awesome

“I felt like I kind of knew him [Andre Miller] already,‘’ McMillan said. "Because in a sense, we were similar as players, as far as not being great scorers or shooters, but we made our teams better because of our feel for the game and our I.Q.’’

“We wanted to raise our I.Q., and we do with this,‘’ McMillan said. "He just has a feel for the game. He will be a guy who will know the sets, put players in their spots.’’

The pretty much verifies two things.

1. Nate McMillan likes players similar to himself.
2. Basketball I.Q. is a tangible quality on the court.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, here’s some earlier comments of mine.

“Kevin Pritchard further irks me with his fascination of point guards who don’t fit Nate McMillan’s system. Whether it’s Pritchard’s utterly futile attempt to forcefully put a square peg into a round hole with free-wheeling playmakers (e.g., Sergio Rodriguez) or me-first combo guards (e.g., Jerryd Bayless), there’s seemingly a big disconnect between Pritchard and McMillan.regarding the point guard position.

As someone who watched this nearly same exact scenario unfold in Seattle and ruin McMillan’s relationship with Wally Walker and Rick Sund, it astounds me that nobody has appeared to learn from past failures. In the end, ultimately, I wonder if both Prichard and McMillan will be here for Portland’s next run championship glory."

http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/6/1/896006/ian-thomsens-comments-on-courtside#16461131

Kevin Pritchard finally learned one part of the lesson — albeit rather begrudgingly, as is noted by his original pursuit of the aging and declining Hedo Turkoglu — regarding how to properly build a team that’s coached by Nate McMillan. Regardless, there still seems to be a palpable disconnect between these two men who sport clashing philosophies.

Plus, as it concerns McMillan and Jerryd Bayless, it appears that my earlier comments were spot on the dot.

“I’m not entirely sold that McMillan will adjust his offense to appease a gunner like Jerryd Bayless. It’s one thing when McMillan coached a dribble-drive point guard like Antonio Daniels, for he was very careful with the ball — as his assist-to-turnover ratio in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 were both greater than 4:1 — and had a sharp-shooting backcourt partner in Ray Allen to mask his mediocre long-range shooting.”

http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/5/9/870797/buyers-sellers#15546884

On a final note, it seems Pritchard is too obstinante to realize that Bayless is just an atrocious fit with the Trail Blazers. That appears to be a trend, though, since Pritchard will stand beside his guys until the point in which their value decreases substantially. Channing Frye and Sergio Rodriguez are current examples, while Travis Outlaw and Bayless may be next in line. Let’s hope that Pritchard cuts bait with both Outlaw and Bayless this summer, although I sadly doubt it’ll happen with the latter.

I [Quick] had several conversations with Andy Miller, Andre’s agent. The agent marveled at how much the Blazers organization valued Blake.

This shouldn’t really be news, but anyone who thinks that Steve and his expiring contract will be dealt in February had better back away from that notion. I suspect Blake will get a “fair” contract extension and sign it, before Halloween

repeat with me: lots of talent is good!!! if we have more than 2 talented players at one position people go crazy saying we HAVE to trade them.

“The Blazers are awaiting word from the NBA on whether they can enter the season with a potential $2.6 million in cap space. … That’s when the cap-holds for Petteri Koponen, Joel Freeland and Victor Claver are eligible to come off the books .”

That is automatic as far as I know. I wonder what he means by “awaiting word”?

I would estimate the cap space available at the start of the season (if we make no further moves) at about $2.3M = $700K (left after signing Miller) + $2.6M (Euro cap holds coming off) – $1.0M? (total of two rookie salaries). Anyone have a better estimate of the rookie salaries?

I recall talk about petitioning the NBA for cap relief on Miles. The argument wasn’t simply that someone would sign him just to mess with us (he played 34 games and averaged 8.8 minutes last year so that argument is pretty weak now), but rather that the CBA cap space hit was intended to keep a team from re-signing its own “medically retired” player for cheap, and not penalize a team if the player later came back with a new team. It would seem difficult to sell that theory and get cap relief (as if the rest of league would give us a break), but I remember someone from the Blazers saying they would pursue that with the league. Has anyone heard anything about such a petition?

Trades down the road, maybe, but not creating an artificial pressure cooker situation