The Utah Jazz made it clear early on that their top priority was signing Mike Conley Jr. The point guard was a major part of their success this season. After a down year in the 2019-20 campaign, Conley averaged 16.2 points, 6 assists, and a steal per game. Conley also made it into his first career All-Star game in the 2020-21 season.
The deal was first reported by The Athletic and Shams.
The news was later confirmed by a tweet by Mike Conley Jr. himself.
Despite the elevated level of play this year in Utah from Conley, his season was still hampered by injuries. This year he had issues with both hamstrings. His hamstring injury was one of the major storylines of this years playoffs. Conley was one of Utahs most impactful players in the first round of the playoffs. However, at the end of the first round he came down with a hamstring injury. This injury caused him to miss five game of their second round matchup against the Clippers.
With their focus on resigning Conley the Jazz have already made significant moves to keep him. Last week to clear salary space they traded Derrick Favors and a first round pick to the Thunder for a second round pick. Rumors have also swirled around Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles.
Championship Aspirations
Following the Favors trade Jazz GM Justin Zanik said, “We have championship aspirations.”
The Jazz felt without Conley they could kiss their championship hopes goodbye. Trading Favors to do so effectively made them worse. Utah citing their championship aspirations for their trade reasoning puts an expiration on the Jazz core in my opinion. If Utah doesn’t win, it will be interesting to see what they do with their core.
The Jazz playoff exit was seemingly caused by the Clippers taking advantage of Gobert on the perimeter. CC – the Terrance Mann game. Following the loss there was speculation of their star Donovan Mitchell’s long term future being in jeopardy as thought by minority owner Dwyane Wade.
