Mike Conley is an NBA legend for many reasons. He is an amazing all-around point guard, leader, and teammate. He was one of the faces of the incredibly successful Grit ‘n Grind Era Memphis Grizzlies who made the playoffs five years in a row from 2011 to 2015, including a Western Conference finals run in 2013. Conley was the facilitator for several incredible offenses and regular-season juggernauts in Utah alongside Donovan Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert. Possibly most impressive, though? He is one of only a few players in NBA history to never receive a technical foul or be ejected from a game, and he’s a three-time NBA Sportsmanship award winner.
Conley has entered a new chapter of his storied career in Minnesota after a wild season where he watched his team get blown up in Utah, joining the Wolves right before the trade deadline. There were initially some questions surrounding his age, and if he would still be able to perform at a high level. Most of the time, players 35 and over begin to lose a step with age. It’s not because they’ve magically lost their skills, but because the NBA requires a ton of physicality and athleticism.
Still, there are rare situations where players continue to be nearly as effective as they were in their prime in their late 30s. Mike Conley is one of them. While he may not have the same burst speed as he did in his mid-20s, Conley is still an incredible athlete, and hustles just as hard as any young player on the Wolves. Like quarterbacks in the NFL, point guards benefit from dealing with less bumping and hard fouling than other positions on the court. Theoretically, that allows them more longevity than players at other positions. Chris Paul is the best example of this. At 38, he is still playing a huge role on a team with championship aspirations. He’s mostly excelling, even if injuries tend to keep him from playing a full season.
Similar to Paul, a lot of the skills Conley has allow him to continue to be an extremely effective starter because they rely less on burst speed, and more on intelligence and game sense. On defense, that manifests in Mike’s ability to anticipate a screen from a defender and get around it without losing his man. Because of his experience playing against many different offenses, schemes, and players, Conley is able to accurately predict how best to navigate the defense. He is one of the few players on the team outside of the playoff revelation of Nickeil Alexander-Walker who has the speed to chase opponents shooters who are attempting to run him off screens. He also has the reaction time to not get stuck on the pick.
Similarly, Conley’s offensive game is predicated more on making smart plays, encouraging teammates to make the right pass, and working off the ball to get himself open. He rarely settles for an early shot clock three. When he does, it’s usually because he got four feet of space off of a high Rudy Gobert screen. Most of the time when players decline offensively in their 30s, it’s because they lost the burst speed that allowed them to run by defenders who are less gifted athletes.
However, players who are great shooters and learn how to use their teammates to create space for them generally don’t need burst speed to succeed. For example, there was a ton of consternation surrounding James Harden loosing his burst in his 30s and whether that meant he would stop being a dominant player. However, because he’s still such a great passer and shooter, Harden is still able to be a nearly All-NBA caliber player when he’s healthy, and can still drop 45 on the Boston Celtics in the playoffs.
Conley is also a very adaptable player. He’s able to tailor his game to what the team requires of him. While he’ll always be the same player, his role in Utah earlier this season seemed to ask him to facilitate more, get the young players on their team involved, and use ball movement to fuel a team that had very few dynamic creators, but a multitude of solid shooters and role players. In that run of 43 games, Mike averaged a career high 7.7 assists, while averaging his lowest shot attempt (8.7) and scoring (10.7) numbers since his sophomore season.
But Conley’s role changed when he came to Minnesota. The Timberwolves have several talented offensive players he can facilitate to. However, Mike was also asked to make up for some of the scoring load that D’Angelo Russell provided when he was here. Still, Conley was successful in taking on the role the Wolves asked of him. In the 24 games with the Timberwolves, he averaged 1.1 more shot attempts, 0.8 more free throw attempts, and 3.3 points per game than in Utah.
Conley also had a career high individual offensive rating in Minnesota, with an incredible 130. While the small sample size of games with the Wolves may somewhat inflate the number, it is certainly reflects that Mike can drive good offense. He keeps the ball moving when he’s on the court, makes smart passes, and has impeccable shot selection. That shot selection and many years of practice, of course, helped him shoot efficiently, especially beyond the three-point line. Conley hit 42% of his threes during the regular season in Minnesota, and had a 63.1% True Shooting Percentage.
He is also a pick-and-roll master, averaging 1.25 points per possession (score or assist) as the ball handler, putting him at the top of the league in the 98.8th percentile. Most often, he ran pick-and-roll with Gobert, to great effect. Other Wolves players haven’t learned how to use Rudy’s gravity to their advantage on offense. However, Mike played with Gobert for several years and knows that if a defender sags too far off of him after contact, he will have an open floater in the midrange. If the defender overpursues Conley, he has the pass accuracy to deliver the ball to Rudy where he wants it for either an easy dunk or a foul. They have been an incredibly effective pick-and-roll duo for years, and that has not changed since they moved to Minnesota.
Conley has been a savvy floor general for his entire career. Still it stood out just how good Mike is at running all parts of an offense when he came to Minnesota. The Timberwolves haven’t had this well-rounded of a true point guard on the team since Sam Cassell.
Finally, outside of everything on the court, Mike is a great guy to have around the franchise because of his many years of experience and the knowledge he’s gained from it. The Timberwolves are not as young as they were two years ago, or even last year. But in terms of average age on the roster, three of their most important players are still very young, and could all benefit from veteran leadership.
The Timberwolves have been assertive about having a veteran point guard on the roster for Ant to learn from every year since he entered the league. It was Ricky Rubio in his rookie year. In his second season, it was Patrick Beverley. Last year, it was a combination of Austin Rivers in the first half, and Conley in the second. Ant has spoken highly of all the veterans the Wolves have surrounded him with and how much he’s learned from them both on and off the court.
Given that Conley is a better overall player, and has had a much longer and more successful NBA career than any of Ant’s previous veteran point guards, it stands to reason that Edwards can learn even more from Conley. Beverley showed Timberwolves fans the value of having a veteran leader who can back up his advice with his play on the court. Conley can also do that, only in a much calmer, quieter way.
When a reporter asked which players surprised Conley the most when he came to the Timberwolves in his exit interview, he named the three young core pieces in Ant, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid. More importantly, he wore a hat with McDaniels’ face on it at the press conference. That’s true leadership.
From Memphis, to the Mountains, and now Minnesota, Conley continues to be a joy to watch play basketball. He’s also an incredibly insightful person to listen to in interviews. Mike’s game has aged like a fine wine. A meaningful portion of it is predicated on game sense, intelligence, and shooting. Therefore, there’s a solid chance that he could play into his 40s, even though that’s uncommon in the NBA. Vince Carter was right to advise him not to put a timeline on retirement, because Conley is the type of point guard the Wolves have been searching for for years. Selfishly, I want him around the team as long as possible.
