Macbook pro (16 inch 2023) mitigation via direct connection or network

Just bought this at Apple store and when I got home found no USB ports and no ethernet ports. Apple store people did not tell me I would need a USB adapter or a Ethernet adapter. After I get these adapters I want to mitigate data from old macbook pro to new macbook pro using Time Machine backup on a external USB drive. Can I use a USB-C to USB adapter to connect the Time Machine external drive directly to the new macbook pro to mitigate the data or do I need to use the wi-fi function of the new macbook pro to connect to the external drive via the network to mitigate the data?