I like Miller, but I’m not sure what we would have to give up to get him. If it was just Blake and Diogu I think I would feel good about it.

On older PGs…

However, that was mostly because I did not see a clear heir apparent to whatever older PG we get, and we’d be stuck in the same position as before and probably had to move some nice pieces just to get this one year flyer on Jason Kidd or Andre Miller or whomever.

Now that we got Bayless, who should be a fun player his rookie year but not a clear starter, I can get behind taking a flyer on a solid-to-great vet PG, as long as it is the right deal obviously.

I definitely won’t be too heartbroken if no deal like this happens though, because I don’t wanna move our guys for a temporary player AND we got Steve Blake. He is solid, mediocre in nearly every way, but that solid consistency is so important at the PG spot with the young team we got.

If we can improve that spot and get someone even more solid, and can hold down the fort while Bayless matures, and the price is right, well shee-ooot sign me up pardner (spits into a spittoon)

I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t feel like it has sunk in yet: we got our PG of the future that we desperately wanted. If Rudy can be a PG too it is gravy, but not necessary; we got one of the highest ranked college PGs in the entire universe. That is pretty damn cool.

I mean, this Bayless kid is a bit of the ol’ alright, correct? It’s crazy how easily we obtained him.

Anyways, nice analysis as always Dave. I love Andre Miller’s solid veteranness, and he is crafty, but I hate his shooting and his age. But like I said, now that we got lil’ Bayless…

Mortimer

I’ve always admired Miller’s game, because he has that “true point guard” skill of handling the ball the vast majority of the game, and still allowing other players to score. He’s dangerous enough on the dribble to warrant a concentrated effort from whomever is guarding him, but skilled enough to make a pass that leads to points, meaning the rest of the defense has to key on THEIR guys, too. I think Miller has more ability in the “getting to the rim” category than our man, Blake, but without being a threat from deep, he may not be the end-all-be-all the Blazers are looking for. (I’m not parroting the ‘stand pat’ argument, just throwing caution).

I think Miller’s ability to get the ball to the big guys, and run the offense without being THE focal point, makes him one of the better point guards in the league, and someone worthy of wearing the red, black, and white (with silver trim…).

Can’t wait to see if you can come up with an even better proposition!

Andre Miller is pretty darn good at playing the point in this league, and he would also fit really well along side Brandon Roy, he would likely average 10 ppg and 5 apg.

Does this help the Blazers win? Not really. Andre Miller would take away Brandon’s ability to play with the ball. almost to a considerable extent. This will also greatly deter Brandons ability to showcase his own PG skills, as well as cutting into chemistry guys minutes (IE Steve Balke).

Andre Miller = Great NBA PG Player
Blazer Appeal = Low

If he were around 27-28 years old, I’d be all for it.

Because we are over the salary cap, we’d have to send out $10 million in salary to get this guy for the upcoming year. There is not a combination of players on our team, whose salary totals $10 Million , that would be worth giving up to get this guy. He is too old and is on the wrong side of his prime at this point. It would take Przybilla and Outlaw, or Przybilla and Blake to swing a deal. Przybilla and Blake would work, but then it comes down to whether or not you want a 32 year old point guard at the expense of Oden’s “Insurance Policy” and a steady 27 year old Steve Blake.

I suppose you could use RLEC and take back Miller and a $2 million dollar throw-in player (assuming Philly wants the expiring contract). If that player is a scrub, I guess he could be bought out. Then the issue becomes a logjam at PG. This would especially be true if Koponen signs on.

If at the end of the year when Miller’s contract expires, I would only be willing to sign him for 4-5 million a year, maybe for 2 years.

... starvation for tomorrow.

The Blazers’ philosophy or game plan is to run the offense through Roy and Miller would cut into that. Roy is not quite quick enough to guard the other team’s PG so we would need our “PG” to handle those chores and it sounds like Miller is not up to it. We also need shooters on the floor when LMA and Oden kick it back out. I imagine that the paint will pretty clogged by those two so a shooter (like say James Jones) has more worth to us than a slasher (like say Jarrett Jack).

This season is all about integrating Bayless, Oden and Fernandez into the fold so we need our other guard to play without needing the ball to be effective. Andre Miller doesn’t seem like that player.

Andre Miller has been perpetually underrated his entire career. I think it’s easy to write him off because of his age and liabilities (not a 3pt shooter, not a great defender) but if you look at his production, it’s hard to deny that he would be a terrific stop-gap while Jerryd Bayless gets some experience this year. I think Dave made some great points, including the one about it being a contract year for Miller, some extra motivation never hurts. By all accounts he’s a fantastic guy and a “true” PG. It’s only for a year. We have our PGs of the future (hopefully) in Bayless and Kopponen but both have never played a second of NBA ball. Miller is exactly that kind of veteran leadership Portland will need next year. After next year, I believe we’re ready to fly on our own. If I recall some stuff I read last year, Andre Miller really developed his personality as a vocal leader on 76’ers last year. I think if the offer came in as Blake and Diogu for Andre Miller, Portland would be crazy to pass that up. Any other combination of our players and I would be hesitant to pull the trigger.

...if we could get him cheap and he was willing to come off the bench.

I doubt either of these will be the case.

Long-term, I don’t see if working out well for either him or the Blazers franchise.

On that note. Miller is a NO. Successive candidate scenarios will liklely screw Blake, so in general, I don’t want to screw Blake.

I think he would be a significant, but not huge, upgrade over Blake. I wouldn’t give up a ton to get him, but if he could be had relatively cheaply, sign me up.

is the bazillion of trade proposals I’ve seen over the last couple of months which required frye plus martell or webster plus jack plus plus plus to move up to say, #5 in the draft.

I’m just not buying that we should be thinking about moving anyone before the mid point in the season. Not buying it at all. We don’t actually know at this point waht our trade bait is really worth and we won’t know until we’ve seen them play with that actual team that’s been assembled for the championship run. We haven’t seen that yet, not even one games worth.

Miller made Mo Cheeks look like he knew what he was doing on the sidelines…....In my book, that makes him a hellava player. I think we can all agree on that…...

................................ We have found our point guard in the draft.

If he washes out, this thread becomes relevant about 11 months hence.

t

Too lazy to see if anybody else mentioned this angle:

I say yes to Andre Miller as a bench PG (I’m assuming we keep Blake as starting PG because of his 3 point shot and chemistry with the starters). Steve is a 95% match as a starter, especially in account of he needs to fulfill in that group.

However, considering the large amount of talent on the bench, it is the BENCH group that could strongly use an experienced PG. Getting a guard like Miller for just a year allows some guidance and offensive flow for the bench’s off guards like Bayless, Rudy, and Martell/Travis. With a year of exprience, these players can perhaps play together as a second unit without a true point guard. In the meantime, Miller could possible eliminate the need for a Roy/Blake to play whenever Bayless/Rudy/Martell are on the court. So I would see Andre Miller as B Roy’s substitute. There would always be someone on the court to trust handling the ball, whether it is Roy/Blake as starters or Miller on the second unit.

Not going into a discussion that there will be better PG trade/free-agent targets out there (we will still come to these as I understand this article “series”), the main question to me would be what kind of experience/leadership Miller brings that we need respectively that Blake can’t provide. And I would argue very little.

What speaks for him? He spent time with four NBA teams. (Blake can match that btw.) He played internationally for the US years ago and was a good college player. He consistently gives great assists and is always good for a double-double. He is very durable, has rarely missed a game. He seems to have a good character. And last year was almost a breakout for him, though probably a few years too late.

All in all I think he brings too little additional potential for the team to really improve over what we already have in place at this price. And yeah, defensively he is a liability (gives up 7 points according to the on/off stats on 82games).

Andre Miller’s teams never win big, because he is a terrible defender and he is not a deep threat!

I know, just as well as many of you, that Roy can play a mean point guard. However, he is similar in roles to that of Kobe, in that he handles the ball in crunch time. In reality Roy is one of our franchise players, and we need to use him sparingly, that means not putting him through the same grind he went through last year. Less ball handling, and hard bruising drives will both benefit in preserving Roy as a key player on this magnificent budding team. That all being said, an Andre Miller would be wonderful to have to help mold our young pg’s into the type of player we want in our pg. I see a pg on our team doing things similar to miller, 10-18 ppg, 5-10 apg. This team will show a lot of balance, after all that is the most dangerous type of team. I am not sure however what I would be willing to part with as I like most of our players.. I suppose I could part with frye, and definitely sergio. But I like all the other guys and their roles they tend to fill.

But as far as a trade goes…..I think the Philly fans are ecstatic they made the playoffs last season. I don’t see them trading away the main reason for that.