Tim Connelly (born ca. 1976–1977) is an American basketball executive who is the President of Basketball Operations of the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). He previously worked for the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast D ...

and

New Orleans Hornets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, before becoming President of Basketball Operations at the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

. He served for the Nuggets from June 2013 onwards, until 23 May 2022, when Connelly agreed to a five-year, $40 million contract with the

to take over in the same role within the organization.

Early life

Tim Connelly was raised in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. He grew up with four other brothers and two sisters. After attending

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

in New York, Connelly transferred to

Catholic University Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univ ...

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

for his junior year.

Executive career

Washington Wizards

In his junior year, Connelly wrote to Chuck Douglas, the director of college scouting for the

. He became an intern for the Wizards in 1996 in the basketball operations department. He became an assistant video coordinator in 1999. Connelly became a full-time scout in 2000 and was promoted to the director of player personnel. During his tenure with the Wizards, Connelly worked under NBA legend

Wes Unseld Westley Sissel Unseld Sr. (March 14, 1946June 2, 2020) was an American professional basketball player, coach and executive. He spent his entire National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets. Unseld ...

New Orleans Hornets

In 2010, Connelly joined the front office of the

. He became assistant general manager under

Dell Demps Delano J. Demps (born February 12, 1970) is an American professional basketball executive and former player who is currently a front office assistant for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Prior to that, he se ...

. Connelly's duties included scouting, trade negotiations, player contracts, and draft preparations.

Denver Nuggets

On June 17, 2013, Connelly was named as the executive vice president of basketball operations and general manager of the

. He replaced former NBA Executive of the Year,

Masai Ujiri Masai Ujiri (born 7 July 1970) is a British-born, Nigerian-Canadian professional basketball executive and former player and is the president of basketball operations of the Toronto Raptors in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a m ...

. On June 15, 2017, it was announced that Connelly would be promoted to being the team's president of basketball operations for the purpose of retaining assistant general manager

Artūras Karnišovas Artūras Karnišovas (born April 27, 1971) is a Lithuanian professional basketball executive and former player. He is the current executive vice president of basketball operations of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) ...

as the team's general manager. After years of missing out on the playoffs, Connelly and Karnišovas would help lead the team to the

2019 NBA playoffs The 2019 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2018–19 season. The playoffs began on April 13 and ended on June 13 at the conclusion of the 2019 NBA Finals. Overview *The Milwaukee Bucks entered ...

after previously missing out the first five seasons under his guidance. In 2020, Connelly finished in ninth place for the Executive of the Year Award. In

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, Connelly was responsible in part for bringing over

Aaron Gordon Aaron Addison Gordon (born September 16, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one year of college basketball for the University of Arizona before bein ...

and JaVale McGee.Connelly claims to have asked for permission from All-Star Center Nikola Jokić before accepting the Gordon trade. Following the trade, Connelly said “The whole idea of trading people is really kind of gross to me...It doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t sit well with me...we have to acknowledge we’re in a different place than we’ve ever been. The playoff success last year, I think, speaks to what we’re capable of. I think we have the best coach in the league. I think we have the best player in the league. These guys have organically grown together and proven that they can beat anybody when we’re playing our brand of basketball.”

Minnesota Timberwolves

On May 23, 2022, Connelly was hired by the

as the president of basketball operations. He was reportedly signed to a 5-year, $40 million contract by the Timberwolves. Connelly is known by Timberwolves fans as David Kahn 2.0.

Personal life

All four of Connelly's brothers, Pat, Joe, Dan, and Kevin, work as scouts or managers in the NBA or college basketball. Pat was previously the assistant general manager of the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

, while Joe works for the Washington Wizards in player development, Dan is an advanced scout for the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

, and Kevin runs a scouting service for high school players. Connelly is a fan of the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...

and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

. Connelly is married to wife, Negah. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connelly, Tim Living people Catholic University of America alumni Denver Nuggets executives Fordham University alumni National Basketball Association general managers New Orleans Hornets executives Sportspeople from Baltimore Washington Wizards executives Year of birth missing (living people)