Utah Jazz: Major media outlet drastically underrates Mike Conley

Another younger, flashier point guard with (mostly) inferior advanced metrics, another point guard whose better than Mike Conley according to CBS Sports.

De’Aaron Fox, like Morant, has a bright future in the National Basketball Association. With a combination of blinding speed, rush hour ball-handling and advanced court vision, he is the life blood of the Sacramento Kings. Also like Morant, his importance to his team should not merit his ranking ahead of Utah Jazz veteran Mike Conley.

In fairness, Fox actually bested Conley in PER with a rating of 20.7. Conley still beat the young floor general in VORP and BPM: Fox’s marks in each category were 1.7 and 1.4 respectively.

We’re chalking Fox’s advantage in PER up to role. He is the first offensive option for the Sacramento Kings, and PER favors players who rack up counting stats, and does not account for variables like on/off value or team performance. In other words, Conley’s significant advantage in BPM (as a reminder, 4.4 to 1.4) should be taken as a more comprehensive measure of each player’s value, given the discrepancy in their roles in 2020-21.

There’s also the significant matter of Conley’s considerably more effective three-point shooting. Fox is only 23, but he’ll need to make significant improvements on the 32.2% accuracy he posted on 5.5 three-point attempts per game last season. Meanwhile, Conley functioned as an elite floor-spacer for the Utah Jazz, hitting 41.2% of his 6.6 attempts per contest.

Ultimately, fans of the Utah Jazz need not weep for Mike Conley. He’s used to being overlooked, and is probably more focused on the NBA Championship than he is on CBS Sports’ ranking of him among NBA point guards. Nonetheless, the media outlet absolutely under-ranked the veteran floor general by at least 3 placements in their most recent evaluation.