The Minnesota Timberwolves were lost in the winter of 2023, trying like hell to make an unconventional frontcourt of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns work as they pushed to enter the contender conversation in the Western Conference.

On Feb. 7 of that year, they lost by 34 points to the Denver Nuggets. They had the 20th-ranked offense, a clunky, clogged unit that couldn’t seem to get out of its own way or figure out how to best use Gobert to their advantage. They needed a key to unlock them.

They needed Mike Conley.

A few days later, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly swung what would become one of the best trades in franchise history, sending D’Angelo Russell to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team deal that brought Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Utah.

Conley spent three seasons quarterbacking the Jazz offense with Gobert in the middle. He understood the big man’s idiosyncrasies. He knew what it took to keep him happy, which also made sure that Gobert was at his best on the other end of the floor. And he came into a young and excitable locker room and added a cool-headed maturity that was desperately needed.

He did not yell and scream to get his teammates’ attention. He was the quiet voice in the background, whispering in Anthony Edwards’ ear and nudging Jaden McDaniels and KAT down the right path. One of the league’s last true point guards, Conley helped guide the Wolves to back-to-back Western Conference finals runs, a level of unprecedented success in franchise history.

“He’s meant a lot to my career,” McDaniels said earlier this season. “Mike’s always been someone I can go to if I don’t know what’s going on or if I just want to talk. He’s more than a vet to me. I feel like he’s a good friend.”

Minnesota Mike’s run came to an end on Tuesday.

The Timberwolves agreed to send Conley to Chicago in a three-team trade that also involves the Detroit Pistons, team sources confirmed to The Athletic. Minnesota had to attach a first-round pick swap in 2026 to get off of Conley’s contract, a move that will save the team upwards of $20 million in luxury-tax payments.

It remains to be seen if this move is a precursor to something bigger — the Wolves have been in talks with Milwaukee about Giannis Antetokounmpo in addition to looking at other options to bolster their bench, such as Chicago’s Coby White or Ayo Dosunmu — or if this just allows the Wolves to get under the first salary apron.

In some ways, Conley’s struggles in his 19th season in the league could make this addition by subtraction either way. At 38, he is shooting 33 percent on 2s and 32 percent on 3s while playing a career-low 18.6 minutes per game. The floater that made him such a devastating pick-and-roll ballhandler has abandoned him. He is shooting just 21 percent from that range this season, per Basketball-Reference.com. He has scored more than six points just twice in the last 17 games, once when he scored seven and once when he scored nine.

But Wolves coach Chris Finch has continued to lean on him anyway.

Finch has never fully trusted Rob Dillingham, the second-year player who was drafted with the No. 8 pick in 2025, to eventually take over for Conley. Finch valued Conley’s basketball IQ and decision-making on a team that can often be severely lacking in both categories. He also believed in Conley’s ability to stick to the game plan on defense, chase shooters around screens and cover for mistakes elsewhere.

“Makes all the small plays, his defense is on point,” Finch said earlier this season. “If he gets beat, it’s usually only because he loses a physical matchup, maybe size, strength, quickness or something like that. We’re just better with him on the floor, but certainly in clutch situations.”

All the little things Conley has always done could not make up for the lack of a scoring threat he has become. He did not score a point in four of his last eight games, including a dispiriting loss in Memphis on Monday night.

The end of Conley’s tenure does not do justice to the impact he made in Minnesota. He will forever be remembered in these parts for his role in what has been, to this point, the defining sequence of Timberwolves basketball. In Game 7 of the 2024 Western Conference semifinals in Denver, Conley tracked down Nuggets guard Jamal Murray in the backcourt, ripped the ball from him and started a chain reaction that ended up with an Edwards 3 in the corner, essentially icing a 20-point comeback on the road against the defending champions.

It was a stay marked with selflessness, never more so than at the start of this season when he graciously accepted Finch’s decision to move him to the bench and start Donte DiVincenzo. During a stretch of December, Conley saw his minutes drastically reduced to allow Finch and the Wolves to get a longer look at Dillingham at backup point guard. He did not sulk or pout. He leaned in to support his teammates on the floor.

“He’s like my mental coach,” guard DiVincenzo said at the time. “If he sees I’m not 100 percent locked in or whatever, he knows when to get on you, but he also knows when to pick you up. … Most guys in this league, at that stage of their career and they’re on the sideline, they’re not locked in. He’s locked in the entire game. He’s happy for everybody, and he just wants to keep racking up wins.”

With Conley gone, more pressure will immediately fall on Bones Hyland to carry the point guard minutes with the second unit. Hyland has been up and down since entering the rotation earlier this year. He has had big moments, including 17 points in a win over the Warriors and 23 in a win against the Bucks, and struggles. He has been in single digits in nine of the last 10 games. If the Wolves do not make another move, Hyland will have a clear path to bigger minutes and more opportunities to find his rhythm.

Conley’s exit does not necessarily mean that Antetokounmpo is on his way to Minnesota. But the Wolves have not given up hope that they can add to a roster that has shown it can compete with the best the West has to offer, be it with a nine-time All-NBA power forward or the kind of scorer off the bench who could help them sustain the minutes when Edwards sits.

The clock ticks on.