There was one problem in particular that tops my list in Conley’s rookie season and that’s finishing in traffic. He had trouble getting his shot off and needs to work on improving some floaters and other types of shots to give himself some options (he had an oddly low number of shot attempts at the 6-10 feet range). He shot only 49% inside the paint on what was mostly layups. Not a good enough percentage. Also bears mentioning over his last 10 games he shot 59% on those same shots which indicates he’s most likely learning. Those numbers have a lot in common with Rondo’s rookie season also, it’s also where Rondo got a huge bump on his shooting percentages his sophomore campaign (48% overall as a rook to 54% as a soph).

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Got off track, passive play. The fact that his play was passive worries me greatly. It doesn’t convince me he’ll ever become the star of a team but if you want a point guard who knows how to run a team, who’s a weapon and will help his team win. Conley will do that and he’ll do it very well. He is a floor general and he will help talented players get more out of their abilities by getting the ball in the right spots at the right time. He will push the ball and create some easy layups and he will push the ball to get his team into the halfcourt quickly. He will penetrate and create some havoc (not as much as he should) and he can be a good drive and kick point guard (again not doing it as much as he should). He can hit some open jump shots also. His defense was slightly above average as a rookie but I can see him improving as he gets more experience.

Conley is the type of guard you want running your team.

There was another game, it was in Boston. Rajon Rondo was the man Conley was matched up with. Rondo had just toyed with Rafer Alston the night before going for 13 points, 9 dimes, 5 boards and making Rafer look like an old man. Rondo’s quickness killed Rafer all night.

Well anyway …. Conley comes in and he has a quiet but effective game. He puts up 10 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds in 35 minutes. Not great production by any stretch. But all night long he’s the reason why Memphis are able to push the tempo and get good shots for Rudy Gay and Mike Miller. He’s also the reason why Boston was incapable of doing the same. Conley’s quickness and defensive ability frustrated Rondo all night long. Rondo finished with 4 points, 1 assist and 6 turnovers for the game. He completely took Rondo out of the rhythm of the game.

There was another game late in the season where Memphis were playing Portland. James Jones was red hot and hit 6 straight threes. Frye got hot and started dropping a few jumpers. Portland won fairly handidly. One player stood out for Memphis because he refused to give up and he caused them problems throughout. The Blazers commentators were saying stuff along the lines – if he had somebody out there with him this would be a ballgame – Portland are up 15-20 points at the time. Conley finished the game with 13 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. I mentioned the rebounds for a reason because in the first half Channing Frye was flexing his muscle and beating up the Grizzlies on the boards. Not a great sign for Memphis. Iavaroni was going ballistic. He laid into his team in the first half and appearantly had another go at them at halftime. He wanted his guards to go in and help out the bigs because they were being hopelessly outplayed. Conley stood up and fulfilled the orders. He finds out what’s necessary to win and tries to do exactly that.

I wrote “he should become a great thief” not that he is a great thief. He’s not making enough use of his talents defensively. My point was that he has great lateral quickness and very quick hands, he also has good anticipation and timing and should become a great thief. He isn’t right now. He’s shown he has the talent in college and those talents are still on display in pros albeit inconsistently, nothing has changed from that standpoint but the end result isn’t there yet. I think we’ll see the end result given time.

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Conley is a gifted passer. He’s also a pure floor general. I’ll offer up two examples from this season.

These are just two stories, not conclusive evidence, I just wanted to share them.

Memphis were playing Sacramento, Kings missed a shot, defensive rebound, outlet to Conley who was 20 feet away from his rim in the center of the court. Hawes and Darko were at the top of the key, Darko leaked out and about three feet of distance between the two and closing in on the three point line on the other end of the court. About four feet to the right of Hawes was another Sacramento defender. Conley caught the ball, one dribble, saw he couldn’t get the pass over the top, dipped to his right and threw a one handed bounce pass off the dribble 60 feet in between the two Sacramento defenders right to Darko on the move for the layup. It was beautiful. I had to re-watch that close to 25 times before I get back to the rest of the game. It was the best pass I saw all season.

There was another game it was his first game back from injury. Conley missed a lot of time early in the season which hurts any rookie, especially a guard, especially a point guard. The Grizzlies were playing San Antonio that night. They’re playing the first quarter, Rudy Gay has been making his leap to top dog on the team for two months at this point. That night he’s being selfish and breaking several plays, he isn’t even looking to pass the ball after he catches it. Nobody else on the Grizzlies can get good touches. Gay is losing the game for Memphis with his selfish ways. None of the veterans say anything or do anything. Now remember, this is one of Conley’s first games in the pros (and first since coming back from injury) and Rudy Gay is being anointed the new Franchise player for Memphis. Well the young point guard sees what’s happening and stops passing Rudy the ball for a few minutes to teach him a lesson, starts running the offense through Pau Gasol (who has Oberto on him) and suddenly Memphis starts pulling back in the game. It works beautifully. Rudy did a better of job of sharing the ball for the rest of the game until Conley was benched despite being the most effective guard on the court. That was impressive to me. That’s a point guard who knows his business. Who has great instincts and understands how to run the team. Unfortunately Pau Gasol was traded shortly after that and Memphis had no other offensive options for Conley to lead, from then it was give Rudy the ball and get out of the way offense my Memphis.

As for the rest of that Spurs game – Conley had 6 points, 3 dimes, 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. Nothing special but in the 20 minutes he played the Grizzlies were largely competitive and it was the only time in the game were the Grizzlies actually had ball movement. The rest of the game they were getting blown out. Conley also played the best defense on Tony Parker of any Grizzly.

I watched a fair few Conley games this season – he’s the only reason I’d go out of my way to watch a Memphis game – and every single game he’d do something that was very impressive. Quiet, sneak up on you type of moves but very good stuff. I’ve seen him throw all types of passes and I definitely believe him to be a gifted passer.

Assists aren’t a perfect measure of passing ability, but they’re the best one at my disposal and wouldn’t suggest he’s a “gifted” passer. 5.8 ast/36 compared to a truly gifted passer like Jason Kidd’s 8.2 as a 21 year old rookie or the 8.7 that TJ Ford dished out as a 20 year old rookie. Adequate and maybe even good, yes; “gifted,” no.

“He’s got incredibly quick hands which should make him a great thief in this league.”

Also not bourne out statistically. (Manu, for example, has averaged 2 stls/36 over his career and 2.4 as a rookie, while Conley averaged 1.1 last season. That’s slightly less than Crawford and Marbury at 1.2. Maybe he doesn’t jump passing lanes and get burned as often as those two… Still stls/min tend to decline with age, although they might rise slightly after his rookie year, especially if he was still suffering from the injury). Again, solid, but nothing special.

Conley should be a solid starting PG and probably (very likely) better than Livingston (who I was supporting), but I don’t know if he’s a real difference maker at the NBA level and the Knicks would give up a lot more than for Livingston if there was a chance to acquire Conley (which I doubt there is). Not sure how many teams would trade, say, the 15th best PF in the league for the 15th or even 10th best PG… This is compounded by the fact that Lee is already that good, while Conley’s POTENTIAL is to be that good.

I’d also trade David Lee for Mike Conley. Conley is a pure floor general and a gifted passer. He’s a great penetrator and has excellent handle. He’s an ideal option for D’Antoni offensively. Conley plays solid defense which should only improve in time. He’s got incredibly quick hands which should make him a great thief in this league. His jump shot is solid and developing.

Conley is a better point guard both in the present and potential than everyone in this draft not named Derrick Rose.

I’d rather Conley than the fifth pick although if Love is on the board that’s a very close call.

Love for Lee! Westbrook at 6. Maybe someone would take both for a higher pick, or a good veteran, or a lower pick and one of our crappy coach and cap killers. If it takes Lee to break this roster loose let’s do it. Lee’s good but he doesn’t even command a single team much less a double team a lot of the time and people go around him on defense.

I would say Lee has more chance of ending up in the Hall of Fame than the number 5 pick this year. But then again. 3 of the last 12 picks at 5 probably will end up in the Hall (Allen, Garnett, Wade)

That said, Lee straight up for the 5 is not a good idea, put me on record….

Right, so did I. Lee for the #5 straight up would probably be an excellent move. I’m not too enamored to know that Lee is and likely will always be a role player. The Knicks could land a HOF-caliber player at #5.