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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It was all so weird for Mike Conley on Friday night. So much familiarity at FedExForum, and yet so much newness as well.

Just two days ago, Conley was traded from the Utah Jazz to the Minnesota Timberwolves, removing him from the team he had spent the past four years with and a situation he felt like he was just starting to master. Now here he was, in a new jersey and with new coaches. But he also couldn’t help but feel connected in so many ways.

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His first game came in the city he called home for 12 years, a place where he is beloved for his role in building the Grizzlies into a team that had to be reckoned with in the Western Conference. So many familiar faces around the arena, smiling at him and welcoming him back. Then he was flanked in the Wolves’ starting lineup by Rudy Gobert, his Jazz teammate for the previous three years and the single biggest reason the Wolves traded D’Angelo Russell to get him.

So forgive him if he felt a little discombobulated trying to process the whole thing.

“You look up, and I see guys, not just Rudy, but coaches on the staff that I know, guys that have been in Utah, guys that coached with me in Memphis,” Conley said. “It’s like I just saw them yesterday, and then I go out there and I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just confused at the same time. Then you add the element of being back in Memphis. Every time I come back to Memphis, it always brings chills.”

The welcome was warm. The treatment by his former team was not. The Grizzlies dominated the new-look Timberwolves in a 128-107 victory that exposed some of the tentativeness created by the trade. Conley scored nine points on 3-for-7 shooting with three assists and three turnovers in just under 26 minutes but said he can’t wait to get acclimated to his new teammates so they can start putting things together.

“I just came from an offense I felt like I just kind of mastered and figured everything out,” Conley said. “Come to a different one, it takes a little time. Hopefully, we’ll speed it up.”

What a fitting setting for Conley’s Timberwolves debut. He started his career in Memphis, serving as one of the foundational pieces of a team that changed the identity of a long-anodyne franchise. The Grizzlies were 22-60 in Conley’s rookie season, but the core eventually cooked up a Grit-n-Grind stew using Conley’s cerebellum, Marc Gasol’s woolly beard, Zach Randolph’s formidable posterior and Tony Allen’s locked jaw as the primary ingredients.

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On a team that intense, excitable and hungry, Conley’s poise and purpose leveled them out. The Grizzlies took time to develop, but they steadily morphed into a team that made the playoffs seven years in a row and advanced to a conference finals. More importantly, however, they forged an identity that endures to this day, long after they have gone their separate ways.

When you played the Mike Conley Grizzlies, they weren’t going to beat themselves. You had to wrestle them to the ground and pin them. That’s what the Timberwolves are trying to duplicate. This is a team that has often kicked games away, especially late in matchups. With Conley on the trigger, the hope is the Wolves get better shots and make better decisions in crunchtime, a portion of the game that killed them in the playoff series loss to Memphis last spring.

“I think it’s important to have a room that is reflective of championship-level habits,” president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. “We’re far from being a championship-level team, but it starts with habits, it starts with day-to-day routine. And I think doing our homework on Mike, it was consistent that you won’t find a more professional guy, a guy who’s more dialed in and a guy who’s more about the right things.”

Conley doesn’t come to Minnesota as a savior but as a connector, a player charged with uniting a talented roster but also one that has yet to get the parts to click together like it needs to. That starts with Gobert. The Wolves are ranked 18th in offensive efficiency this season, with a rating of 113.3 points per 100 possessions. When Gobert is on the court, that rating plummets to 109, per Cleaning the Glass. That would be 29th in the league over a full season.

Conley knows what it takes to acclimate to Gobert’s unconventional game. Last season in Utah, lineups with Conley and Gobert on the floor had a net rating of plus-10.3. The Wolves have been good defensively with Gobert on the floor, posting a rating of 109.4. It is on offense where Conley needs to get the big man going and the rest of the roster humming around him.

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“We feel there’s more meat on the bone in being able to help maximize Rudy offensively,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We’ve been getting better at it. You’ve seen it, but it’s still not been seamless. Mike’s experience of playing alongside of him is going to really help.”

Russell preferred to run pick-and-rolls with a pocket pass to the rolling big. Gobert often struggled to catch the bounce passes in traffic, making for a hard-to-watch grind in the half court. He wants the ball thrown up high where only he can get it, and Conley worked hard to hone that synergy with him in Utah.

“Rudy’s been smiling ear-to-ear because I’m sure he feels he’s going to get more touches in more appropriate places and times,” Finch said.

In their reunion Friday night, it looked at times like they never left each other. In the second quarter, Conley laid a bounce pass to Gobert off a screen but made sure it bounced high enough for him to bring it in. Gobert grabbed it, turned and dropped a no-look dump-off to Kyle Anderson for a dunk.

WHAT A DIME, RUDY 🤯 pic.twitter.com/AlHRTo7JPr

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) February 11, 2023

“Mike is someone I have a lot of respect for as a basketball player, and as a man, too,” Gobert said. “Someone that I think is a winning basketball player. He’s going to do all the little things on and off the court to help the team win. So, I’m really excited.”

At other times, it was clear there is still some work to be done as they get reacquainted. Conley’s first lob try to Gobert was a little too high, and his tip-in at the rim was off the mark. Conley is averaging just 1.7 turnovers per game this season against 7.7 assists but turned it over three times in 15 minutes in the first half.

“He’s a lob threat. He’s one of the best in the league,” Conley said. “That’s where I can kind of live in that paint and shoot floaters and make plays for him and make the game easier. Once you unlock him even more, it just makes the game a lot easier on the other four guys on the court.”

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If getting Gobert going offensively is Conley’s first order of business, serving as the adult in the room and a beacon for an excitable team is the next biggest priority. The Wolves lead the NBA in technical fouls and have earned a reputation as a team that bickers and complains at the officiating far too often. In 16 seasons in the NBA and 1,002 regular-season games, Conley has never been ejected and received only one technical foul, which was rescinded.

Connelly said Thursday that one of the biggest benefits Conley can provide is a consistent example for Edwards, who was named as an injury replacement in the All-Star Game on Friday, and Jaden McDaniels about the habits that need to be developed as a pro. Head equipment manager Peter Warden put Conley’s locker right next to Edwards’ in Memphis, and that configuration will likely remain that way.

“Leadership. Just being that veteran in the locker room that we needed,” Edwards said. “He can shoot the ball really good. Pass the ball. Him and Rudy got a really good connection, so I think it should be pretty good.”

The 35-year-old Conley said the 21-year-old Edwards had one question for him when they first met.

“Do you play Call of Duty?” Edwards asked, referring to the immensely popular video game. Conley chuckled as he relayed the story, but it was a stark sign to him of just how young Edwards is.

“Hopefully, my steady hand and what I’ve been through and seen — I’ve played with a lot of different personalities, a lot of different guys and know how to approach a lot of situations. Hopefully that helps unlock that and allows all these guys to get better as the season goes along,” Conley said.

And yes, he does play Call of Duty. But he can relate more to Edwards through his experiences sharing the backcourt with Donovan Mitchell, another athletic, dynamic combo guard, in Utah.

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“Thankfully I’ve been through that and understand a little bit better how to be effective doing that,” he said.

Karl-Anthony Towns was getting a workout in during shootaround and appears to be starting to ramp up toward a return from more than two months off with a calf injury. When he comes back, the Wolves will have another mouth to feed on offense. They did not think that having Russell’s more shot-heavy offensive profile on the floor with Towns and Edwards was the way to go. With a game-manager style, Conley will try to make sure everyone gets their touches where they need them.

“I don’t think there will be an issue with who is shooting and who’s not,” Conley said. “We’ll figure out that if we move the ball more, everybody gets to eat. I’m excited to hopefully get him back soon.”

Game 1 without Russell was a rousing success, a 143-118 wipeout of the stripped-down Jazz in Utah. Game 2, against much stiffer competition, wasn’t as pretty.

The Grizzlies bludgeoned the Timberwolves 72-48 in the paint, shot 58 percent from the field and suffocated Edwards into 8-for-19 shooting. Gobert grabbed 10 rebounds but scored just eight points and was constantly attacked by the Grizzlies. Santi Aldama scored right over Gobert at the rim twice in the fourth quarter to stunt any hopes of a Wolves comeback.

Ja Morant got whatever he wanted, putting up 32 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, terrorizing the Wolves’ perimeter and interior defense all night.

“We’ve been really good defensively in the last month and a half, but this game and the Denver game, we’ve lost our defense,” Finch said. “We got to get back to better rim protection, better point of attack defense.”

oui oui. https://t.co/03gzL6fCQH pic.twitter.com/9HBvsdk1ue

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) February 11, 2023

The Wolves have been crushed in their past two games against Western Conference contenders, including a 146-112 loss Tuesday in Denver.

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“I think we got to get back to being a top defensive team like we were in January, and I think I got to set the tone, raise my level up. And I think everyone will follow,” Gobert said.

No one expected things to look perfect on the first night. But the wipeout did show how much work needs to be done. The Wolves will get their first two practices in a while when they go to Dallas this weekend. The more time Conley gets with his new teammates, the better the Wolves anticipate things will be.

“This team hasn’t reached the potential that is out there, and that’s an exciting thing,” Conley said. “Coming in here and being a part of that, and hopefully helping that develop really quickly and allowing us to get to the playoffs and make a run at it.”

(Photo of Jaren Jackson Jr. and Mike Conley: Justin Ford / Getty Images)

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