{"id":70700,"date":"2024-03-26T15:31:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=70700"},"modified":"2024-03-26T15:33:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:33:13","slug":"timberwolves-mike-conley-passes-legends-all-time-leaderboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/26\/timberwolves-mike-conley-passes-legends-all-time-leaderboard\/","title":{"rendered":"T\u2019Wolves Leader Passes Pair of Legends on All-Time Leaderboard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/conlemi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Conley Jr.<\/a> is making a lot of history as of late. Last week, the 36-year-old passed Hall of Fame guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westje01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jerry West<\/a> \u2014believed to be the inspiration for the NBA logo\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hoopshype\/status\/1770397717681893614?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in career assists<\/a>. Last night, Conley passed Hall of Fame wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/ervinju01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julius Erving<\/a> \u2014a four-time MVP and three-time NBA\/ABA champion \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BarriHoopsHype\/status\/1772592309063807222?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in career steals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time to put his excellence into perspective.<\/p>\n<h2>Mike Conley Passes Pair of Legends on All-Time Leaderboard<\/h2>\n<p>Now in his 17th season, Conley was the fourth overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. After leaving Ohio State after a stellar freshman campaign that saw him earn several all-conference honors, Conley spent the first 12 seasons of his career with the Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mike Conley 26 Points @ OKC (Full Highlights) (2013 NBA Playoffs GM2) \u1d34\u1d30\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lQFBN7iUUag?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There, he\u2019d end up making six playoff runs, with the most successful coming in 2013. Reaching the Western Conference Finals for the first time in his career, Conley averaged 17.0 points, 7.1 assists, and 1.7 steals per game. While he struggled with his efficiency, he ranked top-three among his teammates in each of those categories.<\/p>\n<h3>Leaving the Grizzlies<\/h3>\n<p>Conley was traded to the Utah Jazz in Jul. 2019 for a package that included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/korveky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Korver<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/allengr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Grayson Allen<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/crowdja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jae Crowder<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bazleda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darius Bazley<\/a>, and a first-round pick. He left the Grizzlies as the franchise\u2019s career leader in games played (788), 3s made (1,086), assists (4,509), steals (1,161), and points (11,733). In short, he\u2019s arguably <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/27Sj05uaQtU?si=KxUyIaxy5mJRrkVw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their best player of all-time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BEST OF MIKE CONLEY 2020-21 Season | UTAH JAZZ\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SoIVSRC7xaM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With the Jazz, Conley\u2019s role was reduced but not in an unfitting way. Tasked with being a floor general rather than go-to scorer, Conley averaged 13.8 points, 5.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 39.4 percent from 3 in three-plus seasons with the Jazz. In 2021, he earned his first-ever All-Star selection as Utah\u2019s leader in assists (6.0) and steals (1.4) per game.<\/p>\n<h3>Leaving the Jazz<\/h3>\n<p>The Jazz decided to trade franchise cornerstones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitchdo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goberru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Gobert<\/a> in the 2022 offseason. This left Conley\u2019s future with the franchise in doubt. As with many older players, his role with a rebuilding team would be that of a mentor. Conley did just that for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sextoco01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Collin Sexton<\/a>, who\u2019s in the midst of a breakout season, after he arrived as a headliner in the Mitchell trade.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, Conley was still playing well enough to make him a valuable addition to a contending team. To that point, multiple teams were hungry for improved point guard play. However, the Timberwolves were willing to surrender a first-round pick for Conley. Subsequently, Conley was moved to Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/1uQnLnbyiVY?si=OQAvIJPW3Hf864QH<\/p>\n<p>With the Timberwolves, Conley\u2019s the type of playmaker and leader that Minnesota envisioned when they acquired him. A far cry from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a>, Conley\u2019s primary focus is on getting his teammates organized and playing off of them. He\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/19\/timberwolves-react-anthony-edwards-dunk-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">invigorated by the youthful energy<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Edwards<\/a>-led squad. Nonetheless, his wisdom and even-keeled demeanor have an indelible impact on his teammates.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Naz Reid on Mike Conley: &#8220;He\u2019s like young Mike again. You can tell he\u2019s having fun. &#8230; He\u2019s dancing with us. He\u2019s excited. He\u2019s happy and it turns over to his play. He\u2019s getting a lot of good looks, making a lot of shots, being aggressive. That\u2019s what we need when KAT\u2019s out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChristopherHine\/status\/1769227472736854177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Conley\u2019s also shooting a career-high 42.7 percent from 3 this season. In fact, Conley\u2019s 3-point percentage is the fifth-highest single-season mark in Timberwolves history. He\u2019s made the 10th-most 3s (147) of any season in Timberwolves history.<\/p>\n<h3>Putting it into Perspective<\/h3>\n<p>Conley may not be viewed as one of the top point guards to play in the NBA. His individual accolades, aside from his four NBA Sportsmanship Awards, are scarce. His team accomplishments are nil. In a league that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/26\/minnesota-timberwolves-signing-proven-scorer-until-end-of-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">focuses more on points<\/a> than any other statistical category, his production can seem underwhelming.<\/p>\n<p>None of that accurately measures what Conley is capable of. It may indeed indicate what kind of player that he\u2019s not. Nonetheless, it doesn\u2019t reflect the impact that he\u2019s made across nearly two decades for multiple teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves veteran Mike Conley Jr. is making a lot of history as of late. Last week, the 36-year-old passed Hall of Fame guard Jerry West \u2014believed to be the inspiration for the NBA logo\u2014in career assists. Last night, Conley passed Hall of Fame wing Julius Erving \u2014a four-time MVP and three-time NBA\/ABA champion \u2014in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":70705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1608,26,62,3,13],"tags":[2049,2150,208],"class_list":["post-70700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-timberwolves","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","category-76ers","tag-jerry-west","tag-julius-erving","tag-mike-conley"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}