How will the rest of the Mike Conley story go in Utah?

The Mike Conley experience in Utah has not gone according to plans, to say the very least. Between having the worst season of his entire 13-year career, getting booed by his fans on his home floor, or getting torn apart on Twitter, it’s been a rough couple of months for Mike . In what was supposed to be a dream come true for the Utah Jazz, it’s been closer to a nightmare. To make matters worse, Conley’s dealt with several lingering injuries this season and just hasn’t been able to find any rhythm at all with his teammates despite several attempts at different rotations and lineups.

But is that all about to change? Conley finally looks healthy. He actually is coming off a really good month of February, and has played well in the Jazz’s recent three-game winning streak.

Since February 1st, Conley is averaging 16.5 points per game on 46/43/80 shooting splits. He’s also averaging 5 assists and 4 rebounds in this stretch. This stat line is much more what everyone thought we’d see out of Conley in a Jazz uniform, compared to the 13 points per game on 39/36/78 splits that he has this year. This was through 10 games played, so it’s a pretty decent sample. Although the Jazz went 5-5 in this stretch, there’s obviously more that they were lacking in those games than Mike’s performance.

Just watching Conley these last few games you can tell he feels so much better. He’s not hesitating to make plays like we saw him do quite a bit early on in the season. He’s playing much more instinctively, which is what made him such an awesome player in Memphis for so many years.

Having Conley as another consistent scoring option makes the Jazz offense just that much more dangerous and versatile.

Can Mike keep this play up? If so, it could completely change the trajectory of his story in Utah, as well as the ceiling of the Utah Jazz this season.

As bad as this year has been for him, Jazz fans will immediately forget all of his struggles if he were to come up big in a playoff game/series this spring. I can guarantee you that if Conley scores 25 in a tough game 6 on the road in the playoffs, not one Jazz fan will care that he missed a wide open layup against the Celtics in regular season game in garbage time. Conley appearing in a game of high magnitude would absolutely make up for his blunders in the regular season, even it was all year long. But that’s not really the question. The question is, can Conley get back to being that type of player that you can expect that stuff from. We know he’s done in his whole career, but this year is obviously different.

That being said, how will the rest of the Mike Conley story go in Utah? Will he find a level of play that he can maintain and provide value to the Jazz and help them win, like he’s been doing the last few games? If so, the Jazz should be able to find their way back to looking like a borderline contender that many thought they would be before the season started.

No matter what, if you’re a Jazz fan, you’ve got to keep rooting for Mike Conley. At least for this season. The Jazz are paying him that $32 Million either way, and the front office has made it clear that he’s going to remain a focal point of the team, at least for now. The Jazz need Mike Conley to reach their ceiling this season. Without him improving and playing well, this season will most likely end much sooner than everyone wants it to.

If Mike Conley figures this thing out, it’s going to be awesome for the Utah Jazz. I really think he will.