Conley
mer time ends, so you just worry about the season," Conley said as he thought ahead to the "huge" relief that the deadline would bring after weeks of trade rumors and speculation over his future.
Conley, 31, admitted that sleeping has been difficult recently as his name floated around the NBA world as a potential centerpiece in potential trades.
Though he is staying in Memphis, life will be different for Conley after the deadline. His teammate and close friend Marc Gasol was traded to Toronto, breaking up the NBA'S longest-tenured duo of teammates.
The Utah Jazz were reportedly the top suitor for Conley, who is averaging near career bests after returning from an Achilles injury that forced him to miss nearly all of last season.
But by Wednesday afternoon, reports surfaced suggesting Conley wanted to be traded to the Eastern Conference. Conley refuted that.
“I never said that," Conley said. "When I saw it on the Internet, I just let it go because there’s no reason for me to get in between any of that stuff. I’ll play anywhere. I’ve never ran from a conference or any particular place or anything like that. I don’t know where that came from.”
And in the end, he didn't get traded at all, which is a possibility he pondered on Thursday morning as the Grizzlies prepared to play at Oklahoma City.
“Well you’ve got to be professional at the end of the day," he said. "It is a business, and the organization has their plan and they try and implement it as best they can. If things don’t go the way they’d like or it doesn’t always go the way the players like or whatever it may be, you have to show up, be professional and do your job. I know a lot of guys have been through a lot the last few weeks on this team with all the things going on with trades, rumors and different things like that.
"We just have to be able to come together if that does happen, resume and keep moving forward.”
Conley is the franchise’s career leader in games played, assists, steals and made 3-pointers.
The Grizzlies drafted him with the fourth overall pick in 2007. He was 19 and coming off one season with Ohio State.
“Draft night, I remember it like it was yesterday,” Conley told reporters Tuesday’s win over the Timberwolves. “Flying here early that next morning, basically staying up all night being excited and going to a Redbirds game and throwing a pitch. All that, I remember it like it was yesterday. I was just a kid. Really just a kid. One-hundred and seventy pounds and no idea what I was getting into. I would have never guessed that 12 years later that I’d be in this position.”
Conley ultimately helped the Grizzlies to seven straight playoff appearances as the team’s starting point guard while he flourished under former coach Lionel Hollins.
Before Hollins took over, the Grizzlies strongly considered trading Conley in 2009. Instead, they traded Kyle Lowry. As Conley hit his stride, so did the Grizzlies.
As the youngest member of a “core four” consisting of himself, Gasol, Tony Allen and Zach Randolph, Conley began to take a lead scoring role in the 2016-17 season. He averaged a career-high 20.5 points that season.
Then, an Achilles injury derailed his 2017-18 season after just 12 games as the Grizzlies began life without Randolph and Allen. Conley underwent surgery, and naturally, questions arose over whether he could return to his prime form this season at the age of 31.
He has answered those questions with a resounding yes. Through 53 games played of the team's 55, Conley is averaging 20.4 points in 33.8 minutes.
Now he will play out the rest of this season as the only remaining member of the core four.
"Just to be standing out there with a group of guys that, shoot, I’ve played with for only a few games now, a lot of them being rookies, it’s completely surreal," Conley said after Tuesday's win.
Reach Grizzlies beat writer David Cobb at david.cobb@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Davidwcobb.