clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Is Mike Conley Jr. the answer to the Nets point guard woes?

Al Bello/Getty Images

Mike Conley Jr. knows a lot about how Lionel Hollins runs an NBA team. It was Hollins who nurtured him and made him one of the NBA's top point guards. But would Conley's love for Hollins be enough for the Nets to take less money over fewer years and leave his comfort zone in Memphis?

Although Conley has called Hollins "like a second father almost to me," getting him to Brooklyn would be tough, Mike Mazzeo writes.

Conley has spent his entire career -- eight full seasons and counting -- in Memphis. His relationship with fellow cornerstone Marc Gasol is strong, and the Grizzlies will be able to offer him an extra year and some $30 million-plus more in salary compensation based on how the CBA works (exact numbers after the national TV deal kicks in and the cap spikes as a result, pending).

Conley is on every pundits Nets target list, along with players like Nicolas Batum, Demar DeRozan and Evan Turner, to name three others. The Nets will try for the big names too but with every loss, their lure lessens.  Saturday night, however, once again proved they have a need.  And he looked like he could fill it, "carving up the Brooklyn Nets with precision passes, hesitation crossover dribbles, left-handed 3-pointers and right-handed floaters," as Mazzeo noted.

Stranger things than Conley moving from the NBA's smallest market to its biggest, but as of now, you'd have to say that's unlikely.