Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley turns 37, starts 18th NBA season

LOS ANGELES – Mike Conley celebrated his 37th birthday on Oct. 11, and on Tuesday he started his 18th NBA season.

For as old as that makes him in NBA years, the Wolves point guard still doesn’t feel the effects on his body.

“It’s weird, because I’m like sitting back, should I listen to what people are saying? Should I get older this year? Should I get worse this year?” Conley said at shootaround in Los Angeles before the Timberwolves played the Lakers. “I don’t feel like I am. I still feel the same. Still do the same things, still move the same. I just got to keep riding the wave and going until these wheels fall off.”

This season, the Wolves might be taking some extra precautions to make sure those wheels stay attached. Conley would typically play around 30 minutes per game last season, but expect the team to try and keep that number in the mid 20s, coach Chris Finch said at practice Sunday.

“We feel like we could keep his minutes in the mid 20s,” Finch said. “So kind of save some miles there.”

When it comes to playing back-to-backs, the team typically took its cue from Conley last season and most of the time he was good to play.

Conley doesn’t like to sit out games if he’s feeling healthy because it can help him stay in a groove.

“We’re not having a proactive plan with him,” Finch said. “He prefers to let his body tell us what’s coming. Sometimes when you have a plan all mapped out, guys don’t like that because they’ve been playing in a certain rhythm, and it kind of messes that rhythm.”

Conley said he still wants to play “as much as I can.”

“The bigger picture is to get through this regular season healthy and be your best self come playoff time,” Conley said. “We have that opportunity. Mid 20s, if that’s what it is, I’m sure it’ll fluctuate up and down depending on the game or matchup.

“But I’m still the same guy and I expect to try to help this team win.”

Newly acquired Donte DiVincenzo and rookie first-round pick Rob Dillingham could spell Conley more than he’s been spelled in the past.

Conley played through the latter half of the series against Denver and then the Western Conference finals despite a calf injury that limited his mobility. That experience will be on Conley’s mind as he goes through the season, with the goal being to make sure he can be at peak performance come the spring.

If that means fewer minutes on a nightly basis, so be it. Just not too many fewer minutes.

“I’m a big-picture guy. I understand that. If I was just 50 percent last year, I think I would’ve been a lot more helpful to the team in that Western Conference finals,” Conley said. “You want to try to balance that.

“You don’t want to go too far one way or the other. You don’t want to be playing 12, 15 minutes and not have rhythm, not be able to do what you can do to affect the game. You don’t want to go 35, 30-plus minutes too many nights.

“We’re gonna work on it all year and hopefully we get what we want the end of the year.”