Indiana Pacers: 3 trades team should make before deadline
3. Mike Conley
Plotting workable trades for Indiana may prove difficult, as a whopping seven contracts on the roster expire this summer. The goal in any trade is acquiring a near-All Star asset under contract for at least two seasons beyond 2019, fielding a squad with a healthy Victor Oladipo, an improved Myles Turner, and the kind of pseudo-stud the small-market Pacers struggle to obtain in free agency.
Mike Conley may be a bit long in the tooth (he’ll turn 32 a few weeks into the 2019-20 season), but he can still be a high-level, two-way contributor for the Pacers well into his early 30s, provided he remains healthy.
Conley would have probably made three or four All-Star teams in the Eastern Conference over his career, though in a crowded Western Conference he found himself squeezed out by a glut of quality guards (plus an undeserving Kobe). Heck, Conley would make the Eastern Conference All-Star team this year!
Memphis’ record stands at 20-32, good for 14th place in the murderous Western Conference. The Grizzlies have lost 23 of their last 28 games. Perhaps a return to the Hoosier State could do for Conley’s career what it did for Oladipo’s.
Memphis forward Dillon Brooks showed some promise during his rookie season last year, but after just 18 games this year, he had a season-ending surgery for a ruptured ligament in his right big toe. Memphis should surrender him for this kind of return.
As for Conley, the 6’1” point guard is already something of an Indiana folk hero, having led his Lawrence North High School to three straight state championships in Indianapolis next to teammate Greg Oden. He then followed Oden to Ohio State before declaring for the NBA Draft after his freshman season in 2007.
In terms of the basketball fit, Conley has always proven to be a tough and gutty presence on several near-classic “Grit-N-Grind” Memphis teams alongside Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, when the two big men were in their primes.
Conley currently averages 20.2 points, 6.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting a solid 35.9 percent from deep, on 6.0 attempts a game. The guard would make a wonderful backcourt fit alongside a recuperated Oladipo, and would surely relish the ability to play alongside the versatile, defensive-minded Turner (sounds like a certain Memphis big man, no?).