Minnesota Sports Forum

Whether you love Russell or hate him... his recent departure leads to some pretty significant changes moving forward. The Wolves brought in 35-year-old Mike Conley. Will he work out?

I dunno. Only time will tell. Here's a couple of things from Jazz beat writer from The Athletic, Tony Jones:

https://theathletic.com/4170646/2023/02/09/jazz-blockbuster-trade-westbrook-conley/
- "And while he wasn't Utah's best player this season -- that title goes to Lauri Markkanen -- Conley was pretty clearly Utah's most important player."
- "Multiple sources said the Jazz did have reservations about putting Alexander-Walker in the deal... Of the players Utah surrendered, Alexander-Walker was the hardest to part with."

The guy seemed to sprinkle in pro-Conley nuggets into many of his articles.

Things like "This is why the Jazz are missing so much with Conley. They don't have another player on the roster who can replicate the best of what Conley offers on and off the floor. So, if the Jazz have Conley and are healthy, they have a chance to win games. If not, winning games becomes a lot more difficult."

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Does any of that mean it's going to be a good trade? No. But usually it can be a good omen when local beat writers applaud a guy. I think?

To many good players played poorly once they found themselves on the Wolves roster for me to believe any hype.

Time will tell, of course, but you have to like what the Utah beat writers and players are saying about Conley. I like Tony Jones describing him as "pretty clearly Utah's most important player". If Jon K is saying the same thing about Conley at the end of this season, I think the mood on this board will be much better than it is right now.

I've also enjoyed reading comments from the Utah players since the trade...they are clearly not happy:

https://www.deseret.com/2023/2/9/23592280/utah-jazz-locker-room-shaken-after-mike-conley-trade?utm_campaign=nbasarah&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

https://www.ksl.com/article/50575338/hes-everything-you-want-jazz-reflect-on-mike-conley-following-loss-to-timberwolves



To be fair, Ant said some nice things post-trade about Dlo also, but I think we can all agree they were not anywhere near the level of what we are hearing from the Jazz players. When I read about Colin Sexton following Conley around practices to soak up knowledge, I think that a young developing PG like JMac might really benefit from being around him. And when I note the leap Lauri has made this season and how he and Clarkson would go to Conley for advice, I get excited about what he is going to do for the development of Ant, Jaden, Nowell and even Minott. And then there are the effusive comments from Rudy about being reunited with him. We don't know how this is going to turn out, but you can't help but be excited when you hear the Jazz players talk about what the have lost.

But then again, and to SP's point, we are the Wolves...

Local beat writers should applaud productive players once they leave to a new team. That should be the professional norm, especially if they've done extra for the organization -- things that aren't specified in their job duties, such as: community services, fan interactions, podcast participation, etc. Typically, that's what does happen, but other times there's a smear campaign. I guess it just depends.

Camden wrote:Local beat writers should applaud productive players once they leave to a new team. That should be the professional norm, especially if they've done extra for the organization -- things that aren't specified in their job duties, such as: community services, fan interactions, podcast participation, etc. Typically, that's what does happen, but other times there's a smear campaign. I guess it just depends.

To be fair, Tony Jones applauded Conley (more than most other Jazz players) while he was still with the team, too.

As for the Russell stuff... as noted, Jon Krawszynski is tight with Connelly. He does seem to be his PR mouthpiece a bit. Still... I think he's one of the best in the business.

I also don't know if your take is all that accurate either.

Here's a comment this morning from Dane Moore:

The Wolves needed *a guard* who could activate Gobert on offense -- which was on Ant just as much as it was on DLo (honestly, more on Ant) -- it couldn't just be the power forwards (KAT and Anderson). The Conley addition is providing that guard.

In my view Dane way off the mark. We don't need Gobert's offense. We need his defense. That's why TC threw all those assets at Danny Ainge and that's why the Wolves were willing to pay $40 million + per year for four years. It was great to see Rudy score 21 points on 9-9 shooting last night and I like what we've seen from Conley so far. But perhaps Dane just doesn't remember that Rudy had multiple 20 point games with DLO and Ant in the backcourt earlier this season. So it's not as if Conley has worked any magic or that Ant and Rudy were stifling Rudy's offensive production. I thought the Rudy we saw last night was the same Rudy we've seen in a number of games - scoring points efficiently and grabbing a lot of rebounds but not blocking shots or being the defensive force many were counting on him to be. Nevertheless, Rudy was a major positive factor in last night's win and the team's defense was better with him on the court than without him the first three quarters.

At some point, Rudy's role will have to be defined clearly around his strengths - defense in the paint/rim-protection, rebounding, clean up dunks on offensive rebounds, and pick-setting with an occasional lob on offense. That's especially true when KAT returns. In fact, part of the Wolves slow start in my view was attributable to an overemphasis on trying to get Rudy involved in the offense. There are times when facing teams like Dallas with very weak interior defense that Rudy can score 20 points and help the team that way. But that's not his strength. And this team's fate will not and SHOULD NOT turn on the ability to "activate Gobert on offense." If that's a key to this team, then we're in big trouble.

The 4th quarter spell where the Wolves played through Kyle Anderson who was first looking for Rudy Gobert was amusing... and definitely not sustainable for long-term success.

lipoli390 wrote:Here's a comment this morning from Dane Moore:

The Wolves needed *a guard* who could activate Gobert on offense -- which was on Ant just as much as it was on DLo (honestly, more on Ant) -- it couldn't just be the power forwards (KAT and Anderson). The Conley addition is providing that guard.

In my view Dane way off the mark. We don't need Gobert's offense. We need his defense. That's why TC threw all those assets at Danny Ainge and that's why the Wolves were willing to pay $40 million + per year for four years. It was great to see Rudy score 21 points on 9-9 shooting last night and I like what we've seen from Conley so far. But perhaps Dane just doesn't remember that Rudy had multiple 20 point games with DLO and Ant in the backcourt earlier this season. So it's not as if Conley has worked any magic or that Ant and Rudy were stifling Rudy's offensive production. I thought the Rudy we saw last night was the same Rudy we've seen in a number of games - scoring points efficiently and grabbing a lot of rebounds but not blocking shots or being the defensive force many were counting on him to be. Nevertheless, Rudy was a major positive factor in last night's win and the team's defense was better with him on the court than without him the first three quarters.

At some point, Rudy's role will have to be defined clearly around his strengths - defense in the paint/rim-protection, rebounding, clean up dunks on offensive rebounds, and pick-setting with an occasional lob on offense. That's especially true when KAT returns. In fact, part of the Wolves slow start in my view was attributable to an overemphasis on trying to get Rudy involved in the offense. There are times when facing teams like Dallas with very weak interior defense that Rudy can score 20 points and help the team that way. But that's not his strength. And this team's fate will not and SHOULD NOT turn on the ability to "activate Gobert on offense." If that's a key to this team, then we're in big trouble.

It's a math game. Rudy on lob dunks is super high percentage so tapping into that makes sense, he led the NBA in FG percentage if I remember correctly last year. It's a team game to get him going for sure. But it would be foolish not to use him IF you can do so without turning it over a ton like DLO did. DLO simply turned it over more then was acceptable. Thus the effectiveness even at 70% wasn't great. Now if you can feed him and not turn to over and finish at 70% then you win win win. Like what is better a 50% midrange or a 70% rim finish? I'll take the 70% shot as long as the turnover doesn't make up for that 20% difference.

And really the lob dunk might be 85-90% because that has to be higher percentage then his avg shot attempt. Some put backs and drives have to be lower percentage. I'm sure the analytics are out there, it's simply math at the end of the day.

Hard not to like a player with poise handling the point in basketball. I hope his health holds up. I wanted Conley on this team for so long. Now its very late in his career and I am going to be very cautious about praising him. Last night was a really nice game for him.

I thought the value in trading away DLO was getting three 2nd's when it was obvious we couldn't reach agreement on a future contract with DLO and he and Finch had at least some sort of frustration at times. I didn't think that the swap of PG's wasn't all that much of a win or loss but after watching Mike run the point he does exactly what this team needed. Solid control of the offense, hits open shots and can drive and finish or kick to open shooters. I know he's 35 but his defense is still an upgrade over DLO. I went from thinking this was more about contract and adding three 2nd's to thinking wow this might be a solid fit. I'm actually turning the corner and developing some optimism for this Wolves team.