Grizzlies Season Grades: Mike Conley Jr.

(This is the second part of an ongoing series where we will grade the Memphis Grizzlies franchise for the 2011-2012 season. The first part can be found here: Lionel Hollins.)

Who’s the Memphis Grizzlies best player? There are at least three guys that are in the discussion.

Zach Randolph obviously led the Grizzlies through their first playoff run and cemented himself as one of the most underrated players in the league.

Marc Gasol transformed himself from a throw-in to the Pau Gasol deal to legitimate, top-tier NBA center, the type of guy that you can build around.

Rudy Gay is frustrating to watch, but so talented that it covers up a lot of deficiencies. I’m not sure if Rudy will ever improve to a considerably better player than he is right now, but he’s still a good player that can create his own shot, which is a rarity for this specific Grizzlies team.

Nobody would ever say that Mike Conley Jr. is the Grizzlies most talented player, or their best player, but without question, Conley is the Grizzlies’ most valuable player.

You read that right. It’s not even close. I can prove it too.

Look at the Grizzlies in the 2011 playoffs. Rudy Gay didn’t log a single minute and the Grizzlies reached the second round, and made it to game 7 to boot. The Grizzlies obviously gave his minutes to Shane Battier, who’s probably a starting caliber player in the league, but still, how valuable can a guy be if he can be replaced at the trade deadline and the team doesn’t miss a beat?

Zach Randolph is the guy who makes the Grizzlies’ offense go. As good as Gay and Gasol are, the one guy that you can go to every trip down the floor and have him score is Zach Randolph and it’s not close. However, best player and most valuable player can sometimes be two different things. While Randolph can score against any low-post defender, and even double teams, can you really say that he’s that valuable when the Grizzlies were able to survive without him for most of the 2011-2012 regular season?

Yes, they traded for Marreese Speights and he was much better than anyone ever expected, but once again, the Grizzlies were able to pull a guy off of the scrap heap to replace his minutes and stats. Speights didn’t score as efficiently as Randolph, but few do and Speights is probably the better defender, all things considered.

Marc Gasol would have an interesting debate for most valuable Grizz because of everything he does on the court, but the Grizzlies have rarely been without him since he’s been on the team, it’s hard to gauge his value on the floor against the team without him.

So it almost has to be Conley. Look no further than the Clippers series when the Grizzlies looked allergic to scoring with #11 off of the floor. That wasn’t all because of Conley’s absence, of course, but it definitely hurt.

Conley doesn’t seem like a modern point guard because he doesn’t slash to the paint three or four times a night and make uber-athletic moves to beat his man, but he’s one of the guys that makes other guys better. He always seems to be in the right spot and makes the right play. He also gets his teammates easy shots and loves to play pick-and-roll.

In a lot of ways, playing for the Grizzlies and their post-centric system hinders Conley because he’s not asked to dominate the ball like Derrick Rose or John Wall. His job is to basically probe the defense and enter the ball into the post. If he gets an open look, he can take it or set it back up. He rarely even steps foot inside the three-point line, it’s just not part of the scheme.

Defensively, Conley took a huge leap this past season. He’s not quite as quick laterally as most point guards, but can routinely beat guys to their spot. He’s at his best when he’s jumping passing lanes and running a fast break. He led the league in steals for a lot of the season and when he and Tony Allen teamed up, it created a lot of problems for perimeter scoring teams.

The downside of Conley is that his jump shot hasn’t really improved much since he joined the league in 2007. He got a bit of a pass in his first two years because he only played one year in college, but his jump shooting is just as erratic today as it was then.

All in all, Conley and the Grizzlies took another step forward in the regular season this year. Conley may never be an all-star point guard, but for the Grizzlies, he’s the perfect guy to execute their offense.

Best game:

Conley’s finest moment of the season came in a losing effort in game 4 of the Clippers playoffs series.

Conley posted 25 points on 10-15 shooting to go with 7 rebounds and 8 assists. Chris Paul was the man for the entire series, but you could make the argument that Conley outplayed him until Paul’s overtime heroics that bailed the Clippers out.

Conley usually prefers to set other guys up, but he started hunting his own shot in game 4 and while the Grizzlies lost, we all caught a glimpse of what he’s capable of if he ever decides to set himself up.

2011-2012 season grade: B+

Conley was the bridge over troubled water for most of the season. When Randolph was injured, he was there, when you didn’t know which Rudy Gay was going to show up, Conley ran the show, on and on and on.

What Conley lacks in flair, he makes up for in grit and grind, on defense and offense. His contract is a little bloated (especially in this new CBA) but he’s still a good player and one of the few guys that Hollins trusts unconditionally. Maybe it’s because the Grizzlies don’t have a ton of other options, but Conley has been Hollins’ guy for better or worse.

That type of stubbornness can be cut two ways: Hollins is playing favorites and likes Conley because he does what Hollins tells him to do, or Hollins is loyal to guys who deserve it. Hollins showed a great deal of faith by committing to Conley early in his career and all of Memphis has been enjoying the benefits for the past two years. Maybe sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too.