Rondo or Conley jr?

[Humble G]

I have been a fan of the grizzlies since the day they got Conley(granted i bleed green and the celtics are my #1). And watching him develop, especially this year and the way he has performed in the post season caused this thought to cross my mind................

who would I rather have Conley or Rondo?
- rondo has slight edge on assts and rebounds i suppose but conley can rack up the assists too
- steals and turnovers are about even, edge conley id say
- as far as shooting and scoring, i'm gonna go with conley

granted they are on 2 very different teams one has a great low post and big man game the other doesn't(u can figure out which is which ) BUT really rondo hasnt been the star or go to guy (until maybe next year) and neither has conley.....


BUT as of now I think I would go with conley b/c he can still get the ball around, plays good defense and has a better shot and 2 yrs younger

whats your thoughts?

[scaryjerry]

Yawn. Please stop. It's been rondo. his past playoff performances blow away what Conley is doing now....convenient rondo went down for the season and prisoners of the moment see Conley having his best season....I like him but please just stop...I'm sure the comparison wasn't being made in last years playoffs.

[Humble G]

Yawn. Please stop. It's been rondo. his past playoff performances blow away what Conley is doing now....convenient rondo went down for the season and prisoners of the moment see Conley having his best season....I like him but please just stop...I'm sure the comparison wasn't being made in last years playoffs.

no bc conley was still developing, rondo has been in the league a year  longer plus had paul pierce, KG and you know who in their last days of their prime, no offense to z-bo and gasol and even gay but those guys dont hold a candle to the boston three party...

Maybe I have a lil bias for Conley but rondo only has him beat a lil in the passing game but conley is a much better shooter

[scaryjerry]

Yawn. Please stop. It's been rondo. his past playoff performances blow away what Conley is doing now....convenient rondo went down for the season and prisoners of the moment see Conley having his best season....I like him but please just stop...I'm sure the comparison wasn't being made in last years playoffs.

no bc conley was still developing, rondo has been in the league a year  longer plus had paul pierce, KG and you know who in their last days of their prime, no offense to z-bo and gasol and even gay but those guys dont hold a candle to the boston three party...

Maybe I have a lil bias for Conley but rondo only has him beat a lil in the passing game but conley is a much better shooter

Lol...actually those players in their prime are better then old guys who already played full hall of fame careers and are on the downside...no offense.

Conley was still developing? And so has Rondo..you said yourself he's only been in the league a year longer. Don't care if he's a better shooter-not a better player.

[Smutzy#9]

Take rondo every day of the week, guy is the closest thing to a walking triple double along with the MVP in the league. I will say Conley is a very underated PG in the league though. Great defender. good shooter. Solid guy to have on your team, dont think i would build a team around him though, where as many people believe you can build a team around rondo (to some extent)

[Celtics18]

I love Mike Conley's game.  I guess I'm partial to quick guards who have a knack for getting in the lane and causing havoc.  A lot of the credit to Memphis' success has gone to the bigs--Randolph and Gasol (and rightly so)--but, to me, the play of the guards, both Conley and Allen, has been huge for them this post-season.

I see Mike Conley as sort of a poor man's Tony Parker.  I would love to see the Spurs knock off the Warriors and get to see the Parker/Conley matchup in the next round.  It's possible that after this post-season, Conley will no longer be a "poor man's Tony Parker," but rather, the "next Tony Parker."

I'd still rather have Rondo.

[LGC88]

I take rondo too. More consistent during playoffs and he carry the team way better.
With the choice of memphis taking prince they had to ask mors from conleyon the offense event to compensate what rudy gay brought to the table. No surprise that he scores more now.
By the way I like this memphis team right now. Prince wasn't a bad move. They are the best defensively,  no doubts.

[pearljammer10]

Definitely Rondo.

But Conley is certainly been making a great case and his name more well known around the league. He is certainly (to me) knocking on the door of the top 5 pgs in the league while staying way under the radar and being fairly underrated.

However Rondo is easily in the top five, and I put him top three where Conley is sitting around the 7-8-9 mark.

[Monkhouse]

Conley is good, but nowhere near top 5 as of yet. He hasn't fully proved himself, although he is taking on a higher load of scoring. I do admit Conley has really impressed me, but to me he needs to be able to take over games like Rondo can before I say hes on a similar level.

[vjcsmoke]

I'd move Rondo plus pieces if we could get Conley + Gasol in the deal.

[KCattheStripe]

Everything Conley's doing now, Rondo's been doing for years in the playoffs.

[Moranis]

A couple of years ago I wanted to trade Rondo for Conley and Mayo or Conley, Cunningham, and a 1st.  The consensus at that time was neither trade was that appealing.  I think now in hindsight, more people would have done either of those.  Conley has really developed into a top tier PG and he has a much better contract figure than Rondo.  His shooting would also be a welcome addition on a team that is missing go to scorers.

[CelticConcourse]

I'd take Rondo

[Fan from VT]

I think Rondo's the better pure player.

But it gets a little more complicated than that when you think about other stuff. I'm not sure either one is good enough to be the A#1 option on a title team (Conley definitely not, and I think Rondo is too deficient in certain areas to be so as well; his shooting and FT shooting problems are real real problems), and I do wonder if Conley's skills (specifically shooting and FTs) mesh more naturally with the other random players you would need to build a title contender considering neither PG is that A#1 guy. In other words, I wonder if Conley meshes better with the A#1 guys you need on a title team.

A few other things too:
-Conley is 2 years younger.
-Conley makes 8.2, 9, 9.6 million then is an FA
-Rondo makes 12, 13, then FA one year sooner
-Rondo's next contract is more likely to be bigger as well. -There are always small question marks post major injury.

So, because Conley is cheaper and not as good an overall player as Rondo, this means 2 potential things:
-When you take just Conley over Rondo, you have about 4 million extra dollars of nba salary to work with. Might make a difference; can be difference between MLE vs MMLE for example.
-If there were to be a trade, it would likely not be "straight up", but would include some extra stuff from Memphis. So the choice may not be Conley vs Rondo but rather Conley + 1st rounder or Conley + Ed Davis for Rondo.

Makes it more tricky.


If I were building a team from scratch and one of these two had to be my first player and I had to win as many games as possible in that first year, I'd probably grab Rondo at his 12 million. But if I had a good team that lacked a PG (say NYK, Memphis, Miami, OKC) I might take Conley so that those teams with other good players who are comfortable with the ball don't get their spacing messed up by adding a ball-dominant non shooter.

[Celtics18]

I think Rondo's the better pure player.

But it gets a little more complicated than that when you think about other stuff. I'm not sure either one is good enough to be the A#1 option on a title team (Conley definitely not, and I think Rondo is too deficient in certain areas to be so as well; his shooting and FT shooting problems are real real problems), and I do wonder if Conley's skills (specifically shooting and FTs) mesh more naturally with the other random players you would need to build a title contender considering neither PG is that A#1 guy. In other words, I wonder if Conley meshes better with the A#1 guys you need on a title team.

A few other things too:
-Conley is 2 years younger.
-Conley makes 8.2, 9, 9.6 million then is an FA
-Rondo makes 12, 13, then FA one year sooner
-Rondo's next contract is more likely to be bigger as well. -There are always small question marks post major injury.

So, because Conley is cheaper and not as good an overall player as Rondo, this means 2 potential things:
-When you take just Conley over Rondo, you have about 4 million extra dollars of nba salary to work with. Might make a difference; can be difference between MLE vs MMLE for example.
-If there were to be a trade, it would likely not be "straight up", but would include some extra stuff from Memphis. So the choice may not be Conley vs Rondo but rather Conley + 1st rounder or Conley + Ed Davis for Rondo.

Makes it more tricky.


If I were building a team from scratch and one of these two had to be my first player and I had to win as many games as possible in that first year, I'd probably grab Rondo at his 12 million. But if I had a good team that lacked a PG (say NYK, Memphis, Miami, OKC) I might take Conley so that those teams with other good players who are comfortable with the ball don't get their spacing messed up by adding a ball-dominant non shooter.

You make some good points, but I have some significant disagreements.

The first, and essential one, is that I believe that Rondo is good enough to be at least the co-A#1 on a contender.  He's shown that ability in the past (you could say, "yes, but never on an actual championship team" and I respond, "darn, I wish Pau Gasol hadn't gotten that rebound and put back in game seven."  It was that close, a couple of breaks here or there, and the story is completely different).

The second point is that if you think that Conley is likely to be significantly cheaper on his next contract, then I definitely wouldn't be interested in trading Rondo for him.  That'll mean he doesn't develop into the superstar level player that we have in Rajon Rondo. 

Finally, as far as the shooting goes, Rondo improved his mid-range shooting significantly last season.  He's got nothing to do but work on his jumper while he rehabs.  Hopefully, we'll see him return as an even better shooter next year (maybe he'll even develop some semblance of three point range and get into the seventies from the charity stripe).

Like I said earlier, I like Mike Conley's game and will continue to root for him to succeed, but I say we stick with the star point guard we have and build around him.