Mike Conley - Sharpshooter (Separation) 16/17

Mike Conley Jr. is easily the most successful, least decorated NBA player in the league today. With a whopping ZERO All-Star berths, the only NBA honors he has to his name so far are 2 NBA Sportsmanship Awards (2014, 2016), and an NBA All-Defensive Second Team nod in 2013. During the 2016-17 campaign, he upped his scoring, going from a career 13.6 points per game to 20.5 ppg, while shooting a career best from the field (45.9%) and 3 point land (40.8%, good for 18th best in the entire league). He did all this en route to becoming the Memphis Grizzlies’ all-time leading scorer, and notching the highest scoring total in a playoff game in franchise history. He is also Memphis’ all-time assist leader, all-time steals leader, and holds the record for both most games and most minutes played for the Griz. In addition to all of that, in his 676 games across 10 seasons, and his 56 playoff appearances, he has NEVER registered a technical foul (he was assessed one in 2014, but that was overturned by the league); Conley might just be the king of cool. Mike Conley is so very underrated (yes, it’s a word that gets thrown around a lot, but in this case, it actually applies) as a scorer, but even more-so as a shooter. As you’ll see in this video, some teams actually think it’s alright to switch or even go under high screens. That’s a mistake. His off the dribble game is lethal. He is so proficient with his pullup that just giving him that much space is foolish, and he’s got so much offensive polish that he’ll punish putting a less than able perimeter defender on him. You’ll notice this in this video that he creates against the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Paul George, and more of the like. David Fizdale forced Mike to get aggressive in looking for his own shot because he recognized that it creates that much more space for the rest of the Griz, and that did wonders for his team. Mike also has so much chemistry with the other franchise cornerstone, Marc Gasol, that their two-man game is absolutely abusive. Whether it’s a quick give and go, or looking for one another off of pin down or cross screen action, they can both drive, shoot, create, and are extremely unselfish. Memphis might not know where it is headed down the road, with both Marc (32) and Mike (29) being older players, but we should all appreciate the magic they make when they are out on the floor together. Mike might legitimately never make an all-star team because the guard position in the West is so so very stacked, but that doesn’t diminish his greatness by any stretch. A player this good should not ever be taken for granted.