Peak Mike Conley changes everything for the Utah Jazz offense

Point-man Mike Conley paced the Utah Jazz in what was arguably their strongest offensive effort of the season against the LA Clippers.

When the Utah Jazz signed Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic and others over the summer, it became a matter of when — not if — the team’s offense would take a leap into the stratosphere. You had to wonder whether the team could maintain its status as the Association’s best defense, but there was no question that shots were going to fall in bunches.

Strangely, Utah’s first four games mostly haven’t fit that narrative. Instead, they featured the sort of fare we had come to expect before all the big upgrades; the Jazz defense looked as locked-in as ever, but struggled to find a flow offensively or score with consistency.

On Wednesday, though, that leap may have finally come. Against a Los Angeles Clippers squad that was missing its top guns, but still had the ability to give them problems, the Jazz dropped 110 points, hit 55 percent of their shots and 46 percent from distance. More than that, though, Utah limited turnovers, hit its spots better and just looked more cohesive as a unit.

Not coincidentally, the outburst came just as Conley finally caught his stride.

Over his first four games in Jazzland, the 32-year-old looked like a shell of himself offensively, missing reads in the Jazz offense and watching as his trusted floater and deadly 3-point shot both clanged off of iron time and time again. All told, he made just nine of 45 shots (20 percent) overall and 15 percent from three.

Against the Clips, the real Mike Conley finally stood up. In 32 minutes of play, the former Memphis Grizzly scored 29 points on 17 shot attempts, hit five triples and added five assists to only two turnovers.

During a decisive three-minute stretch in the third carom, he scored 12 points to key a 14-2 run; the sequence transformed a one-point deficit into a double-digit lead and the Jazz never looked back.

With Ricky Rubio at the helm over the previous two years, the Jazz definitely did some good things in spurts, but inevitably Rubio’s inability to be a consistent threat from the perimeter cramped the team’s style and spacing offensively. That’s why the Jazz were willing to take a flier on Conley, a non All-Star making more than $32 million per yer.

The running theory was that his ability to direct the traffic, make plays for himself and others and hit shots would yield added production at the point guard spot and open things up for Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and the rest of the squad.

Against the Clips, we finally saw what that looks like and it was glorious.

If Conley can keep it going, we’ll see the offensive fireworks fans envisioned over the summer. That combined with the team’s defense seemingly not missing a beat has all the makings of a special year in Jazzland.

• Published on 10/31/2019 at 5:24 PM MDT
• Last updated on 10/31/2019 at 5:24 PM MDT