The Utah Jazz’s power move for Mike Conley is backfiring

Mike Conley isn’t the only reason the Utah Jazz have disappointed, but his lackluster performance is the backfire at the heart of their struggles to make the leap this season.

When the Utah Jazz traded for Mike Conley early in July, it was heralded as one of the savviest moves of the offseason. While it wasn’t on the same level as the Anthony Davis blockbuster trade or Kawhi Leonard and Paul George teaming up in L.A., adding a respected, solid two-way veteran like Conley convinced more than a few pundits to put Utah among the league’s legitimate title contenders.

Seven months later, it’s looking like a backfire, or at least a misfire.

To be fair, the Jazz’s recent struggles — culminating in Monday’s thoroughly disappointing home loss to the Phoenix Suns — cannot be blamed squarely on the 32-year-old point guard who’s failed to assimilate.

Conley didn’t singlehandedly allow the NBA’s 16th-ranked offense to come in and shoot 56.3 percent from the floor and make 12 of its 20 3-pointers. Conley didn’t let Phoenix rack up 33 assists on 49 made field goals. And Conley alone isn’t the reason Utah has now lost eight of its last 12 games.

However, in watching former Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio go off in a game the Suns won by 20, it was hard to ignore the striking contrast between what was and what now is; or, more accurately, what is and what should be for a team that had such high expectations entering the season.

in 34 games with the Jazz this season (he’s missed 23 due to injury or rest), Conley is averaging a pedestrian 13.4 points, 4.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game on dismal .394/.352/.784 shooting splits. Utah is 19-15 (.559) in those games … compared to 17-6 (.739) without him.

Much like last year, when the Jazz seemed to thrive with Donovan Mitchell taking over lead guard duties for an injured Ricky Rubio, this team found its stride the minute Conley got banged up. Not so coincidentally, ever since he returned in mid-January, Quin Snyder’s team has been all over the map.

Again, it’s not fair to pin all of this on one player — even one who’s looked washed since arriving in Salt Lake City.

But this is not the same Conley who put up a career-high 21.1 points and 6.4 assists per game on .438/.364/.845 shooting splits as recently as last year. Aside from the massive slippage in counting stats, the Jazz’s Net Rating with Conley on the floor is only plus-0.4, according to NBA.com. When he takes a seat, that number jumps to plus-4.8.

Perhaps just as important, missing 23 games for a Jazz team that’s also been without Ed Davis for most of the season doesn’t help, especially after Conley only missed 12 games all of last year. Availability and health can sometimes be the most crucial keys in building the ever-important team chemistry that every contender needs.

There’s still time to turn things around and prove his doubters wrong; the West was always going to be a bloodbath come playoff time, and that remains true no matter what’s going on in Utah right now. But it’s nearly March, and it’s less than ideal that Utah’s critically acclaimed addition looks definitively worse than the Suns signing Rubio — a move that was largely hammered outside Phoenix.

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Whatever the case, the Conley trade is looking like a bigger flop with each passing day. The team’s body language is bad. The boo birds have been out in Vivint Smart Home Arena. And after a 20-point loss in a game where Mitchell dropped 38 points, everyone on this roster needs to look himself in the mirror.

The defense in particular needs a gut check. Per NBA.com, Utah’s defense has slipped all the way to 13th on the season, and over the last month, it’s been 26th. Giving up 131 points against a league-average offense like Phoenix serves as the eye-opener, but collectively, this team has been adrift for awhile now.

A Jazz squad that should be fighting for home-court advantage has slipped to fifth in the Western Conference standings — a full game behind a Houston Rockets team that’s been Utah’s bane in the playoffs lately and only one game ahead of the surging Oklahoma City Thunder in sixth. The Dallas Mavericks, who just got a healthy Luka Doncic back, are only 1.5 games back. There needs to be a sense of urgency as the season’s stretch run approaches.

Getting a fully healthy and focused Conley at the right time would do wonders on that front, but it’s starting to feel like that will never materialize. At $32.5 million this season, with a $34.5 million early termination option for 2020-21, the Conley misfire could swell to full-on implosion sooner than anyone expected.

Mitchell is still on his rookie-scale deal, but a well-deserved extension is coming soon. Gobert is only on the books through 2021. The Jazz are running out of time to turn from trendy preseason pick to legitimate contender, and even if Conley’s lackluster season isn’t the only problem, it’s going to be the snapshot everyone remembers if the Jazz can’t make their inevitable financial crunch worth the trouble.