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Donovan Mitchell is not the only Utah Jazz guard potentially on the move this summer.
Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune told Marc Stein that the Jazz has explored moving veteran guard Mike Conley.
“I do know that the Jazz has talked to groups about Mike Conley,” Jones said in a Spotify Live conversation. “I don’t know the way much of a market there’s remaining for Mike Conley.”
Conley, 34, has two years remaining on his contract. He’ll make $22.7 million in 2022-23 and has $14.3 million of his $24.4 million salary for 2023-24 guaranteed.
A 12 months faraway from making his first profession All-Star team, Conley was a noticeably diminished player last season. While he remained an efficient shooter from deep and was solid at guiding the offense without creating many turnovers, Conley’s once-excellent defense took a serious step back. Each Conley and Mitchell were consistently attacked by Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson because the Dallas Mavericks upset Utah in the primary round of the playoffs.
The postseason was also a struggle for Conley as a shooter, because the veteran knocked down just 33.3 percent of his shots and 20 percent of his threes in the course of the six-game series.
“The season just ended and you’ve to decompress and look back at every little thing, but you possibly can’t make excuses,” Conley told reporters in May. “Would I even have liked to perform higher within the playoffs? In fact. I believe that I used to be happy with the way in which we did handle ourselves all year long.”
The Jazz are within the midst of a roster overhaul, having already traded Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves. They’ve also been exploring the marketplace for Mitchell, though they’ve publicly maintained the All-Star guard is a component of their future.
Conley is an interesting piece because he matches with their win-now mentality when he was traded to Utah in 2019 but could be very much out of step with the team’s youth movement. There’s likely no shortage of teams willing to have Conley the player on their roster; it’s his salary that may make things difficult for Utah when it comes to a trade.
