Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley. Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Clippers interested in Jazz star ahead of trade deadline

Originally posted on Sportsnaut | By Vincent Frank | Last updated 1/18/23

The Los Angeles Clippers are going to be without injury-plagued point guard John Wall over the next couple of weeks as he deals with an abdominal issue.

Even with Wall in the mix, point guard has been an issue for a Clippers team that has struggled to a 23-23 start to the season.

There now could be a potential fix ahead of the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline. According to insider Marc Stein (h/t HoopsHype ), Los Angeles has interest in Utah Jazz All-Star point guard Mike Conley.

It’s not yet known whether Conley is on the trade market or whether the surprising Jazz plan to be sellers ahead of the deadline. They are currently 23-24 and just a half-game behind the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference standings. Although, front-office head Danny Ainge continues to build for the future after acquiring a ton of draft capital in offseason trades of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.

At the advanced age of 35, Conley has seen his game take a hit recently. He’s averaging what would be a 14-year low 10.3 points on 39% shooting while adding 7.5 assists per outing. It stands to reason that Reggie Jackson would remain Los Angeles’ starting point guard even if front-office head Lawrence Frank were to pull off a trade for Conley.

In an interesting turn, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that the Clippers are open to trading Wall for some frontcourt help. Acquiring Conley as his replacement in that scenario would make a ton of sense.

With that said, finances and the NBA salary cap could be an issue here. Conley is earning $22.6 million in 2022-23. Los Angeles’ top-heavy roster construction makes it hard to pull off a trade for someone with that cap figure. Rotational players like Luke Kennard and Robert Covington would have to head to Utah with draft picks in order to make this work.

This article first appeared on Sportsnaut and was syndicated with permission.

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