There was no way to know what the summer would bring.
On most days, Mike Conley turned off his phone. He reverted to his refuge, the golf course. He stayed off Twitter and Instagram and social media as a whole. He and his wife, Mary, concocted a contingency plan on what they would do with their family if he were to be traded. Like everyone else, Conley knew there was a chance he would be on the move in the offseason. He knew anything could happen to him, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and the rest of his teammates. Privately, he and Mary wondered if it was a smart thing to re-enroll the kids into the Salt Lake City school system.
“We tried to handle it as well as it could be handled,” Conley said The Athletic in a lengthy interview. “It was tough because there weren’t really many answers to the questions that we had. We didn’t know who was staying or going. We had no clue what to expect. It felt like every day I was being traded somewhere else.”
At one point, Conley thought he would be on the move to the LA Clippers. He received a message from a person he trusted that a move to the Clippers, a team that coveted Conley for multiple seasons, could be real. But the Clippers went with John Wall.
There’s a bit of irony that Conley played so well against LA in Sunday night’s 110-102 win over the Clippers. And a bit of irony that the angst and worry of the summer have bled into the total joy that the Utah Jazz have had earlier this season. Conley wasn’t traded from the Jazz, which is probably a product of a large contract, his 35 years of age and how badly he played in Utah’s playoff loss last season to the Dallas Mavericks.
But that seems far away now.
We are 11 games into the season and the Jazz are 8-3. They are tied with the Phoenix Suns at the top of the Western Conference. They are the only team in the Western Conference to have as many as eight wins. Of those eight wins, six of those victories are against teams that either made the playoffs or the Play-In Tournament last season.
“This was tough at first because I’m 35 and I’m so used to having championship aspirations,” Conley told The Athletic. “I came to the Jazz to play for championships. So I was wondering what would end up happening. But once we got a new coach (Will Hardy) here and he started laying things out, I knew that I wanted to be here. We are building and developing.
“I wanted to put my ego aside and focus on the guys. I’ve loved every second of being on this team, and we play a brand of basketball here that we haven’t played in a while.”
Utah has been one of the best stories in the league, a feel-good example of what can happen when a bunch of good players come together, play hard and play together. Conley has been at the forefront of that. He’s averaging 7.1 assists per game, which would be a career-high. He’s shooting 41 percent from 3-point range.
More important, he’s the calming influence for the Jazz. He’s the unquestioned leader on the floor. The Jazz run a beautiful offense with him at the helm, an offense that doesn’t run nearly as smoothly when he’s off the floor. The Jazz came into this season as a team most thought would try and tank their way to the bottom of the standings.
The Jazz never thought that way. Did they predict an 8-3 start heading into Monday night’s home game against the Los Angeles Lakers? An 8-3 start with this strength of schedule? Absolutely not. But, the Jazz front office knew they would be at least competitive with Conley on the floor, along with other veterans like Jordan Clarkson, Kelly Olynyk and Malik Beasley.
An early realization
Conley and the Jazz finished scrimmaging on the first day of training camp, a competitive session that ended with ice packs and protein shakes. The epiphany was clear from the jump. There were signs when the Jazz were scrimmaging in the days leading up to camp. But the camp served as a confirmation.
This team wasn’t awful. Far from it.
Conley and the rest of the Jazz heard what the media said. They heard what they were supposed to be. They answered questions about that effect on media day. They read the Twitter timelines like anyone else. For the most part, they publicly stayed quiet. They spoke about it among themselves.
“We just kind of looked around and said we’re not anything they say we are,” Conley said. “We have too many good players to tank. We knew from Day 1. This wasn’t a rebuild. We told ourselves that we aren’t that bad, and the guys locked in on that. We had a collective belief system and we knew we had a chance to have a good start.”
Teammates took to that message from the beginning.
“Mike was preaching that to us,” Utah guard Collin Sexton told The Athletic. “It gave us a lot of confidence. Plus, there were so many people writing us off that we wanted to come out and play with a chip on our shoulders.”
The group Conley leads is versatile, deep and one that can play in a multitude of ways. It’s a group that’s shown resiliency. On Sunday night, the Jazz led the Clippers for much of three quarters, but LA took control at the end of the third quarter and into the early stages of the fourth quarter. Utah never panicked. Conley and the starters got back onto the floor, the Jazz picked the Clippers apart and they pulled away at the end.
Utah’s found a way to beat multiple styles. The Jazz through 11 games have shown they can win a track meet or a slugfest. It’s the start that nobody imagined, not even the Jazz themselves. Not even Conley.
“If you had told me in July or August that we would be playing this well, I would have said, ‘Hey I’ll take it,'” Conley said. “Because it’s so early, I don’t want to take it as validating what we believe because we have a lot of proving to do. We know that we have a lot of room to improve and get better. We also know who we are and how we can play and how much better we can be. It’s a cool feeling to know we can do some of these things and quiet people in the process.”
Conley doesn’t know what’s in his future; he knows there’s a chance he can be traded before the season is over. But he’s having a lot of fun with this team. The unexpected winning is self-explanatory. But he’s getting back to being himself as a player. Because Mitchell was such a dynamic offensive presence, Conley had to relinquish a lot of ballhandling duties in recent seasons with the Jazz. Then coach Quin Snyder tried to balance that by staggering their minutes, but there’s no question Conley took a backseat to Mitchell.
This season, Conley has the ball. He’s back at the helm of the offense. He’s playing the same role that he played in Memphis with the Grizzlies. And the results are there.
“I think he’s one of the most underrated point guards in the history of our game,” Clippers head coach Ty Lue said.
When Conley has the ball, it’s like the security blanket Linus from the Peanuts totes around. The Jazz feel comfortable with him running the offense and they know they are most likely going to find a good shot on a given possession.
Hardy treats Conley almost like his version of Tom Brady. They consistently communicate during games. Hardy has given Conley the freedom to call the plays. It’s like running a team with carte blanche.
“I’ve learned a lot more from Mike than Mike has learned from me,” said Hardy, who is four months younger than Conley.
How long does this last?
Watching Conley play early in the season, it’s kind of hard to fathom how poorly he played in the Dallas series. It’s one of the reasons he’s still with the Jazz. Around the league, people whispered and wondered if Conley was washed.
It was quite possibly the worst playoff showing of his career. He averaged 9.2 points in 29 minutes in the six games. He shot 33 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3-point range. He and Mitchell had a difficult time staying in front of Jalen Brunson, who would go on to sign a hefty deal in free agency with the New York Knicks.
Conley doesn’t run from the reality that he played poorly. He does make it clear to say that his struggles did not have anything to do with him physically. He wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t tired. There was just a confluence of events that led to his struggles. It got so bad Conley went to Snyder in the middle of the series and told him if he needed to take him out and shorten his minutes, he was OK with it. He didn’t want to be on the floor if it felt like he was hurting the team.
“I thought shot-making had a lot to do with it,” Conley said. “That dictated a lot. I got into foul trouble in the second game, and they had some really good guards that were hard to play against. From the second game on, I just couldn’t buy a bucket. I got really frustrated because I felt like I played really well last year, and it was all undone for me by how I played in those 10 days. It just kind of erased it all.”
Like practically everyone on the current roster, Conley feels like he has something to prove. He is confident and still a player who is worthy of starting. Of that much, he is confident and can lead. Conley can run an offense and contribute to winning at a high level.
“Donovan was so good and there were so many other guys who could make plays that I stood on the sidelines a lot,” Conley said. “I’m back to having the ball and being a floor general and when I do that, I’m at home.”
Most importantly, Conley is having fun. The smile that defined his career is back. The quiet confidence is back. And Conley is in a mentorship role that he hasn’t been in much during his career. The Jazz core he previously played with was filled with veterans.
On this team, Conley and Sexton have developed a big brother/little brother relationship. They shoot together. They constantly communicate. The two being more than a decade apart in age, Sexton looks to him for advice. Conley’s having more fun with this team than he ever anticipated.
How long does it last? That remains to be seen. But the Jazz are currently one of the best stories in the league, and Conley is at the front of that story. Against the backdrop of the last season, this year can probably be described in one word.
Refreshing.
“Honestly, these young guys are keeping me in the moment,” Conley said. “Everyone is constantly asking questions and constantly wanting to watch the film. I kind of feel like a coach now. I love playing this game and I’m enjoying it.”
(Photo of Mike Conley and Will Hardy: Chris Nicoll / USA Today)
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