The Utah Jazz play former Jazzman Ricky Rubio tonight. If Mike Conley doesn’t take the Jazz to greater heights than Rubio did, then is this trade a failure?
Back in June of 2019 when the Utah Jazz acquired Mike Conley, many considered the Jazz to be contenders in the league.
The Jazz had appeared to finally have broken the point guard curse since Deron Williams was traded in 2011, and that would take their team to the next level in the postseason. They were set to have one of the most dynamic backcourts in the league.
Donovan Mitchell was a borderline All-Star in his own right, and seemed prime to take the leap into super-stardom the way Dwyane Wade did in his third year as a pro. And Conley, despite being 32 years old, was coming off a great individual year in Memphis where he averaged 20 points per game.
His acquisition marked the end of the road for a beloved Jazzman Ricky Rubio. “Tricky Ricky” as they liked to call him, was part of the Jazz team that turned many heads in the 2017-18 season.
They started out slow and looked like they would miss the playoffs, a smack in the face after losing Gordon Hayward for nothing in free agency the previous summer.
We all know the story of how Donovan Mitchell emerged as the leading scorer for the Utah Jazz and sparked that run, but another less talked-about component of that story was Ricky Rubio. He did not look well in his first 32 games as a Jazzman.
He was turnover prone and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with his shooting. The supposed two man game that he was hyped up to develop with Rudy Gobert was just not materializing.
Then a switch flipped. It took him some time to learn Quin Snyder’s offense, but once he did (among a bunch of other factors, including Gobert’s health), the Jazz became unstoppable.
Ricky Rubio in 2017-18:
— Caleb Manser (@CjChaze) February 24, 2020
First 32 games: 11.8 points, 4.8 ast, 3.8 rebs, 3.2 TO, 39 FG% 29 3pt %
Final 46 games: 13.9 points, 5.7 ast, 5.2 rebs, 2.4 TO, 43 FG%, 39 3pt% #TakeNote
Despite the shortcomings of his shooting stroke, Rubio became a fan favorite in Utah both on and off the court. It would take a really good point guard in this league to be able to replace his value to the team and community.
Mike Conley, just like Rubio, did not start off on the right foot in Utah. He wasn’t getting as many shots up as he was accustomed to in Memphis, and he wasn’t used to playing with a non-floor-spacing big like Gobert.
The Jazz went on their biggest winning streak this year while Mike Conley was out nursing a hamstring injury. I don’t believe the absence of Conley had anything to do with that, if anything he makes this team better.
But it certainly didn’t help for his reputation among casual fans that he had yet to emerge as the guy Utah thought they were traded for. Mike slowly ramped up his minutes and eventually rejoined the starting lineup for four games before the All-Star break.
He averaged 20.3 points, 5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in those four games and the Jazz won three of them. It looked like he was primed to emerge as the Jazz’s elite point guard in the nick of time for the playoffs.
So going back to the original question – Is Mike Conley a failed trade if he doesn’t take the Jazz to greater heights than Ricky Rubio did? In the two years with Rubio, the Jazz made it to the playoffs twice, advancing in one of the years.
The Jazz have Conley under contract for this year, and likely next year unless he decides to turn down 30 million dollars. As of right now they are the fifth seed in the Western Conference, and are projected to stay there by Five-Thirty-Eight.
Under that circumstance, the best the Jazz can really do is win the series against the Houston Rockets and not get swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. The worst would be a first round exit for the second year in a row.
The whole reason the Jazz front office made a roster overhaul last summer was to be better than just a first round exit team. They wanted to see progress in the postseason the franchise has been craving for over a decade.
Mike Conley and the Utah Jazz’s biggest and most important test of this season will come in the playoffs this spring. But tonight when he goes head-to-head with the guy he replaced, Ricky Rubio, it will be a test to see if the front office should have kept Rubio in the first place.
If the Jazz win and Mike has a great game, then it will be all roses for the next few days. If Rubio owns Conley in the individual match-up and the Jazz give us another unconvincing performance, then we need to take a long hard look at all that we gave up just to acquire Conley from the Grizzlies.