- Larry Kuzniewski
- The jury’s still out on Mike Conley’s upside and fit.
I ran out of time before the season started to do all of the preview stuff I’d originally intended, but given all the consternation about Mike Conley’s performance last night it seems worthwhile to go ahead with some of what I was going to do on him as part of the preview package.
Two years and one game into his NBA career, Conley’s outside shooting is ahead of schedule, but there are a couple of other aspects of his game that have lowered my initial expectations. One is his athleticism and the other is how he uses it.
Conley is certainly a good enough athlete to be a quality starting point guard, especially if his shooting progress continues, but he’s not as electric as he seemed coming out of Ohio State. He now looks like a good athlete for his position, not a great one, and this limits his upside.
The other problem has been Conley’s timidity. While not quite the athlete I first thought he was, Conley still has the quickness and handle to put a lot of pressure on defenses. But he doesn’t do this nearly often enough. Conley should be breaking down defenses in the halfcourt and streaking past defenders in transition with at least some regularity, but these explosions have been too rare. If Conley can begin to use his speed more, he can still be a high-quality starting point guard. If he doesn’t, then it’s not going to happen.
