Mike Conley Jr. took the long way home over the past few chaotic days of the NBA trade deadline.
On Tuesday, the Timberwolves dealt Conley to the Chicago Bulls as part of a three-team deal, which helped Minnesota get under the dreaded first apron and saved them a boatload of money on the luxury tax.
Then on Wednesday, the Bulls sent Conley, along with Coby White, to the Hornets in exchange for Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng and three second-round picks.
And then by Thursday night, the Hornets had waived Conley, freeing him up to sign wherever he pleased, which just so happened to be back with the Timberwolves. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Wolves are “working on timing” regarding Conley re-signing with the team, but a reunion feels all but certain.
The NBA trade deadline can produce some fascinating and brief journeys for players across the league, as teams shuffle picks and contracts with various motivations.
The clearest motivators are 1) to get better and hopefully win a championship and 2) to collect assets that help for a longer term rebuild, but sometimes teams are working towards far more convoluted goals. Some teams are hoping to reduce salary in order to lower their luxury tax payments or avoid them in future seasons, others are hoping to stockpile picks that they can immediately flip elsewhere for a deal already halfway done.
The result can be some extremely chaotic, roundabout journeys for mid-tier players with contracts deemed as easily moveable by the league at large. At 38, Conley is averaging 4.4 points per game in just over 18 minutes a night for the Wolves—hardly the numbers of a must-have asset. But with so many teams needing to make so much math work, he (or more specifically his contract) wound up as a poker chip tossed across the table several times. Lucky for him and the Wolves, he ultimately landed back in Minnesota, where he already has a clear role as a veteran presence on a team looking to make the leap to a championship.
Hopefully he didn’t start packing his bags.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike Conley Jr. to Rejoin Timberwolves After Being Traded Twice, Released in Two Days.
