Injuries to the left Achilles tendon costed Mike Conley a year of his NBA prime, forced to miss 70 games between time of recovery and his eventual surgery to fix the issue.
Conley admitted there was frustration with this injury, feeling he could take his game to a whole other level after coming out of a career-high season in 2016-17 that saw him average 20.5 points, 6.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
Yet the lefty point man feels confident he has this injury figured out and is ready to move past it as his body catches up to the recovery process.
“We’re doing the right things. Taking things slow. And giving me time to really be ready to go for training camp. Mentally, I’m there. I’m ready. Physically, I feel good. It’s just my body has to catch up,” Conley told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. “Being a dad, being low-key out of the way, it gave me a perspective like, ‘Hey. This is great, I get to spend time with my kids, even though this is a down part of my career.’ But also at the same time, I’ve got a new re-tooled drive… Knowing that I took care of the issue, we got the issue figured out, hopefully, going forward, I won’t have any flare-ups. I can just play basketball like I’m used to playing and I’ve got a free year, another year, added to my career, so I’m excited.”
Conley shot a career-high from the floor on 2016-17 at 45.9 percent, while also shooting at the best 3-point clip ever at 40.7 percent, all while seeing career-highs in shots, treys, and foul shots attempted — resulting in a massive all-around improvement.
If the shifty floor general can produce close to those numbers, his surgery will be a successful mission — managing to regain his scoring acumen along with the playmaking ability that gave him the starting spot in the first place.
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