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Ok, so hopefully I have someones attention now.

In 2 or 3 threads recently people have been singing the praises of Mike Conley, stating how much they would love to see him on our team. This has been going on since he was in High School on this board to some degree or another, and I've been asking those fans of Conley to speak up and defend themselves, and give me an honest answer to why on earth we would want Conley on this team. So please... tell me... Why Would We Want Him??

It seems to me he is the definition of both the terms "mediocre" and "over rated"
Some things to consider:

At no time in his professional career has he averaged at least 5 assists. (He’s a point guard)
He scores 10 points a game, gets about 1 steal, and hits about 1 three a game. In roughly 30 minutes a game. What is so exciting about that? Oh yeah, and his per 36 minutes stats has gone DOWN every year he’s been in the league. So if you’re a fan of his, Step UP, and tell me why. I'm listening.

You sure like running your mouth dont ya! If your so smart, who do you want?

Right now, our PG situation sucks. It has sucked probably since Jamaal Tinsleys first few years here. He is an idea. For starters, he is a heck of a lot cheaper than TJ Ford. Is he the caliber that a Deron Williams or Chris Paul is, no! But its an idea. Sure beat Travis Diener as a 3rd PG.

For starters, I'm trying to generate an intresting discussion, secondly at no point in your reply did you give one reason why Mike Conley is a good point guard, much less one we would want to trade for. I don't expect to get a Chris Paul, or Deron Williams, but thats not the point, This Mike Conley infatuation has been going on around here LONG before you (rhino) started posting on here, and I am sincerely curious as to why. If someone can give me a good reason, I might even change my mind. I certainly have nothing against the guy personally.

I would like to see if he is a good pg or not. When we traded Dale Davis(someone who was reliable) for Jermaine O'Neal(a no name that hadnt proved himself) it turned out good. Its one of those cases, sometimes you have to take a chance. If it turns out like JO did, great, if not, trade them

rhino2004 wrote:I would like to see if he is a good pg or not. When we traded Dale Davis(someone who was reliable) for Jermaine O'Neal(a no name that hadnt proved himself) it turned out good. Its one of those cases, sometimes you have to take a chance. If it turns out like JO did, great, if not, trade them

The difference between J.O. and Conley is huge. J.O. was a kid fresh out of high school, who was a few years into the NBA but was never given minutes to prove himself in the league. Conley had a year of college ball under his belt, and is now in his 3rd year of being a mediocre PG in the NBA, while getting ample minutes to prove himself.

There is a big difference between those two scenarios. Namely that O'neal was unproven because he couldn't get significant playing time in Portland, but he showed flashes of brilliance that led teams (like us) to think he could be capable of so much more. And we were right.

Conley on the other hand has been playing 30 minutes a game for 3 years and has neither improved, or showed any reason (in my opinion) to think that he is suddenly going to get much better.

and to answer your previous question, I compiled a list of PGs that I think are semi-realistic targets who I would rather have than Conley... In order they are..

Kirk Hinrich
Jose Calderon
Aaron Brooks
Andre Miller
Raymond Felton
Jose Barea
Goran Dragic
Luke Ridnour
Darren Collison
Kyle Lowry

But Please try to keep this conversation on track, I want to talk about Conley, not those other guys.

People also probably want him here cause he is a home town guy. Pacers have never had much luck with players from here. McRoberts is from Carmel and sucks majorly.

Still waiting for something positive.

Anybody?

Orlock78 wrote:Still waiting for something positive.
Anybody?

Here is your positive info. for Conley:

Orlock78 wrote:It seems to me he is the definition of both the terms "mediocre" and "over rated"
Some things to consider:

At no time in his professional career has he averaged at least 5 assists. (He’s a point guard)
He scores 10 points a game, gets about 1 steal, and hits about 1 three a game. In roughly 30 minutes a game. What is so exciting about that? Oh yeah, and his per 36 minutes stats has gone DOWN every year he’s been in the league. So if you’re a fan of his, Step UP, and tell me why. I'm listening.

Player G Min. FG% 3PT% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG T.O. PTS Salary 09/10
Ford 18 25.9 .428 0.000 0.742 3.8 2.9 0.8 0.2 1.8 9.6 8.5 Mil
Conley 19 27.9 .404 0.340 0.781 2.0 4.7 0.9 0.2 2.26 8.8 3.9 Mil

Congratulations, it appears to me you have listed the stats for our starting point guard!! Wait Your guy hits "about 1 three a game" and only makes 3.9 Mil a year!! Our starting PG hasn't hit a three all year AND makes 8.5 Mil a yr!!

Please note: I am not a fan of bringing in Conley, but at half the price and essentially the same production, I would take him over Ford!!!

The lovefest I cannot explain. If we could get him for a reasonable price, though, I would like to see him brought in. I would like most of the guys on that list brought in as well, but then again we could get just about any PG with two legs and I'd be convinced we'd upgraded.

The lovefest is because he's a native Indy kid, but it really ends there.

I'd love to have the kid on this team he's been playing on one of the worst teams in the NBA and if he'd stayed in school he'd only be a senior right now so yeah he has not put up numbers like Brandon Jennings is in Milwakee but I'm willing to give the home town kid a chance.

Not that he's going to be CP3, but he does have a chance at maybe being a solid Vern Fleming-like player. You have to remember that he is on a terrible team that doesn't really maximize his potential, especially when the ball is in the hands of OJ Mayo and whatnot. OJ's development has done a bunch to overshadow Conley. Of course, Conley hasn't done anything to warrant a comparison with Aaron Brooks that he sometimes gets.

Part of it is that many of us have seen the kid play for years (AAU, high school, college, and now the pros).

We've seen that he has always been a very good defender, a tremendous team leader, and that he has been very good in every aspect of the game, including taking lead when he needed to.

As for what he's done in Memphis? Well, it's boggling. He was buried for years and forced into playing into a system that did nothing but make guys look less valuable. When the new coach came on late last year, it seemed like he was released and was playing quite well (from Feb. on last year he averaged something like 15/5.5 in 32 mpg).


But it is mostly that we want to especially love one of our own.
He also seems like he might be pretty easy to acquire. I mean, you could probably convince them to do a Ford/Diener for Conley/Jaric deal though it would add a couple million next year in salary to us (a big no-no) or possibly even just a Foster for Conley/Hunter. Hunter is expiring, thus helping us actually cut about $2 million in salary next year, and lets us take a flier on Conley and see if he's worth re-signing in 2011. Foster, though we all love him, is past his prime and losing value, but could still be useful in Memphis with their young bigs.

Some really good point guards take longer to develop than others. I have always said that Conley rode Greg's coattails and now he'd finally get a chance to stand on his own merit. With that said, I agree with Miller4ver, Conley is in a very bad situation with Mayo demanding the rock and initiating offensive sets.

Regardless it isn't exactly a bad thing to desire Indy's homegrown talent (Hill, Lee, Oden, Teague, Carney, Conley, Gordon, ?????). I'll go out on a limb and compare Rush to Carney. In regards to the Indy eight, only McBob is worse than Rush. I'd take the other six over Rush any day, and I'd only take Rush over Carney because of age. Hell Robert Vaden might be on Brandon's level. So their is nothing wrong with the talent level here in Indy, we could expand that list to include all of Indiana but it isn't even necessary. Favoring our homegrown talent might seem homerish, but there is some validity by adding them. I'm just saying.

Back to the topic.....JJack proved a so called mediocre pg can thrive here, and TJ is proving that a dribbling exhibitionist cannot. Conley has spent his entire career running offenses, so you never know, but a change of scenery can help some (JO,JJack, Jr., Murph) and hurt others (TJ,Al, Jax).

I was thinking about Ford and filler for Jaric and Conley. Having Mike here might help get Oden here at some point and Let's not forget those guys are only 22. Lot of ball in them and IF it puts a few more butts in the seats that wont hurt. Hey check this out, deal for this package, then send Jaric, Dunleavy and Foster to Houston for Lowry, Landry and McGrady. We save a good $20 million and get Conley and Landry out of it.

A lot of good points made. That being said I am still not a fan of bringing him here. I still maintain that he hasn't shown the kind of growth that would indicate that he is going to be something special. As bad as our current PG situation is, I don't think the solution is throwing what little assets we have around to obtain a PG (Conley or otherwise) who doesn't show the talent or potential to be something we can be excited about.

On the other hand if we did trade Foster and change and got Conley and someone else I wouldn't be pissed, I just wouldn't be that excited I guess.

Good Points though.

I agree. The only way I bring him here is on a very cheap deal... which is probably unlikely

Conley is one of the worst starting point guards in the league and there are quite a few backup guards who are better than him as well. His development has not been hindered at all by OJ Mayo. In fact, it's been the other way around.

The ball is not in OJ Mayo's hands. OJ isn't even allowed to bring the damn ball up the floor. Lionel Hollins has completely given Conley the reins. It was said that OJ would be eased into the point guard position when we traded for him. That has not happened, mainly due to the obsession Lionel Hollins has for developing Mike Conley. Kyle Lowry was even traded to eliminate Mike's competition because Mike couldn't beat him out for a starting spot. Now, Lowry is backing up Aaron Brooks, a guy who would likely be a backup on most other teams. So what does that tell you? Conley isn't even better than the average backup.

He's fast and has exceptional ballhandling, but he lacks heart, toughness, reliable shooting, defense, playmaking...just about everything. He's had one or two good games so far this season and a game winning shot against the Cavs. He shot the ball well half of last season but his playmaking remained below average for a pg.

Conley is and always has been a guy who when playing with the right players or within the right system can look pretty good, but he'll never be a guy who makes the people around him better and that's what I thought a point guard was all about. Rudy, Zach, Marc, and OJ have to work way too hard for their shots. Conley doesn't put them in positions to score and they're usually fighting off his man when he helps off of Conley (no one respects him).

I almost hate that he hit that game winner because it ensured that he would be around even longer. He is the weakest link on the team and that's unacceptable from your starting point guard.

360 wrote: He is the weakest link on the team and that's unacceptable from your starting point guard.

Mike Conley = T.J. Ford (other than their salaries)