The Timberwolves’ guards play a mini-game after practice with the organization’s shot analytics tool at the facility that measures the arc of a shot and the degree and location at which it enters the hoop.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker rushed over to Mike Conley after Thursday’s practice to inform the floor general he made a “perfect” shot, per the machine’s parameters.
Cute. Conley noted he himself made two in succession just earlier, a near impossible feat.
“Hopefully, it translates to the game now,” Conley said.
The veteran is well aware of his shooting struggles through four games — hitting just 27% of his 3-point attempts, and 23% of his total shots from the field.
Frankly, slow starts aren’t foreign to Conley.
October is the only month in his career in which the guard struggles to shoot. He’s a 38% shooter from the field in October, including 33% from deep. It’s the only month of the season in which he shoots south of 42% from the field and under 37% on 3s.
But an added cause for this year’s early struggles are easy to identify.
Conley suffered a wrist injury — a torn ligament that is still loose and was never returned to its proper place — years back that’s never truly healed, and over the offseason, it flared back up and caused persistent issues.
“I was depressed. I didn’t golf all summer. I wasn’t able to. I was in and out of casts and braces and stuff like that, just trying to get it to calm down,” Conley said. “I didn’t really touch a ball until right before training camp.”
He said the surgery required to completely remedy the issue is “complex” and isn’t something he’ll entertain until his career is over.
“When I’m 50, I’ll get surgery,” Conley said. “Not right now.”
Conley’s wrist is often taped. He noted the wrist is not something that gets worse with overuse, adding the pain has since subsided, and the efforts have centered on rebuilding strength in the wrist.
“There’s some times where I’ll shoot it, think ‘Ah, that’s good,’ and it’ll be like two feet short,” Conley said. “So, you’re just trying to figure out how to gauge the differences and continue to work through that as the season goes forward. I’m not worried about it, I’ve been through it before. It’s going to be ugly for a week or so, and then we’ll figure it out.”
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said Conley is merely working out some stiffness, adding he hasn’t noticed any negative side effects from the ailment during Conley’s time in Minnesota until now.
“I’m sure it’s affecting his shot to some degree. His shots all look good. They look like they’re gonna go down,” Finch said. “A lot have rattled out, but that’s really the only thing I’ve kind of noticed.”
Indeed, Conley went 2 for 6 against Dallas on Thursday. All four misses were rim outs.
“I’m not worried about that,” Finch said. “Rotation-wise, I just feel like I’m taking him out every four minutes, so that’s not good. So, I got to try and find a way to maybe lengthen some of his runs, so he can play himself into more of a rhythm. But yeah, he’ll be fine.
“His summer was not the same with his wrist and everything, so he was not able to have his normal preparation and preseason stuff. So, he’s just playing catch up right now.”
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