DALLAS – The Timberwolves had not had more than a single day off between games since early January. That means there hasn't been a lot of time to practice as the team has navigated one of its busiest stretches of the schedule.

But this weekend in Dallas, the Wolves had a few days between their game Friday in Memphis and Monday against the Mavericks. They took advantage of that time to get in a pair of practices, which came at the perfect time as coach Chris Finch and his staff try to get new acquisitions Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker up to speed with everything they need to learn about the Wolves' systems and terminology.

"I feel way better today than I did two days ago," Conley said.

As Finch and Conley both noted, there's a lot of similarity leaguewide in the kind of concepts teams employ, but terminology is different and Conley is trying to figure out what kind of rotations and schemes the Wolves run on defense. He is more concerned with getting up to speed on that end of the floor.

"Offense you pick up. You just go out and hoop sometimes and figure it out," Conley said. "But defensively you have to know exactly what's going on. One small mistake from one guy can result in a whole different reaction on our defense. I don't want to be that guy."

A lot of the talk since the three-team trade that dealt D'Angelo Russell to the Lakers has been about how Conley can affect the Wolves on the offensive end of the floor — how he will be a connector for Rudy Gobert, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, when Towns returns from a right calf injury.

“I'm trying to come up to speed as quickly as possible and I tell them, just keep communicating with me.”
Mike Conley

But Conley is also going to make his mark on the Wolves defense. He has a wealth of experience playing with Gobert and navigating pick and roll coverages with him.

"He has the benefit of having played with Rudy, so rotating around Rudy, which is something everyone has to get used to, he's got corporate knowledge of that," Finch said.

There's a key to playing with Gobert, Conley said, and it's developing a different set of instincts on the defensive end. Most players want to help when an opponent drives the lane, but with Gobert, the Wolves have had to learn to stay at home on the perimeter more and let Gobert man the paint.

"There's things you have to wean yourself off of, but it takes time," Conley said. "I'm adjusting to it again."

But another way Conley might help the Wolves' defense is his acumen on the ball. The Wolves couldn't put Russell on another team's top guard. Those assignments always seemed to fall to Jaden McDaniels, who typically guards the other team's best guard or wing player. Conley will be able to lighten the load for McDaniels and help McDaniels play more off the ball, where he can be equally disruptive on defense thanks to his length.

"It puts [McDaniels] in better low man positions, rotations will be slightly different for him a lot of times too. There's a ripple effect here," Finch said. "We feel that's overall a bonus for us."

Conley said McDaniels is a "special defender" and has been impressed watching McDaniels from afar and seeing him up close the last few days.

"They ask a lot of him," Conley said. "Me coming in, I want to be able to spell him. He doesn't have to guard the point guard the whole game or whatever it is he feels he needs to do, and give him even more bounce, more energy to sustain it throughout a whole game and be who he is."

Conley and the Wolves will get to show off how much progress they have made Monday against Dallas, a team also adjusting to a major acquisition with Kyrie Irving now in the fold. Perhaps Conley will draw some time guarding Irving one-on-one. No matter where he's playing, he just wants his teammates to communicate with him; eventually the concepts and terminology will click.

"I'm trying to come up to speed as quickly as possible and I tell them, just keep communicating with me," Conley said. "I can guard the ball, but I need you tell me what side I'm getting screened on. Am I going under or over it? Just let me know and I'll do what you tell me to do."