The Utah Jazz have been one of the more active teams ahead of the NBA trade deadline, with every player on their team except Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, and Ochai Agbaji available for other teams' inquiry. However, while fans and media members see the weeks leading up to the trade deadline exciting, the players themselves — especially young players — often find it stressful. Now in his 16th season, elder statesman Mike Conley has been trying to keep his teammates from creating an “anxiety bubble” around themselves, he tells ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
“With this particular team, we know we have so many guys that are wanted, so many guys that are in those talks,” admits a candid Conley.
“You know something's going to happen. It can be one, it can be four, it can be three, however many guys.”
Conley himself has had his name linked to the Los Angeles Clippers as the Kawhi Leonard-led championship-contenders scour the league for a point guard upgrade.
Though shooting the second-lowest mark of his career this season at 40.8 percent, Conley remains a heady floor general and aggressive defender. He's also shooting 36.2 percent from 3-point range, a number that highlights the current Clippers point guards' inadequacies from the perimeter.
“We've done a lot of cool things here, and Utah's been good to me,” Conley says of the speculation. ”
“t the same time, if there's an opportunity out there that works, I'll be ready for that… The time you get traded is when you don't know or haven't heard anything about it.”
Follow Us
Subscribe