Pacers news: Mike Conley was thinking about playing for Indiana before trade to Jazz

Before landing in Utah with the Jazz, Mike Conley admits that he had thoughts about playing for his hometown Indiana Pacers.

Before landing in Utah, Mike Conley admits that he had thoughts about playing for his hometown Indiana Pacers.

“There was the thought, there were a few teams I knew that were going to be in there. Pending the timing of it, I could end up in any one of those cities, including Indianapolis,” Conley told J. Michael of the Indianapolis Star. “I already was thinking about what it would be like to play at home. Things turned out differently.”

The veteran guard grew up playing ball in Indianapolis and spent all four years of high school playing in the capital. He even finished second in the Indiana Mr. Basketball Award, losing out by a slim margin to Greg Oden.

It made sense for the Pacers to try to acquire Conley. After Darren Collison announced that he would be retiring from the league, he left a hole at the point guard position. Unfortunately, Conley had already been traded to the Utah Jazz, who were hellbent on getting Donovan Mitchell surrounded by shooters and scoring talent.

Now, Conley will be focused on taking the Jazz on a deep playoff run. While there are some stacked contenders in their way, Utah feels good about the talent it has collected and certainly won't be backing down to any team, no matter how many superstars they have on their roster.