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The Minnesota Timberwolves are no longer playing the waiting game when it comes to the Larry O'Brien Trophy. They traded away Naz Reid to get Lamelo Ball, which makes their backcourt led by Anthony Edwards far stronger than before. But it seems like this squad isn't done making moves. Tim Connelly, the President of Basketball Operations, made it clear that they wanted LeBron James to join their stacked roster.
Timberwolves' Connelly wants James to team up with Edwards and Ball
The race for landing LeBron James has become way more intense in the past few days. Rich Paul noted that the NBA legend already has sufficient knowledge to make a free agency decision soon. So far, the field has been narrowed to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Timberwolves.
Each squad made big strides in enticing James to their squad. Jaylen Brown most prominently had IShowSpeed make the 76ers' plea. Donovan Mitchell also reached out publicly. The Timberwolves are not a team that backs down from a challenge. It was not Anthony Edwards or Lamelo Ball who made the plea, too; Tim Connelly was the one who made the call public. He outlined why James should join them instead of the other four finalists, via Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
"The recruitment is just this team. Obviously, he’s an unbelievable player. Whatever decision he makes will be the right one. There’s a lot going on. When you’re as great as he is, you should have optionality. When you look at our team, it’s hard not to be excited about what we have. We have the best coach. We have amazing fans. In the last couple of years, our success has been as good as anybody — outside of the guys who’ve won it all. Not just speaking to LeBron, but to any free agent, this is a place you’re going to have a lot of fun and win a lot of games," the Timberwolves' President of Basketball Operations declared.
James has been quite a thorn in the Timberwolves' hopes of gaining momentum towards the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Throughout his 23-year career, the Timberwolves have only won 12 games against him. Notably, James has gone up against this franchise 45 times in the regular season and has a 73.3% winning percentage against them. He averages about 25.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in those matchups too.
It was only until Edwards got to the Timberwolves that their fates changed. In James' sole playoff series against Minnesota during the 2024-25 postseason, he got beaten 4-1. So, the leverage has tipped in favor of the Timberwolves in the past few years. Connelly knows this and showcased the lethal talent the Timberwolves have to further entice James.
"We’re trying to change the narrative of how this organization is viewed. We’re kind of proud of who we are, and certainly, wherever LeBron ends up, he’s going to make that place much, much better. But it’s hard not to look at LaMelo and Jaden and Rudy and Ant and Josh Green. We saw what Terrence Shannon Jr. did in the postseason," the Timberwolves' executive added.
Obviously, James will take his time in making a decision. After all, this might determine whether he equals legends like Tim Duncan, George Mikan, Kobe Bryant, and Magic Johnson in terms of ring count.
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