Mike Conley got off to an extremely rough start in his first season with the Jazz this year, and there has been a lot of speculation that Utah could look to part ways with him this offseason. One reporter who covers the team does not see that happening.
In his latest mailbag this week, Tony Jones of The Athletic was asked if the Jazz could move on from Conley this offseason to achieve better roster balance and open up more time for Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson. Jones described the chances of it happening as “almost zero.”
“There’s almost zero chance of the Jazz moving on from Conley,” he wrote. “First, they don’t want to. Second, even if they did, it would be exceptionally difficult to do so given his contract … Conley was playing his best basketball of the season (before the postponement), especially so because he’s finally gotten comfortable with the system. So Conley will almost definitely be in a Jazz uniform next season.”
Conley appeared to have turned a corner just before the NBA season was halted, and he spoke like he was getting much more comfortable with the team. His 13.8 points per game don’t look impressive, but he was hitting his stride at the perfect time for the No. 4 seed Jazz.
The Jazz had to experiment with different lineups at one point due to Conley’s struggles, so it will be interesting to see if the 32-year-old picks up where he left off. If he can continue to play the way he was three months ago, Utah could be an extremely tough out in the postseason.
