Reintegrating Mike Conley
Perhaps the biggest X-Factor to how the next 14 games go is none other than Mike Conley. There’s no more polarizing topic on Utah Jazz social media than the opinions of the fans for what to do with Conley.
Some say he will interrupt the chemistry, others say he will make the Jazz better. My stance on this topic is difficult to express in just a 280 character tweet, so I’ll explain it here.
Conley’s been a disappointment from what I was expecting him to be. I was expecting more of the Memphis Mike that scored 20 a game and ran the pick and roll to perfection. Having said that, he’s still played well for the Jazz. They play better with him on the court than they do with him off, and his basketball I.Q is second to none on the Jazz roster.
In a lot of ways, I believe Conley would make a great head coach even at the NBA level. It’s a luxury to have another coach on the floor; someone that has really good clock management, foul management, and an awareness of what’s happening both on and off the ball.
Utah Jazz lineups this year with Mike Conley on the floor and Jeff Green off the floor are +10.7 per 100 possessions with the offense in the 95th percentile and the defense in the 94th percentile
— David Locke (@DLocke09) January 20, 2020
In the blowout win over the Indiana Pacers in particular, Conley looked really good. He scored 14 points in just 18 minutes, and gave fans a reassurance that he will eventually get back to his normal self by April.
He will be an upgrade over the extended minutes Emmanuel Mudiay and Jordan Clarkson have been playing recently. Mudiay has already been forced into a lesser role in the rotation with Conley coming back, averaging five minutes per game the past three games as opposed to the normal 17 he got played previously.
Despite how pleasantly surprising Mudiay and Clarkson have been, I’d still rather have Mike Conley in the guard rotation when we face off against Damian Lillard, James Harden, and Luka Doncic. He will be a huge part of the Jazz’s playoff run this spring as he’s played a career 2093 playoff minutes.
Given the heavy density of good teams in the schedule, I expect the Jazz to be competitive with all their Western Conference counterparts. There should be some great games in store, particularly against the Nuggets and Mavericks. Breaking even and winning seven of the next 14 games is a good bar to set for this team. Hopefully they surprise me and do even better than that.