Tim Connelly sounded far more confident in his media session ahead of the Timberwolves’ playoff series with with the Denver Nuggets this week than he did a year ago.

There’s no hiding the expectations the president of basketball operations, or anyone else in the organization, has for this Wolves team and this run at the moment.

“I think we’re a contender now. We have to believe it. We’re entering the second round with an unblemished playoff record,” Connelly said. “This room certainly thinks we’re a contender.”

That’s a giant leap from where Minnesota was 12 months ago. The Timberwolves staggered into the NBA playoffs last season before being bounced in the first round in five games — albeit a competitive five games — by the Nuggets.

But everything has come together for the Wolves since then. Rudy Gobert returned to form as the NBA’s top defensive player. Anthony Edwards continued his ascension toward becoming one of the game’s top players. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Naz Reid are two of the best bench players in the NBA. Karl-Anthony Towns has found his role on this talented roster. and Mike Conley has helped meld all the pieces together.

Now the Wolves sport a top-three roster in terms of depth and high-end talent. The plan Connelly put together when he took over two years ago has come together beautifully. Or something like that.

“I could tell you we have these one, three and five-year plans … it’d be a lie,” he said. “(In) the NBA, there’s fluidity and things you didn’t expect to happen.”

Even with building the Nuggets before moving over to the Wolves, Connelly said they were lucky to trade for Aaron Gordon and there were other players they tried to keep that got away, and it all ended up working out for the best.

In Minnesota, had another team realized Alexander-Walker’s potential this offseason, he could have been had in free agency. Instead, the Wolves are the beneficiary of an insanely team-friendly deal for an elite three-and-D wing who perfectly rounds out an otherwise expensive roster.

“Every day, especially around the draft or trade deadline and free agency, things change dramatically,” Connelly said. “We’re really lucky to have these unbelievable talented core pieces and try to build around them and support them. To say that we had some well-laid plans would be disingenuous.”

But it’s not all fortune. Minnesota can look at the Gobert trade and currently say it was right. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch has made the big-ball experiment work. With Gobert as the anchor, the Wolves have sported the best defense all season.

Not only was Connelly and Co. apparently correct about trading for Gobert, but they also appear wise for “running it back” after a disappointing first run at it last season.

“I dunno if it’s validation. Again, it’s just hypothesis. I’m just guessing. You never know. You make a trade, you sign somebody, you draft somebody, you hope it works. So I dunno, validation would probably give our group too much credit,” Connelly said. “But we felt pretty convicted that we had the cultural DNA to be a good team. We thought we had the talent, we knew we had an elite coaching staff. Could we grow up a little bit around the edges? Could we not expose ourselves to so many self faults and unforced errors? I think we’ve done that for the most part all season.”

The Wolves have exceeded external expectations. They’re in the second round of the playoffs for just the second time in franchise history, after winning the second-most regular-season games (56) in franchise history.

Connelly said the Wolves wanted to be a top-four seed to net home-court advantage in Round 1. They did that, and took advantage of it.

Job finished? Not by a long shot.

“We haven’t accomplished all the goals, but certainly we set these goals we thought were reachable. We thought we could have been a home-court playoff team in the previous season if we would have performed better against teams that were struggling. We think to be a viable contender, you gotta be a home-court playoff team,” Connelly said. “Our goal was not to be a first-round-and-out team. We’ve had a heck of a regular season.

“We were in first place for much of the season. Our division was brutal with Oklahoma City and Denver. You can see those guys are already in the second round. But you gotta believe. We have to believe that we can make a real run. We’ve set these additional goals, but really, this room thinks they can win a championship. So why not us?”

Such a run could determine this franchise’s immediate future.

How this series against Denver plays out could have an impact on the current core, most likely relating to the future of Towns in Minnesota. The current roster would carry a hefty luxury tax bill into next season.

Teams are happy to pay that if it comes with a championship ring. If not, there could be more trepidation.

“Relative to what the offseason looks like, it would be unfair to answer those questions prior to our conclusion (of the season),” Connelly said, “and we hope not to conclude for a long time.”

Related Articles

This week could change Micah Nori’s career. But the assistant coach is only worried about the Timberwolves and Chris Finch

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards is quickly becoming face of the NBA

Timberwolves flew to Denver on Thursday. Head coach Chris Finch plans to join the team Friday

Game times set for first four games of Timberwolves-Nuggets series

Timberwolves have matured greatly over the past year. Denver series will show just how far they’ve come

Amy Lindgren

In my last two columns, I explained how to write longer résumés strategically and how to format résumés for optimal impact. Today’s column is a response to Dave, a reader who describes struggling with how his résumé should look now that he’s posting it to digital online systems.

As he notes, “When I try to customize my résumé in an attempt to score higher in the ATS (applicant tracking system) my résumé no longer looks or reads like it should if a person would be reading it. Can you please reply with suggestions in writing your résumé to maximize the ATS score so I can actually get an interview with a real person?”

Dave, I’m happy to provide that advice, although with the caveat that I’m not a fan of online job search to begin with. Because studies still show 70-90 percent of jobs are either not posted or are not filled from the online posting, I prefer methods such as networking or direct contact with targeted employers.

But my preference doesn’t erase the 10-30 percent of jobs that do get filled through postings, which is significant. If you’re going to use this system, you need to strategize for best results.

These automated processes aren’t new, by the way. I have a distinct memory of Northwest Airlines (remember them, pre-Delta merger?) instituting an electronic system to sort résumés back in the 1990s.

Luckily, things have come a long way in 30+ years. The very early systems had some nasty quirks, such as 100-word “reading” capacities. Résumé writers were told to get clients’ key words into the first lines or the software wouldn’t see it.

The result was a whole lot of seriously ugly documents prefaced with three or four lines of gibberish: “Writing writer documentation journalism journalist reporter features newspaper…” This might be typical for a reporter’s résumé, attempting to cram every variation of the key words into the first line or two. Eew.

While the systems are much more sophisticated now (they’ll read thousands of words), they are still limited. For example, some cannot read columns, graphics, headers, footers, text boxes or non-standard bullets (such as check marks or diamonds).

Since you don’t know which ATS a company is using, services have popped up claiming to scan your résumé for compatibility with a specific company’s ATS — based on their claim that they know all the major companies and what software they’re using.

Count me as skeptical.

The better strategy is to construct your résumé so that any system can read it. The trick, as Dave has noted, is making it attractive to the human reader as well. That’s because the system will parse your résumé for data, then place that data into a file under your name. The recruiter will later enter key words into the overall database, revealing the files with the most matches. The recruiter can then choose to read your ATS-created file but will likely read your original résumé instead, since it will be easier on the eye.

These tips can help ensure your made-for-human-eyes résumé will impress the machine as well.

• 1. Use a simple, elegant format that does not rely on graphics, columns, and other ATS-unfriendly elements. (Check last week’s column on résumé formatting.)

• 2. Put the exact job title into your headline: “Supply Chain Specialist,” for example.

• 3. Use the key words — those most repeated or emphasized in the posting — in your skills section, and possibly in individual job descriptions.

• 4. For important concepts, use both the full term and the acronym, since you don’t know what the recruiter will be entering. For example, “Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Chemistry …”

Tricks to use at your own risk:

• 5. Paste word strings from the posting directly into your résumé. The problem is that systems might identify identical phrasing from the posting and then flag the offending résumé. You should be fine with three- or five-word strings, but more is a risk.

• 6. Use key words you don’t yet “own.” For example: “Planning for certification in Google Analytics” when the posting calls for “Certification in Google Analytics.” You’ll have to explain this to the interviewer, but on the other hand, at least you’ll have an interview.

Those are the common tricks and tools for ATS-strategized résumés. Now a challenge: If you try this for 10 or 20 postings and still don’t get interviews, promise me you’ll add some non-posting job search processes as well. It’s too easy to tumble down the rabbit hole of “perfecting” your résumé for ATS when your ideal employer might not even be online.

Related Articles

Working Strategies: Résumé formatting tips

Working Strategies: Stress relevance, not brevity, in résumé writing

Working Strategies: Getting experience in your new career path

Working Strategies: Mastering the art of persuasion

Working Strategies: Coming back from a setback

Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.