Mike Conley is out indefinitely due to a shoulder injury during a loss to Dallas, but he will fortunately not need surgery.  This is yet another run of bad luck for Ohio State rookies.  Of course Greg Oden out for the entire season and Daequan Cook has seen Pat Riley give him highly inconsistent playing time despite showing he can be an efficient scorer (58.6 TS%).

Conley was seeing just 14.4 minutes per game, playing behind Damon Stoudamire and Kyle Lowry, but despite effective performances from those other two six-foot point guards, the rookie was playing better.  His overall per-minute production at the point guard position was only surpassed by Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, Jose Calderon, Baron Davis and Jason Kidd.

"He's eventually going to be a starter in this league,? fellow Ohio State alum Michael Redd said recently.  ?He's talented enough, gifted enough. He's still young.  But he's got a good attitude. He's going to be just fine."

He was averaging an impressive 1.47 points per shot, showing that same ability to finish in the lane (shooting over 60% on close shots) that he did in college.  Conley also had a foul drawing percentage of 20.8, which is a rate only bigs like Dwight Howard and Shaquille O?Neal typically see.

He has that same ability to penetrate deep into the paint and convert in the same way as Tony Parker, who does it better than anyone.  Paul did this more as a rookie, but has become more of a jump-shooter in years two and three.  Deron Williams does it often, but scoring is often secondary to dishing it out to Boozer.

Conley also was taking excellent care of the basketball, averaging 5.25 assists per turnover (Billups leads all qualified leaders with 4.56).

?He?s a quiet performer,? said head coach Marc Iavaroni, who was unapologetically bringing Conley along slowly before the injury. ?He?s not a highlight type of guy. He?s just efficient."

The difference in not having Conley in the lineup will not result in a tremendous difference for the 3-9 Grizzlies in the standings, but the indicators are clearly encouraging (though the sample size is far from voluminous).