Mike Conley isn't playing great, but he's not the problem: A Thread.

A few people spent the better part of the day telling me Conley isn't helping the Jazz, mostly citing box scores as evidence. So let's investigate that with videos and stills just from Jazz-Pacers, shall we?

I pick that game because it's freshest in my mind, but also because it was one of those that box score watchers would likely use to substantiate their claim that he's somehow letting down the Jazz. He was 2-for-8, after all, and the Jazz lost. Let's see if he "helped the Jazz."

Here's a perfect play to illustrate Conley's value. He fakes an off ball screen and then turns 90 degrees to go into one of those curl PnRs at the top that the Jazz like to run. But even though Brogdon is late because of the X/O wrinkle, he still has to go over the pick.

Run this for Rubio, Russ or any of that ilk of guard and the defender just cheats under because he's so far behind on the play anyway. But Brogdon has to respect Conley from 3, so he tries to get over & winds up hopelessly out of the play.

But it's how teams respect him in the midrange that really opens stuff up for Utah. Imagine defenders trapping Rubio like this in an elbow PnR.

They DO often trap Mike, so now one defender is left to choose between guarding the game's best roll finisher / Ingles from 3.

Another one, this time in video. Turner, a solid defender, he makes the conscience choice to stay in front of Mike's floater here, so Rudy gets to the rim.

You might not like his floaters, but teams respect them. He was 85th percentile in "short mid" last yr (per @cleantheglass) on a quarter of his shots. He is dangerous there, which is why he gets two defenders to completely commit to him here.
This is him making others better.

It is not a coincidence that Rudy & Don had all-league starts this yr. Don misses this 3, but notice how open he is. Helping from one pass away like this is a no-no in NBA defense, but he feels it's necessary because keeping Conley out of the paint is a priority.

He doesn't even have to have the ball to help Donovan & others. Here, the corner defender is usually the helper, but Brogdon won't come in because leaving Mike is a bad idea.

So now Don has Sabonis on an island after the switch, makes a layup.

But since people like to talk about his shooting numbers, let's take a look there: tell me which of his three 3-pointers tonight were bad shots.

(Hint: none of them. In the least. Sometimes good shots miss, but these are good shots & will fall in the long haul)

Same with his drives. Misses three of these four (had one other that I'll address next), but this is him putting pressure on the rim so that teams will continue to need to guard him coming off PnRs, which makes Rudy's & others' jobs easier.

Here's the one tonight that I thought was a bad shot. :06 on the SC, so I understand why he felt he needed to get it up, but again he has Don open one pass away, so no real need to take on the 7ft Turner from a bad angle.

But all together, even on what box score watchers would call a "bad" night, we see the effect of Conley. Good looks for others, good shots for him that aren't falling right now but eventually will.

Again, 3 guys around him are having GREAT seasons. Think that's a coincidence??

Right on cue, here's the "but he makes so much!" thing. Irrelevant. Get over it. He costs that because he is an impact player & borderline star, & those guys usually get paid. Jazz didn't decide his salary, but they knew he'd elevate others (which he is). https://twitter.com/jmbentrude/status/1199937266216505345?s=20

Is he playing as well as he could be? Of course not. The shooting eventually needs to get better, and tonight there were a few problematic defensive possessions. But to look at a box score & claim he's not helping the Jazz is asinine.

Even during this rough stretch, the Jazz play better with him than without him. He has the 2nd best ORtg on the team (behind Bogey).

OK, I'll be done for now. /thread