Ask anyone in the league about Mike Conley, and you’ll hear two things. First, that he’s the best dude ever (truth); and second, that he’s the best player in league history never to appear in an All-Star Game (Byron Scott and Marcus Camby are his only real competition).



Well, let me add a third, since it has important implications for this season: He’s never been in a system that opened the floor for his quickness. And as a result, he could be headed for a breakout year at the ripe old age of 32.



With one glorious exception, which I’ll get to in a minute, Conley’s dozen years in Memphis were spent in a post-up system that sorely lacked the multiple floor-spacers who might unlock the paint for him.



We had good reasons for this, of course. (Full disclosure: I was the Grizzlies vice-president of basketball operations the past seven years). With frontcourt behemoths Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol dominating in the post and...