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Mike Conley Resurgence

Elizah Huge

Elizah Huge

Respect All, Fear None
Contributor
2024 Award Winner
Huge shoutout to Mike for his play this season.

- One of only 4 players in the NBA to average at least 6 assists per game and no more than 1.5 turnovers per game

- Conley/Clarkson are 4th in the league in APG for starting backcourts

- Conley is averaging a career high 7.5 APG

- His Assist/Turnover Ratio is an elite 5.2

- Shooting a career high 42.6% from 3 on 5.5 attempts per game

- He is +70 through 12 games

Too many people were down on him after a bad playoff series. I have always believed in Mike. Sexton has credited him multiple times for being a great mentor too.
 
He has been great. I would expect a team like the clippers to start calling pretty consistently over the next month to try and pry him away.
 
I wouldn't even consider trading him until the ASB. There's just so much he can teach the new guy's. Especially Sexton. If we see a drop off and decide to go into primarily development mode then kick the tires on a trade for someone younger or a future pic. If we're going to make a run in the playoffs keep him, he's a necessary piece to have any chance.
 
I was actually very worried about Conley this year. He obviously had a terrible playoff series, but he was also struggling all last season with getting past guys.

I still have some remaining concerns about him in a playoff situation, but I think Hardy has done wonders for him. Quin ball really damaged a lot of our players and habits. I forgot what it was like to have a different brand of basketball. I don’t think Conley is the same player he was before, but his resurgence has come with a better coach/system. We had almost zero off ball cutting and movement by the end of the Quin era. “Advantage basketball” had more or less turned into run PnR, spread out, and everyone stand around. Conley has been such a great maestro with all the additional cutting and movement. Defensively, it has also helped him out to have a more dynamic structure that creates more turnovers and provides more help defense beyond the C.
 
The Fresh Prince said:
Seems like Mike's back to playing how he did in Memphis. Quin didn't know how to use him with Donovan, and it hampered his abilities. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Also, having 6'6 Clarkson at the 2 instead of two undersized guards in the backcourt is paying off.
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This. I've always liked Mike but was against pairing him with Don in the backcourt. His salary made the prior iteration of the team inflexible with upgrades too. Glad to see him playing so well.
 
Hardy has been fantastic no doubt, but I think Quin is getting some unfair blame. Yes, Mike struggled his first year in Quins system, but the next 3 years he played terrific in the system, he even made his only all-star game two years ago under Quin. Quin coached the Jazz to the best record in the league two years ago, the #1 offense in the league last year and #2 the year before, we also had the #1defense and #2 defense in the league under Quin during the 17-18 and 18-19 seasons.

Some of the criticism is fair, lack of flexibility with his lineups and rotations, and lack of adjustments among other things, but acting like Quin was a bad coach or like he didn't get the best out of his players is just silly and not true.
 
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KqWIN said:
I was actually very worried about Conley this year. He obviously had a terrible playoff series, but he was also struggling all last season with getting past guys.

I still have some remaining concerns about him in a playoff situation, but I think Hardy has done wonders for him. Quin ball really damaged a lot of our players and habits. I forgot what it was like to have a different brand of basketball. I don’t think Conley is the same player he was before, but his resurgence has come with a better coach/system. We had almost zero off ball cutting and movement by the end of the Quin era. “Advantage basketball” had more or less turned into run PnR, spread out, and everyone stand around. Conley has been such a great maestro with all the additional cutting and movement. Defensively, it has also helped him out to have a more dynamic structure that creates more turnovers and provides more help defense beyond the C.
Click to expand...
Yeah here's why. This is a rare shot at Quin's office right after he left the Jazz, with 1/2 of his offensive system development notes.

1667948970325.png
 
Jingled said:
Some of the criticism is fair, lack of flexibility with his lineups and rotations, and lack of adjustments among other things, but acting like Quin was a bad coach or like he didn't get the best out of his players is just silly and not true.
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I think he’s a good coach, but I don’t think he got the most out of our overall roster construction the last two years. He got the best out of Rudy, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he didn’t get the best out of several other guys on our team.
 
The Fresh Prince said:
Seems like Mike's back to playing how he did in Memphis. Quin didn't know how to use him with Donovan, and it hampered his abilities. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Also, having 6'6 Clarkson at the 2 instead of two undersized guards in the backcourt is paying off.
Click to expand...
Hampered his abilities by making him a first time all star.
 
David Stern said:
I think he’s a good coach, but I don’t think he got the most out of our overall roster construction the last two years. He got the best out of Rudy, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he didn’t get the best out of several other guys on our team.
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The roster building sucked. He made a system that maximized what we had. His defensive message was flawed. DL gave him garbage to develop outside of Royce, Ingles, and Niang
 
Jingled said:
Hardy has been fantastic no doubt, but I think Quin is getting some unfair blame. Yes, Mike struggled his first year in Quins system, but the next 3 years he played terrific in the system, he even made his only all-star game two years ago under Quin. Quin coached the Jazz to the best record in the league two years ago, the #1 offense in the league last year and #2 the year before, we also had the #1defense and #2 defense in the league under Quin during the 17-18 and 18-19 seasons.

Some of the criticism is fair, lack of flexibility with his lineups and rotations, and lack of adjustments among other things, but acting like Quin was a bad coach or like he didn't get the best out of his players is just silly and not true.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Look at the playoff shot charts and how we lacked any mid-range game. One game against the Clips as I recall they took 0 shots in the midrange, and we were destroyed, while the Clips took advantage of all the open midrange we gave them. They knew we would not take mid range so overplayed the 3 and packed the paint. No adjustments for the same thing, year after year. Quin's offense let the other team's defenders largely rest as they only had to guard a zone as Quin had basically no cuts or off ball screens. He never adjusted D and Rudy was exploited. He let Don hero ball and not play D. No accountability.

We had an excellent roster and he couldn't get them to perform when it mattered.

The fact is, Quin got a free pass when the team was basically traded away, as we have no idea what Hardy would have done with that group.

I will say I thought Quin sucked at MO, and never wanted him, but tried to give him a chance.

Hardy, at 34, is doing amazing so far with a rag tag group, running strategies on both ends that are so enjoyable to watch.

I am wondering if Quin was basically fired, with some sort of agreement to let him step down.
 
Elizah Huge said:
Huge shoutout to Mike for his play this season.

- One of only 4 players in the NBA to average at least 6 assists per game and no more than 1.5 turnovers per game

- Conley/Clarkson are 4th in the league in APG for starting backcourts

- Conley is averaging a career high 7.5 APG

- His Assist/Turnover Ratio is an elite 5.2

- Shooting a career high 42.6% from 3 on 5.5 attempts per game

- He is +70 through 12 games

Too many people were down on him after a bad playoff series. I have always believed in Mike. Sexton has credited him multiple times for being a great mentor too.
Click to expand...
We are 2 then. I follow Mike since he got draft ( the reason why i also follow the Grizz) and i was telling the entire last year that Mike poor performance were not due to his age but to the ''spirit'' of the team. Mike is a real professional in terms of preparation. life habit and a perfect commander in a team with no drama queen. Unfortunatly Jazz got 2 of them last years ( I put Rudy in as he deserve as much blame for me than Don for not beeing able to make it works) and it make all things wrong. So glad DA see it as well and clean the floor.
 
I think pairing Jordan with Mike is also a much better fit than Don. but im still surprised to see that when Colin, Mike and JC are together on the floor it works pretty well. Definitly a big surprise for me.
 
TheGoldStandard said:
I disagree. Look at the playoff shot charts and how we lacked any mid-range game. One game against the Clips as I recall they took 0 shots in the midrange, and we were destroyed, while the Clips took advantage of all the open midrange we gave them. They knew we would not take mid range so overplayed the 3 and packed the paint. No adjustments for the same thing, year after year. Quin's offense let the other team's defenders largely rest as they only had to guard a zone as Quin had basically no cuts or off ball screens. He never adjusted D and Rudy was exploited. He let Don hero ball and not play D. No accountability.

We had an excellent roster and he couldn't get them to perform when it mattered.

The fact is, Quin got a free pass when the team was basically traded away, as we have no idea what Hardy would have done with that group.

I will say I thought Quin sucked at MO, and never wanted him, but tried to give him a chance.

Hardy, at 34, is doing amazing so far with a rag tag group, running strategies on both ends that are so enjoyable to watch.

I am wondering if Quin was basically fired, with some sort of agreement to let him step down.
Click to expand...

Definitely wasn't fired, lol. It was widely reported by some of the leagues best reporters that Quin was offered an extension that would've made him one of the highest paid coaches in the league. At the press conference after Quin stepped down, Ainge said that he and everyone else desperately wanted him to stay.
 
Jingled said:
Definitely wasn't fired, lol. It was widely reported by some of the leagues best reporters that Quin was offered an extension that would've made him one of the highest paid coaches in the league. At the press conference after Quin stepped down, Ainge said that he and everyone else desperately wanted him to stay.
Click to expand...

We dodged a huge bullet with that.
 
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