Post by Rog on Apr 26, 2017 1:37:12 GMT
The 80th Hall of Fame nominee of the NBN Hall of Fame, Mike Conley, Jr. was one of the better non superstar point guards in league history. That isn't exactly the best endorsement is it? Shouldn't the best of the best be Hall of Famers? Was Conley good enough to get him there? Lets take a look and let the league decide.
Career Stats
38.1 MPG, 17.2 PPG, 9.5 APG, 3.9 RPG, 2.0 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 2.6 TOPG on 46.4% from the field, 87.9% from the line, and 42.2% from three
Best Season
Warriors(2017) - 20.7 PPG, 10 APG, 4.2 RPG, 2.3 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 2.1 TOPG on 45.8% from the field, 92.9% from the line, and 47.6% from three
Career Highs
Points: 44
Rebounds: 12
Assists: 20
Steals: 10
Blocks: 2
Achievements
Championships: 0
Player of the Game: 143
Player of the Week: 1
Player of the Month: 0
Double Doubles: 461
Triple Doubles: 7
Accolades
2008 - All-Star Rookie Game Participant
2008 - Rookie of the Year
2008 - All-Rookie Team
2009 - All-Star Rookie Game Participant
Arguments For Inducion
- Conley doesn't have any awards but his game doesn't enable him to get them in FBB. He was never a superstar scorer, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he was a damn good player who deserved more recognition. Its fitting, you can say the exact same thing about him in real life as well.
- More than anything else, the biggest argument in Conley's favor is how incredibly consistent he was. He started for his entire 14 year career. He never averaged less than 14.5 points or 8.6 assists. In fact for all except his first and one season in the middle, but for 12 years you could count on 16 points, 9.5 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals while shooting damn well from the field.
- Conley's best actual individual asset was his defense. He averaged 2 steals in his career and fluctuated above and beyond that mark, never really going too far either way. He did hold an A defensive rating for the vast majority of his career, only falling to A- at times but never lower than that. Great defender, despite a lack of awards there.
- Conley was also an absolutely fantastic passer, one of the better year to year in league history. He never was elite, but was agonizingly consistent in that every year except 2 he was between 9 and 10.4 assists a game. He averaged over 9.5 for 10 of those 12 seasons, and over 10 for four seasons. Nearly elite, but at the very least very, very good.
- Overall, Conley was the perfect point guard if you didn't get a superstar, a guy you didn't have to gameplan your team around. You could slot him in knowing he wouldn't shoot you out of games, he wouldn't average more than 3 turnovers, he could lock down point guards in the league, and he was a damn good passer. He wasn't just a game managing offensive player either, he gave his games a good 16-18 points a game for most of his prime, shooting the ball really well also. You could slot this guy in, knowing you didn't have to worry about him. His passing ability alone puts him on the edge of the Hall to me.
Arguments Against Induction
- Read my lips: You. Can't. Induct. Someone. With. No. Awards. No exceptions or excuses or explanations or stretching of the truth will allow you to vote that way without compromising some standard. Just can't do it.
- While by no means a bad offensive player, he wasn't a good one either and its almost a prerequisite to at least be good offensively to make the Hall of Fame. His scoring numbers were squarely average and while he shot the ball well, it just isn't enough to make up for his short comings. Plus he could lose you games with his turnovers. They weren't awful, but any time a guy averages more than 2.5 a game, it hurts you. And Conley did that 8 of 14 seasons. Ouch.
- Was he actually great defensively? Never showed up on the best defenders lists, never was a league leader in steals, and has zero awards to his name in any function, defensively included. Hard to make the case in his favor based on the fact that he has nothing to actually prove these things.
- If it feels like I made more of a case for, than against, thats because I had to stretch the case for. Its an obvious case to make against his induction. Lack of scoring, not actually a great defender, no awards, and an overall lack of anything special to make him a Hall of Famer. You just can't induct someone who you can't rely an argument on something, anything that sticks. Nothing sticks here. It also weakly hits the wall and falls to the floor. Hes not a Hall of Famer. Period.
Vote carefully, and remember to throw out arguments regardless of which side you're on. This should be a discussion that eventually gets the league to the proper decision on him. Your vote can also be retracted after it's been cast if you feel like switching to the other side based on the arguments that have been made. To be inducted, a player needs 70% and to be considered in a later class they need 50%. Vote carefully.
***BONUS - Don't forget that everyone who votes gets $25 and the person that makes the best argument or contributes to the discussion the best will be awarded an extra $25***
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