was the savior of a failing product and now the players control games and seasons for corporate $$$$! They are sold out and the NBA stands for (N)othing (B)ut (A)ctors! Fake news and fake basketball.
Refs favor big stars in all sports. There is a double standard and home favoritism.
There still are 4-5 teams in MLB who haven’t bowed to corporate control yet but the league is trying desperately to pry it away from them.
Like at the Oakland situation every owner and team bowed to manford allowing Fisher to leave when he had no stadium and will play in a AAA park next year. Why didn’t 1 owner step up for the fans and said this is a disaster? FYI Warriors owner wanted to buy the team and keep them in Oakland.
Oakland loosing the A’s is a tragedy for Oakland and MLB in my opinion and it gets moved to sin city (city of corruption). Sounds like a government move? Corporate $$$ has ruined the professional game and is now creeping into NCAA with NIL deals. Kayvon Tibadeau drafted by NY Giants (NFL) is a product of the pampered gifted athlete NIL deal. He hardly played in college (Oregon Ducks), saving his body for the NFL. Now what’s he done 3 years into his NFL career? All his $$$ is for his potential. “Bust”? The worst part is witnessing the downfall of real games that matter for “the love of the game” and watching it turn into fake games, where all that matters is if they covered the betting lines.
@KO-ko-Pop1 the Braves are by far the most interesting pro sports team in that regard. The fact that ALL these scamming owners don’t publicly run their team like the Braves do is why everything will collapse eventually.
@arc89 “Refs favor big stars in all sports” – well, except Steph “no free throws despite getting clobbered on literally every play” Curry!
If he got the Harden love 20 free throws a game.