The connections between the Nuggets and Timberwolves go deeper than the current crop of players, coaches and executives who have moved between Minnesota and Denver in the last handful of years.
The Adelman family and Elston Turner, a Timberwolves assistant, go way back.
“That was my dad’s lead assistant forever,” Nuggets assistant David Adelman said after Thursday’s practice at Ball Arena. “How Elston Turner never was a head coach is a crime. He was a lead assistant for so many teams that won so many games, great human being, players trust him. Not everything makes sense in this business, but (he’s) a great man.”
Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman watches play against the Utah Jazz during the first half of an NBA basketball game April 1, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)
There are a couple of other members of the Timberwolves organization the Nuggets know well. Nikola Jokic and Minnesota assistant Micah Nori developed a relationship at Summer League roughly a decade ago.
“He always made me run the lines, and I didn’t get the ball from him. He didn’t trust me at all. He always wants to take all the credit for my success right now,” Jokic said Wednesday.
“Micah’s a really good guy. He’s a funny guy. His whole family is really funny. He’s a good guy to be around.”
Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach Micah Nori, left, and head coach Chris Finch stand on the court during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder Feb. 13, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Then, there’s Tim Connelly. The Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations drafted Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. He also orchestrated the trade that brought Aaron Gordon to Denver and completed the core of Denver’s first championship roster.
“Tim’s a really close friend. Tim’s one of the reasons I was here,” Adelman said.
“There’s a lot of connections.”
The connections continue with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch, who spent a season on Michael Malone’s staff in 2016-17, and Bones Hyland, whom Connelly drafted in Denver. When it looked like Hyland was on his way out of the league, Connelly offered a lifeline via a two-way contract with Minnesota last season. Hyland made the most of the opportunity, earning a standard roster spot and appearing in 71 regular-season games. He averaged 8.5 points and shot 39% from 3-point range this season.
“They’ve got Bones in there, so they’ve got some scoring,” Aaron Gordon said of his former teammate. “Naz (Reid), too, can shoot it. It’s a good team.”
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Bones Hyland (8) drives past Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun (0) in the second half of an NBA basketball game March 1 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
It was a one-way road from Denver to Minnesota until this offseason. Jon Wallace joined the Nuggets in 2019 as a basketball operations associate and later became the Nuggets’ scouting coordinator before leaving to become Minnesota’s director of player personnel. Now, he’s back in Denver as executive vice president of player personnel, leading the Nuggets’ front office alongside Ben Tenzer.
The level of familiarity has made for quite a competitive rivalry. The Nuggets won three of the four regular-season meetings this season, but the Timberwolves swept Denver the year before. The two teams split the regular-season series in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
The Nuggets eliminated the Timberwolves in five games in a first-round series in 2023. The next year, Minnesota erased a 20-point deficit in Game 7 to end Denver’s dreams of repeating.
“It’s a team you see a lot. It’s a team that we’ve had a couple of good series with. Obviously, they got us last in a tough game,” Nuggets guard Christian Braun said Wednesday. “We’ve got to get them back.”
Adelman said he and Connelly exchanged text messages a week or two ago, but communication is on hold for a while, even for old family friends.
“It’s weird to shake their hands after the series, because you know those guys so well,” Adelman said. “It’s kind of (like) ‘See you in a couple of weeks.’”