When the trade was initially announced back on Feb. 8 that the Minnesota Timberwolves were shipping D’Angelo Russell to the Los Angeles Lakers and receiving the 36-year-old Mike Conley Jr., I entered a funk – asking myself over and over again, did that just happen? Like many people, I wasn’t sure how dealing a player entering his prime for someone 10 years older was wise. However, nothing could have prepared me for the immediate impact that Minnesota Mike has had on this now vet-riddled Wolves squad.
“I’m like a rock, man,” Conley said before his first game with the Timberwolves. “I don’t get phased too much at any moment. Large or small, I’ve kind of seen it all now. I’m truthfully a team guy, I try to get everybody involved, and I’d take an assist over a bucket any day. We got a lot of guys on this roster with talent who can score the ball and really need their opportunities, so I’m going to do my best to try and provide that. And be the guy on both ends for this team.”
Conley only put up 20 points in one game this season for the Utah Jazz, so I didn’t view him as a scorer. Instead, I saw a level-headed floor general who would stay “like a rock” regardless of what was going on in the game. The level-headed part has been true; Conley rarely makes ill-advised decisions in clutch situations. However, we’ve been seeing him start to find an offensive groove, and he’s become one of Minnesota’s most consistent scorers.
Graph: StatMuse
Looking at Conley’s shot chart with the Wolves only confirms the eye test. Through his first 18 games in Minnesota, Conley is shooting 45.4% from the floor and 41.6% from three – putting him amongst one of the best three-point shooting guards in the league during that span.
Conley has had his fair share of memorable nights scoring the ball, like his 28-point, 8-for-12 from three effort against the Chicago Bulls. Since joining the Wolves, Conley is averaging 13.3 points per game – stepping up his offensive firepower from what we saw in Utah. However, Conley has made a bigger impact with his ability to see the floor and repeatedly make the right reads.
“I always try to let everybody go first,” said Conley after Minnesota’s first win in Sacramento this season. “Being a point guard we can always score, we can always shoot it at any point. So if I can get guys going early, get Ant going, get Kyle, Rudy especially. It bodes well for me, now the game open’s up for me, and I get easier looks.”
There’s no denying it, DLo was a phenomenal passer. However, you couldn’t always count on Russell to make the right reads in a hostile environment or when the stakes were high. Conley may not bring the same level of flashiness as ‘Lo. But in his first 18 games with the Wolves, we’ve seen an incredible ability to seemingly always make the right play – hunting for that great shot instead of a good shot.
Knowing what to do in a pick-and-roll situation as a guard may seem like it should be somewhat common knowledge. However, Conley has been incredibly adept at knowing what to do and when to do it off pick-and-rolls. DLo also was a good operator off the screens, but sometimes you just didn’t trust his shot selection – even if that was coming behind the 7’1” Stifle Tower.
This saying is something we should all keep in the back of our minds: the only difference between an elite shot maker and just a shot chucker is if the ball finds the bottom of the net. Almost every great or “death-defying” shot has occurred off some pretty horrid shot selection. A prime example of this is James Harden’s days with the Houston Rockets – the king of oh no, no, yes shots.
Expecting Conley to shoot above 40% from three through the course of an entire season is a little bit lofty. However, there’s no denying that he’s arguably been the Wolves’ best shooter since his arrival in the Twin Cities.
However, I’ve been most impressed with Conley in these last four games.
Coming off three straight losses, the Wolves were in need of some momentum-stacking wins as their hope for the sixth seed started to fade. The only issue with that plan; those next four games were against the New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, and Sacramento Kings. At a time when they needed wins, the Wolves went 4-0 during that stretch thanks to some inspired play up and down the roster.
Conley was a large part of that success, and he made winning plays on both sides of the ball again.
I might have had a negative outlook on the Russell, Conley trade when it first went down. However, with the Wolves sitting at two games over .500 and being slotted at 6th in the West, I have now been led to start believing, where would the Wolves be without Mike Conley?
The answer is something I don’t want to think about.
