Grizzlies' Joerger doesn't expect Conley back this season
The Memphis Grizzlies' ship continues to take on water, and it's looking increasingly possible that it'll sink before reaching the team's postseason destination.
Unlike many of their other injured rotation players, the Grizzlies have yet to officially shut down starting point guard Mike Conley, who's been out since March 4 with tendinitis in his left Achilles. After initially treating the issue as a day-to-day thing, they gave him a three-to-four-week timetable on March 12. Now, with that projection nearing its endpoint, there appears to be some doubt Conley will be back this season at all.
Head coach Dave Joerger was asked Monday if he expected shelved players in Conley, Brandan Wright, Jordan Adams, or P.J. Hairston to suit up again before the next season.
"I think we'll see P.J. again," Joerger said, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal.
Tillery reports that Conley is still walking with a limp, experiencing soreness in the Achilles, and wearing a walking boot. The 28-year-old averaged 15.3 points, 6.1 assists, and 1.2 steals in 56 games before getting injured.
Conley has largely been durable throughout his nine-year Grizzlies career, and the 21 games he's missed this season are his most since he was a rookie in 2007-08. Still, it's part of a disconcerting trend, which had seen him sidelined for nine and 12 games the two seasons before this one, respectively, after missing no more than four in the preceding five years. With unrestricted free agency beckoning this summer, Conley arguably has more incentive to rest than Memphis has to rest him.
Though they miraculously stayed afloat for a time, in spite of the ravenous injury bug that's forced them to dress a record number of players this season, the Grizzlies are finally being weighed down by all that extra freight.
On March 11, the fifth-place Grizzlies sat 39-26, closer to fourth (3 1/2 games back) than sixth (5 1/2 games up) in the Western Conference. They were nine games clear of the lottery. Thinned-out as they were, a postseason berth seemed a foregone conclusion.
Just over three weeks later, the Grizzlies have a mere half-game cushion for the five-seed, and are just three games up on the ninth-place Houston Rockets for a playoff spot. They've lost six straight games and 10 of their last 12, and each of their remaining opponents is above .500 - including the history-chasing Golden State Warriors, who they'll see twice before the season's out.
With nominal backup point guard Mario Chalmers also done for the year, the Grizzlies will rely on the patchwork tandem of Ray McCallum and Xavier Munford to carry them to the playoffs.