Everyone gets really upset about his contract and how he's not worth it and talks about what else the Jazz could have done with $23M per year....

But the reality is that it was pay Conley the money or lose him without any avenue to replace him. The Jazz could have used the MLE to replace him, I guess, and signed someone like Patty Mills, Dennis Schroeder or Ish Smith. That would have also prevented them from signing Rudy Gay with the MLE though.

So the question (if you're able to ignore the money spent by Ryan Smith and just focus on the actual ability to sign players) is whether a team with Mike Conley and Rudy Gay is better or worse off than a team with Ish Smith.