Utah Jazz can’t afford Mike Conley slump to continue

The Utah Jazz need Mike Conley to perform at the high level he’s expected to if they are to have any hope of reaching their illustrious goals in 2019-20.

Throughout the course of an 82-game season, there are going to be ebbs and flows, highs and lows, ups and downs. For the Utah Jazz, such has already been the case in the 2019-20 campaign’s early-going. And unfortunately, with the Jazz dropping a pair of consecutive winnable games, the lows happen to feel more prevalent than the highs right now.

The Utah Jazz have had some bright points, to be sure, but as a whole, they have yet to put together what I would consider an impressive or convincing win. So far their victories are comprised of a too-close-for-comfort bout against a subpar Oklahoma City Thunder team, a win over the Sacramento Kings in which the blowout was rather nullified by the weak opponent, a lucky one-point win over the Phoenix Suns and a victory over the Kawhi Leonard-less LA Clippers.

Yes, the Jazz played well in the wins over Sacramento and LA, but given the status of both teams in those contests, it’s hard to really categorize them as impressive. Factor in that the Jazz lost to both those teams in the rematch, and that feels even more like the case.

Utah’s most recent losses to Sacramento and LA really hurt. In both games, rebounding was a massive issue, with the Jazz giving up 11 offensive boards in the former, including one from Harrison Barnes in the game’s waning seconds that would lead to the game-winning shot, and an abysmal 18 in the latter to the Clippers. LA dominated Utah on the offensive glass which ultimately led to a lopsided fourth quarter and defeat at the hands of Kawhi and Co.

The Jazz have had plenty of other issues alongside this such as turnovers, poor decision making and shoddy three-point shooting (they shot less than 30 percent in both recent losses). But one that stands out head and shoulders above the rest and actually has contributed to a lot of these poor performance areas has been the lackluster play of Mike Conley.

Through seven games, Conley has really only had one good showing which came in the first game against the Clippers wherein he put up 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field. Even with that prolific game, Mike is averaging just 12.4 points (his worst mark since his rookie season), 3.9 assists (career low), and 3.1 turnovers (career worst) while shooting just 31.8 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from deep, both career lows.

Now, obviously, seven games into the season is far too early to raise any kind of significant alarm. Conley’s body of work over 12 NBA seasons is far more telling than just a seven-game sample size. And it’s entirely understandable that it will take some time for Conley to adjust to a new system and an adjusted role from what he’s been used to during his career in Memphis.

If a mini-slump like this took place midway through the season, it wouldn’t feel all that worrisome at all, but rather just a part of the ups and downs of the game. The fact it’s taking place at this early juncture just makes it feel more punctuated for Jazz fans.

So in other words, there’s no need to panic about Conley just yet. Even so, his slow start is lingering surprisingly longer than expected and is undoubtedly at least somewhat troublesome. And it’s undeniable that for the Jazz to truly meet their ceiling and become the team they were projected to be, they need Conley to bust out of this slump and emerge as the dynamic player he’s reputed to be.

It was expected that the Jazz would be a little slow out of the gates as they adjust to new faces, but while guys like Bojan Bogdanovic, Jeff Green and even Emmanuel Mudiay seem to be figuring things out rather quickly, it has remained a struggle for Mike Conley. If he had even shot an average percentage in each of the Jazz’s losses, it’s quite possible that each and every one of them could have turned into a win.

But it’s not just poor shooting, Mike has looked out of sorts and uncomfortable in about every way imaginable. He’s not making the right reads or passes, he’s turning the ball over at a high rate and he’s often struggled to stay in front and defend adequately, resulting in blow-bys or foul trouble.

Fortunately, it’s early in the season and Conley has plenty of time to turn things around. As smart of a player as he is and as successful of a player as he’s been throughout his career, there’s no doubt in my mind that his abysmal early figures will eventually round back into the norm as he gets into more of a comfortable rhythm. Yes, it’s already taken longer than expected and may still take longer yet, but I’m confident that Mike will get there.

Unfortunately, until he does it will likely only continue to result in Jazz losses, especially in some of these tightly-contested and/or 50-50 games such as the two most recent defeats at the hands of the Kings and Clippers. And while the losses may feel insignificant right now with over 70 games still left to be played in the regular season, they won’t feel insignificant if the Jazz miss out on a top seed or home court advantage by only a game or two at season’s end.

The Jazz have shown glimpses of the promise they were speculated to have this summer. They’ve even had stretches where they’ve been brilliant. But as long as Conley continues to flounder, the Jazz will only be a fraction of what they could otherwise be.

If Utah wants to keep up in a deadly Western Conference and truly challenge for a top seed and title contention, they can’t afford for Mike’s slump to last much longer. And while Jazz fans should be patient and have every right to expect him to work his way out of this, at $32 million per year, it’s hard not to want to demand more and sooner out of him than what he’s displayed thus far.

Unfortunately, his road to success won’t get much easier any time soon as the Jazz face off against two of the giants in the East in the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks in their next two games. If the Jazz want to have any hope of emerging victorious in those two and of reaching their highest potential throughout the season, they’ll need the Conley of old to show up consistently as soon as possible.