Editor’s note: Mike Conley is one of the best sources of information in the NBA.

Entering his 17th NBA season, the 36-year-old Timberwolves point guard has seen it all, and has the knowledge and willingness to explain what’s taken place and what’s to come with the media and, thus, the fans. That breadth of insight and analysis extends from on-court Xs and Os to team dynamics and development.

Conley is just as good at explaining why two teammates came to blows in the middle of a timeout as he is on what the team needs to do to decode a switch-heavy defense.

So who better to sit down with twice a month to tackle different topics ranging from the Timberwolves to the NBA at large to, well, Mike Conley, than Conley himself.

This is the 10th installment of Conley’s Corner.

VISION REALIZED, BUT NOT COMPLETE

Anthony Edwards’ Team USA teammates at last summer’s World Championships expressed little optimism toward the Wolves’ prospects this season. Back to the play-in round for the third straight season, they told Edwards.

Mike Conley had a different view of the situation.

Back in September, Conley was discussing his Wolves in a far brighter light. There have only been a handful of times during his career when he entered a season thinking championship. And this just so happened to be one of them.

“I honestly feel like this team, and the way the NBA is set up — the parity that’s come out — it’s more open and there’s more opportunity for more teams than usual, so why not (put) us in that category?” Conley said back then. “I feel like we’ve got a good chance to make those jumps to hopefully get to that point.”

That possibility had him excited to wake up each morning.

“We’re working towards something — playoffs, Western Conference finals, championship aspirations — all these aspirations that we have together as a team,” Conley said.

It’s all come to fruition. Minnesota piled up 56 regular-season wins, enough to grab the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and earn home court for the team’s first-round playoff series against Phoenix.

Conley called it. This season, he noted, has merely matched what he envisioned.

“When you come in with an expectation of being a championship-level team and organization, this would have to be on par with what I expected. I expected us to come out and start the year the way we did. I expected us to have a fire and an edge to us. I expected us to feel slighted, feel the underdog mentality throughout the year. Flew under the radar. All the things that have happened to us throughout the year,” Conley said. “I expected the rollercoaster of emotions — the good weeks, the bad weeks. The expectations now all of a sudden, and guys having to rise up to that — Ant, KAT, Rudy, Naz, everybody who’s played a big role on our team, Jaden. What I think about when I go to bed at night and sleep, dream and hope for, I think it’s been that so far.”

It’s a vision he shared with his teammates, as well as the media, at the season’s outset. It’s difficult to know at times if a player is sharing what he truly believes or if he’s trying to speak his most optimistic scenario into existence. Even now, Conley swears his preseason comments were a product of the former. He truly saw this coming.

“My confidence was at an all-time high, honestly. I honestly felt that, during the summertime, I was like, ‘Man, we could be really, really good,’ ” Conley said. “And I think it started with we have to start our training camp believing this. I told them at the beginning of training camp, like I told you guys, ‘Man, we’re not coming here to win a playoff series. I don’t got time left to just build this thing up and try to win in four years or five years. I want to win now. I want y’all to have my urgency and believe that we can do this.’”

Everyone was in.

“I think everybody really bought into, ‘No, we are the best team. We can be the best team. We can be the best defense. We can work at a different level and sustain that level for longer than any other team can,’” Conley said. “And, so far, we’ve been able to do that.”

Indeed. Minnesota has been one of the most consistent teams in the NBA. Conley believes that night-in, night-out success has bred a deeper understanding from his teammates about what goes into winning in the League.

“I honestly think once you start winning at a decent clip, you start to see the differences of why — when you do lose a game, we lost that game because of these small things, these three little things that we all can control super easy, right? And you might not be aware of that when you’re just out there hooping. You might not know why you won the game, why you lost the game,” Conley said. “But then you start seeing it like, ‘Man, all I had to do all game was just pass across the top, and we’re going to score every single time.’ Or, ‘All I had to do was send the ball to Rudy and let him block the shot. There’s just a bunch of stuff that I think guys are seeing it happen. And once you see it happen, it makes it easier for you to believe in it, easier for you to practice it and kind of practice what you preach.”

That general IQ “bump” is what Conley is most pleased with this season. It’s not only present in defensive assignments, but on the offensive end as star players, starting with Anthony Edwards, have progressed to making the easy, smart pass that gets an offense flowing. It’s carried over to everyone else. Maybe, just maybe, the offense is finally peaking at the right time.

“I think it’s had to morph a couple of times throughout the year. We’ve fought it a couple times. We even fought it as of late. In one or two games we’ll fight it, fight what we need to be and what we want to be doing,” Conley said. “But, at the same time, we still seem to kind of back into a comfort zone where we feel the ball move and see the ball movement and the player movement to where we’re getting quality looks. It’s a matter of if we make or miss shots a lot of those times. And I’ll live and die by us getting the great looks and missing them, as opposed to turning the ball over and trying to drive through three or four people and making mistakes.”

This is about as good as Conley has ever felt about a team heading into the playoffs, rivaling how he felt when Utah, his former team, was a No. 1 seed. No matter what the offense does, what Conley believes makes Minnesota most playoff ready is what it has been able to do on the defensive end. The Timberwolves tout the NBA’s top defense by a mile. That could pay major dividends in the postseason.

“Honestly, I’m a big defense guy. I think defense is where we hang our hat, and I think that’s the real reason why we can play on the road really well,” Conley said. “Obviously, if you get home court, that’s great. But you still have to win on the road in the playoffs, and you might lose one at home, and be able to steal a couple on the road to save a series. It’s important, and we have that ability, and I think that our defense is going to carry us from that standpoint.

“Defensively we have that same power that we had offensively for that (Utah) team. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that we’ll be able to guard anybody that we play against. And if we’re able to do what we do on offense at a decently high clip, I think we win a lot of these games and we’re able to move on and advance in the series. I’m confident in what we’ve got coming.”

Minnesota’s defense has been playoff-caliber all season. But Conley knows there’s another notch that needs to be reached if the Wolves are to replicate their regular-season success in the playoffs.

“Right now is basically you’ve been building a foundation for this time of year, and building something you can fall back on no matter what — a standard that you can set going into every game,” Conley said. “But once you hit the playoffs, man, a lot more is required of everybody, especially mentally. It’s paying attention to detail — the scouting report, tendencies of different guys, you’ve got to be able to be on top of it. In the regular season, you might skate by if you’re playing a different team every night, but you have to know exactly what play (it is) when they’re calling it, what they like to do, don’t like to do. That’s where I think we have to take the biggest jump is being locked in on that side mentally.”

Heading into last year’s playoffs, Conley insinuated there was no more time for video games, only to then relent on that belief as the first-round series progressed. So, what’s the final verdict?

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can play video games,” Conley conceded. “We just can’t do it all day.”

Because maximum intensity and focus is required starting now. And the point guard knows it. He went to Memphis for a day trip last weekend to attend a Grizzlies game and be a part of Marc Gasol’s jersey retirement. Something from that day stuck with him.

“What I gathered from all that was take advantage of this moment right now. Because I saw a bunch of my old teammates — guys who’ve retired, getting their jersey retired — who were like, ‘Man, we had a squad. We had a chance. If we could’ve done this or won that one game, or just done this differently.’ And you think about it like, ‘Damn, you’re right. We could’ve done this and we could’ve done that,’ ” Conley said. “I don’t want these guys to have that same feeling — that feeling like you left something out there that was attainable at the time, but you were thinking, ‘I might get it next year, or the year after.’ And in Ant’s case, he’s 22, he might say, ‘I’ll get it in my next 10 years. I’ll have plenty of shots.’ But that does not mean that you’ll have the same opportunities that you’ll have now ever again, so just try to grasp onto that and have fun with it.”

This very well may be the best roster ever assembled around Edwards.

“Yep, and he won’t know it until he’s 32 or 33. And he’ll be like, ‘Damn,’ ” Conley said. “One of my best teams was my first playoff run against San Antonio (in 2011, when the Grizzlies upset the Spurs in Round 1). I didn’t think of it at the time, because we were just young and doing our thing, but we had a squad. And it was like, ‘Damn.’ I don’t think we beat the Spurs ever again after that. They killed us. They swept us in the conference finals, everything.”

You can never take a playoff opportunity in the NBA for granted. Conley said the Wolves are carrying an edge into the postseason. They’re ready to roar.

“I still think we’ve got a lot of edge to us, as far as people seeing the Timberwolves successful, it’s not normal for the casual basketball world. So it’s like, ‘Oh, they’re not real,’ or, ‘They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re too young, they don’t have this or that,’ ” Conley said. “And we’re like, ‘We’ve got all that.’ We believe in ourselves. We’ve done a great job of just drowning out the noise, for the most part. But the noise we do let in, we use it as motivation. Ant uses it as motivation — KAT, Rudy, Kyle, we’ve got a lot of guys who’ve got a chip on their shoulder, have a lot to prove, myself included. So we just want to go out there and do what we do.”

Past editions of Conley’s Corner:

Made in March

Good guys finish first

The voice of the Wolves

Gameday routine

Small-market Mike

The ultimate sportsman

Last of a dying breed

Championship chase

‘Old guy’ has still got game

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Hidden along California’s rugged Northern Coast lies the tiny town of Trinidad and its stunning coastal and forest landscapes. It’s a jewel of a town, with spectacular sea views and access to state and national parks.

What you won’t see are a lot of people. With a population of just 370, it’s the smallest incorporated city in the state, but it’s well worth a trip.

“It’s got a nice small-town vibe, the locals are friendly, and there’s a lot of stuff you can do here,” says John Adams, executive director of the local chamber of commerce. “If you’re staying in Trinidad, it’s going to feel pretty unique.”

Redwood forests are a key attraction along California’s rugged northern coast. (Taylor Greytak/Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce)

Getting here

If you’re road-tripping up from the Bay Area, it’s a five to six hour drive — and Highway 101 gets windy up north. But you’ll want to make the drive just a bit longer, so you can experience the 31-mile Avenue of the Giants. Hike the trails, take in the majesty of this dense, towering redwood forest and snap some photos before moving on. If kitschy tourist attractions are your thing, you’ll find the Eternal Tree House just to the north; the stump of a 2,500-year-old tree was converted into a room in the early 1900s to house (what else?) a gift shop.

Book lovers will want to detour into Eureka, 40 minutes to the north, where charming Second Street is home to two impressive bookstores. Check out Eureka Books for a two-story celebration of new titles in a historic Victorian building or Booklegger to get lost in a maze of used books.

(You can also fly, by the way: United offers regular flights between San Francisco and the small California Redwood Coast/Humboldt County Airport (ACV) in McKinleyville, halfway between Eureka and Trinidad.)

There are several inns and vacation rentals here, but we were charmed by the cabins at Emerald Forest Cabins & RV, which offers cozy, well-heated accommodations shaded by redwoods. A gazebo and kids’ play structure adds to the delight for families.

Hiking is a favorite activity for locals and visitors to Trinidad, a small town on California’s northern coast. (Rich Formica/Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce)

Towering trees, crashing waves

Trinidad is just a half hour south of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, one of the four parks that make up Redwood National and State Parks. If you’re looking to spend the day in the forest, consider the 11.5-mile Miner’s Ridge and James Irvine Loop, which runs from the forest to the beach and back through the forest, with a stop at Fern Canyon, a stunning mini-canyon walled with ferns. Because of its popularity, the National Park Service has recently implemented a timed entry system for visitors to Fern Canyon who arrive between May 1 and Sept. 30, so be sure to plan accordingly.

Trinidad’s beaches are gorgeous too. Take a short hike to Trinidad State Beach via the Elkhead Trail (1.5 miles; portions of this trail are being repaired this spring, so check the state beach website before you go) or head south to Sue-meg State Park, where you can explore tide pools, hunt for agates and see a re-created Yurok village. The park, which was formerly known as Patrick’s Point, was renamed in 2021 as part of the California State Parks’ Reexamining our Past Initiative to honor the Yurok people on whose land the park rests.

Seals are among the wildlife species that inhabit the waters near Trinidad. (Courtesy Alex Johnson/Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce)

Beachy breakfasts and ocean views

Fuel up at Trinidad’s Beachcomber Cafe, which offers breakfast sandwiches, açaí bowls, pastries and more with friendly service, laid-back vibes and Jack Johnson tunes playing over the speakers during the breakfast rush. The Beach Bun breakfast sandwich ($13) tops a toasted brioche bun with cheesy baked eggs, caramelized onions,  aioli and avocado.You’ll find all the usual espresso drinks here, plus a cafe miel ($5-$6) — a latte made with honey and cinnamon — and a Cup of Sunshine ($6) which combines chamomile tea with steamed milk, honey and cocoa sprinkles.

Looking for a restaurant with a jaw-dropping view? Seascape Restaurant is right along the water at Trinidad Head, offering freshly-caught seafood and panoramic views.

You’ll find the most distinctive dish in town at the Trinidad Lighthouse Grill, where a Savory Mashed Potato Cone ($4-$8) serves up creamy mashed potatoes in cornmeal waffle cones flecked with garlic, rosemary and chives, and the topping options include gravy, bacon, cheese and beef brisket. It’s delicious — and the gravy is available in beef and vegetarian versions.

Nearby nightlife

Trinidad may feel remote, but head 15 minutes south to Arcata, and you’re in college town territory. There, you’ll find spots such as Richard’s Goat Tea Room & Tavern, a quirky bar popular with the college crowd. It’s decorated with taxidermied and plushy goats, hence the name. The tavern offers craft cocktails, local wines, craft beers and a small menu of comforting bites, including a Buffalo Bleu take on mac and cheese. And there’s a music venue and theater — the Miniplex — in the back.

The Finnish Country Sauna & Tubs and the Cafe Mokka coffeehouse are just around the corner, offering espresso drinks, hot tubs and sauna sessions late into the evening. It was the place to be on the chilly February weekend we were there — and entirely booked up, so plan ahead.

There are also a number of breweries and cidermakers in the area, including Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville and Lost Coast Brewery and Humboldt Cider Co. in Eureka. And for folks interested in learning more about the Emerald Triangle, the areas of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties that make up the largest cannabis-producing area in the U.S., there’s no shortage of dispensaries, lounges and even cannabis tourism available. Humboldt Cannabis Tours in Eureka offers a variety of guided excursions, including farm tours and a “weed and wine” tour led by “cannaisseurs.”

If You Go

Eureka Books: Opens at 10 a.m. daily at 426 Second St. in Eureka; eurekabookshop.com.

Booklegger: Opens at 10 a.m. Monday-Saturday and noon on Sundays at 402 Second St. in Eureka.

Emerald Forest Cabins & RV: Cabins start at $139. 753 Patricks Point Drive in Trinidad; emeraldforestcabins.com.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park: Open sunrise to sunset at 127011 Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway in Orick; parks.ca.gov.

Trinidad State Beach: Open sunrise to sunset at 576 Pacific Ave, Trinidad; parks.ca.gov.

Sue-Meg State Park: Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at 4150 Patricks Point Drive in Trinidad; parks.ca.gov.

Beachcomber Cafe: Open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (closed Tuesday) at 363 Trinity St. in Trinidad; beachcombercafetrinidad.com.

Seascape Restaurant: Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily on Bay Street in Trinidad.

Trinidad Lighthouse Grill: Open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily at 355 Main St. in Trinidad; trinidadlighthousegrill.com.

Richard’s Goat Tavern & Tea Room: Opens at 6 p.m. (closed Monday) at 401 I St. in Arcata; richardsgoat.com.

Finnish Country Sauna & Tubs: Open at 11 a.m. daily at 495 J. St. in Arcata; cafemokkaarcata.com.

Six Rivers Brewery: Opens at noon Tuesday-Saturday at 1300 Central Ave. in McKinleyville; sixriversbrewery.com.

Lost Coast Brewery:  Opens at noon Wednesday-Sunday at 1600 Sunset Drive in Eureka; lostcoast.com.

Humboldt Cider Co: Open from 4 to 9 p.m. daily at 517 F St. in Eureka; humboldtciderco.com.

Humboldt Cannabis Tours: Find details at humcannabis.com.

Julie Appleby, KFF Health News | KFF Health News (TNS)

Federal and state regulators aren’t doing enough to stop the growing problem of rogue health insurance brokers making unauthorized policy switches for Affordable Care Act policyholders, say consumers, agents, nonprofit enrollee assistance groups, and other insurance experts.

“We think it’s urgent and it requires a lot more attention and resources,” said Jennifer Sullivan, director of health coverage access for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the ACA, “has acknowledged the issue,” said former Oklahoma insurance commissioner John Doak. “But it appears their response is inadequate.”

The reactions follow a KFF Health News article outlining how licensed brokers’ easy access to policyholder information on healthcare.gov has led unscrupulous agents to switch people’s policies without express permission. Those agents can then take the commission that comes with signing a new customer. Dozens of people and insurance brokers responded to the earlier report recounting similar situations.

Some switched policyholders end up in plans that don’t include their doctors or the medications they regularly take, or come with higher deductibles than their original coverage choice. If their income or eligibility for premium tax credits is misrepresented, some people end up owing back taxes.

Agents whose clients have been affected say the switches ramped up last year and are continuing into 2024, although quantifying the problem continues to be difficult. The problem seems concentrated on the federal healthcare.gov website, which is the marketplace where people in 32 states buy ACA plans, which are also known as Obamacare. CMS declined to provide the number of complaints that have been filed.

Even so, CMS representatives said during a December committee meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that they were “acutely aware” of the problem and were working on solutions.

A similar NAIC gathering was held in March. During those meetings, state regulators urged CMS officials to look for unauthorized switches, rather than reacting only to filed complaints. State regulators also want the agency to tell them sooner about agents or brokers under investigation, and to be provided with the number of affected consumers in their regions.

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In an April 4 written statement to KFF Health News, Jeff Wu, acting director of CMS’ Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight, pointed to the agency’s sharp prohibition on agents enrolling people or changing their plans without getting written or recorded consent, and said his team is “analyzing potential additional system controls to block unauthorized or fraudulent activity.”

It is also working with state regulators and large broker agencies, Wu wrote, to identify “the most effective ways to root out bad actors.” He also said more agents and brokers are being suspended or terminated from healthcare.gov.

Wu did not provide, however, a tally of just how many have been sanctioned.

Low-income consumers are often targeted, possibly because they qualify for zero-premium plans, meaning they might not know they’ve been switched or enrolled because they aren’t paying a monthly bill.

Also, rules took effect in 2022 that allow low-income residents to enroll at any time of the year, not just during the annual open enrollment period. While the change was meant to help people who most need to access coverage, it has had the unintended effect of creating an opportunity for this scheme to ramp up.

“There have been bad apples out there signing people up and capturing the commissions to do so for a while, but it’s exacerbated in the last couple of years, turning it from a few isolated incidents to something more common,” said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.

Many victims don’t know they’ve been switched until they try to use their plans — either because agents changed the policy without talking to them or because the consumer unknowingly enrolled by responding to online advertisements promising gift cards, government subsidies, or free health insurance.

The challenge now is how federal regulators and their counterparts in the states can thwart the activity without diminishing enrollment — a top priority for the marketplace. In fact, Obamacare’s record-breaking enrollment figures are being touted prominently in President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

Thwarting the switches “really comes down to oversight and enforcement,” Corlette said. “As soon as regulators identify someone who is engaged in unauthorized plan-switching or enrollment, they need to cut them off immediately.”

That isn’t simple.

For starters, consumers or their agents must report suspected problems to state and federal regulators before investigations are launched.

Such investigations can take weeks and states generally don’t have access to complaints until federal investigators finish an inquiry, state regulators complained during the NAIC meetings.

Doak attended the December meeting, where he urged federal regulators to look for patterns that might indicate unauthorized switching — such as policyholders’ coverage being changed multiple times in a short period — and then quickly initiate follow-up with the consumer.

“All regulators have a duty to get on top of this issue and protect the most vulnerable consumers from unknowingly having their policies moved or their information mistreated,” Doak told KFF Health News. He is now executive vice president of government affairs for Insurance Care Direct, a health insurance brokerage.

Being more proactive requires funding.

Wu said the agency’s administrative budget has remained nearly flat for 13 years even as enrollment has grown sharply in the ACA and the other health programs it oversees.

And the complaint process itself can be cumbersome because it can involve different state or federal agencies lacking coordination.

Even after complaints are filed, state or federal officials follow up directly with the consumer, who might have limited English proficiency, lack an email address, or simply not answer their phone — which can stall or stop a resolution, said Katie Roders Turner, executive director of the Family Healthcare Foundation, a Tampa Bay, Florida, nonprofit that helps people enroll or deal with problems that arise with their plans.

Suggested improvements include creating a central form or portal for complaints and beefing up safeguards on the healthcare.gov site to prevent such unauthorized activity in the first place.

Currently, licensed agents need only a name, date of birth, and state of residence to access policyholder information and make changes. That information is easy to obtain.

States that run their own marketplaces — there are 18 and the District of Columbia — often require more information, such as a one-time passcode sent to the consumer, who then gives it to their chosen agent.

In the meantime, the frustration is increasing.

Lauren Phillips, a sales agent in Georgia, said she reached out to an agent in Florida who was switching one of her clients, asking her to stop. When it happened again to the same client, she reported it to regulators.

“Their solution was for me to just watch the policy and fix it if it happens again, which is not a viable solution, “Phillips said.

Recently, after noticing the client’s policy had been switched again, she reported it and changed it back. When she checked two mornings later, the policy had been terminated.

“Now my client has no insurance at all,” Phillips said. “They say they are working on solutions. But here we are in the fourth month of the year and agents and consumers are still suffering at the hands of these terrible agents.”

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.