Mike Conley Jr.’s resurgent season has the Utah Jazz near the top of the West

After an inconsistent first season in Utah, Mike Conley Jr. has returned to his usual self and the Jazz look as dangerous as ever.

During the months after a 4-1, first-round dismantling from the Houston Rockets in the 2018-19 playoffs, the Utah Jazz acquired Mike Conley Jr. and Bojan Bogdanovic to retool their roster, pursuing increased offensive firepower. A season later, the Jazz endured another first-round exit, this time squandering a 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets, and Conley, at 32 years old, produced his worst statistical season in roughly a decade.

There were, however, reasons for optimism last season upon which Conley has built this year, helping guide the Jazz to a 15-5 record and, individually, establishing a sterling bid for his first All-Star berth. Over the final 19 regular-season games — nearly half of the 47 he played in total — he averaged 17.0 points, 4.9 assists (2.1 turnovers), 3.6 rebounds and 0.9 steals on 59.4 percent true shooting (.450/.419/.904 split). Across five playoff showings, he averaged 19.8 points, 5.2 assists (1.0 turnovers), 2.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals on 67.2 percent true shooting (.484/.529/.864 split).

What’s been different for Mike Conley this season?

The hints of an extended revival — increased 3-point and steal rates, a tidy assist-to-turnover ratio — peaked through, especially during that brief postseason sample. Conley has ensured those 24 games were not a blip amid a late-career downward spiral, maintaining his resurgence past the 2020-21 season’s quarter mark. Averaging 16.6 points, 6.2 assists (2.1 turnovers), 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals on 58.9 percent true shooting (.443/.407/.803 split), he’s been the Jazz’s most effective offensive initiator and backcourt defender to this point.

While Utah’s fleet of scoring options (six guys are averaging double-digits) limits how much Conley must shoulder, he’s been a rather audacious long-range gunner. His .549 3-point rate is a career-high by a substantial margin and his evolution as a pull-up shooter has rendered him an indispensable floor general.

He’s knocking down 40 percent of his four off-the-bounce 3-point attempts per game, which make up 31.6 percent of his total shots. All three numbers — efficiency, volume and frequency — are career-highs, an extension of his playoff performance when he buried 50 percent of his 22 pull-up 3s (34.4 percent frequency). He hunts looks if defenders duck under screens, exploits delayed switches with a quick trigger and tucks a springy step-back in his pocket for novel application.

As one of only eight players with 40-plus attempts, his trusty, ambidextrous floater remains a prevalent weapon to compensate for physical shortcomings around the rim. According to Synergy Sports, he ranks in the 67th percentile on runners (24-of-46, 52.2 percent), compared to the 23rd percentile around the basket (16-of-33, 48.4 percent), consistently benefiting from an ability to mask the difference between a floater and lob to Rudy Gobert.

Long an assist-to-turnover icon (2.82:1 for his career), he is not some tentative caretaker who constantly avoids risk. Utah’s offense is 11.4 points better per 100 possessions (116.8 offensive rating vs. 105.4) this season with Conley on the floor, the widest gulf among all four prominent ball-handlers (Conley, Donovan Mitchell, Jordan Clarkson and Joe Ingles). The shooting contributes to that, but his playmaking and approach as initiator are also responsible for the elite offensive rhythm and flow he conducts.

Conley can facilitate ambidextrously, understands angles and manipulates screens at an elite level. He threads passes into narrow windows. delivers feeds in optimal spots to maximize his teammates’ scoring chances and has developed a savvy, synchronized pick-and-roll partnership with Gobert.

In head coach Quin Snyder’s egalitarian offense, Conley’s off-ball versatility allows for him to take a backseat and invite Mitchell, Clarkson or Ingles to steer the ship. His quick trigger beyond the arc translates well to spot-ups, where he’s netted 40.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s this season. He’s smart with relocations, filling the corners or lifting to the wings when the geometry of the floor demands, and a perceptive cutter and willing screener. When the ball finds him, he’s decisive, firing jumpers, driving the lane or zipping it to the next open man, all habits that prevent the defense from reasserting control.

From a more specific schematic perspective, he’s adept in secondary actions such as dribble handoffs or side pick-and-rolls, the sort of sets that often arise naturally once the opposition has been shifted off-kilter and creases inside the arc are easier to discern and puncture. Utah lacks the high-end creation and shot-makers of many premier offenses, so Snyder relies more heavily on system than personnel to fashion advantages, emphasizing movement (man and ball), cutting and screening, both instinctively and structured. This is one way Conley accentuates Snyder’s intentions, particularly adept at capitalizing upon those instances with snappy decision-making and a crafty disposition.

Although his skill-set and output have keyed Utah’s fifth-ranked offense, deserving of virtue in their own right, his defense has also been critical. He’s spry, instinctive and smart, staving off the demons that typically come for smaller guards on the wrong side of 30. As a point-of-attack defender, he’s impervious to screens, spinning around or wiggling over them and staying tethered to his assignment.

Cutting off drives and shutting down pick-and-rolls are his forte. He does each while rarely fouling (3.1 per 100 possessions this season), manifesting the value of technique and discipline. He’s quick laterally, hounds with physicality and has the body control to avoid compromising his positioning on the move or when operating from unorthodox angles.

Conley hasn’t just been some 6-foot-1 isolation irritant this season. He’s generating his highest steal rate since 2012-13 — his lone All-Defensive Team bid — at 2.5 percent, much of which stems from off-ball proficiency. He knows how to pressure his man without leaving himself susceptible to back-cuts. He anticipates passing decisions and routes. He properly times gambles. He uses his diminutive frame to maneuver through confined areas.

His hands are quick and his mind is sharp. Per 100 possessions, the Jazz are 17.3 points better defensively with him on the floor, in part because he’s back to causing havoc again.

Elite on-off splits are not the lone numbers that convey his brilliance this season. An assortment of metrics look upon him quite favorably, as he ranks first in FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR and NBA Shot Chart’s RAPM, and third in Taylor Snarr’s Estimated Plus-Minus. The beauty of these metrics is they’re merely a complement to the box score and film. Conley looks terrific out there and his stat line reinforces that.

When three relevant data points align — the tape, impact metrics and box-score production — it’s the mark of a firm conclusion holding merit: Mike Conley is playing his way to his first All-Star appearance and captaining a Jazz team riding continuity up the Western Conference hierarchy.