The most common narrative is that the Memphis Grizzlies closed their eyes and said a prayer when they gave Mike Conley a five-year, $45 million contract extension in the fall of 2010.

But the real leap, the one that mattered, came long before they ever had reason to have faith.

Lionel Hollins knew little about Conley when he took over as head coach of the woeful Grizzlies in January of 2009. He had a long history with the franchise, having twice served as an assistant and interim coach. But he spent the beginning of the 2008-09 season in Milwaukee, as a Bucks assistant.

One thing was clear, though: The players who had been given a chance to play that season had gotten the last guy fired, so the other guys couldn't be much worse.

"To me it was pretty simple," Hollins said. "They'd drafted Mike fourth overall the year before, but he'd gotten hurt as a rookie. They also had Kyle Lowry as the starting point guard and they'd been talking about trading Mike.

After taking over (again) in 2009, Lionel Hollins quickly moved Mike Conley into the starting lineup. Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images

"I came in and was like, 'Why are we talking about trading him? We're not going anywhere. Why don't we put this guy out there and see if he can play before you go trade him?'"

It was exactly the kind of objective, blunt assessment the Grizzlies needed to hear. And Hollins might have been the only guy who could have delivered it.

"If your job is to paint a yellow square, you paint it to the best of your ability," he said. "They didn't ask you to paint the whole court, they asked you to paint that square."

In this case, that meant convincing the franchise the best thing it could do in the short term was prepare for the long term.

Just a few weeks before, Conley was nearly traded to Milwaukee for Ramon Sessions.

But shortly after taking over for Marc Iavaroni, Hollins met with Conley and told him he was the new starting point guard, and he would be given every chance to remain the starting point guard for the rest of the season.

"It was more than a rumor," Conley said. "My dad's also my agent and he called me to say I wasn't playing this one game. When they tell you that, you know it's pretty serious.

"So after all that happened, for [Hollins] to come to me and say, 'I don't care what happened before, I want to see if you can play or not' … I can't even put enough words in the sentences to say how much it means to me."

Who needs words when you can do what Conley's been doing on the court lately?

Since the Grizzlies traded away leading scorer Rudy Gay in January, Conley has blossomed, leading the team in scoring (16.4), assists (6.4) and 3-pointers (52).

During the playoffs he's been even better, becoming a clutch scorer, team leader and elite defender.

"I'm glad my first major decision worked out," Hollins said with a self-satisfied smile.

You never really know what's going to happen when you hand a player something he may not have earned yet -- playing time, responsibility, a big contract.

Some players become emboldened by the show of faith and spend the rest of their careers trying to live up to it. Others become entitled.

Conley had always been a hard worker. In the year and a half he'd been in Memphis, he'd proved to be humble, coachable and eager to learn and improve. But the Grizzlies didn't have a lot of hard evidence to rely on when Hollins advocated for him to be thrust into the starting lineup.