Actually I would point out, only part of the series was without Yao. During the part with Yao, they went .500 with the Lakers. Without him they lost all but one. The way I look at this move is, now hopefully Portland won't get totally hosed at the PG position every night. Where the Blazers used to get hosed, every night at that position. Portland had arguably the worst PG in the western conference, right there with Minnesota. Considering the Blazers are in a confernce very strong at the PG position, that pretty much put Portland 10 points and several assist in the hole every night, not to mention the foul trouble caused to our bigs. The foul trouble issue still isn't solved, because Miller isn't a good defender. But at least he will go at them, and get them into foul trouble too.
Good post. You're right about the Blazers still being vulnerable to quick attacking guards getting their Bigs in foul trouble, but they do enjoy better frontline depth then most teams. In the tit for tat way that games are often officiated, I'll take the Miller upgrade of at least being able to trade fouls. STOMP
of course. miller should be judged on his merits just like ever other player on the team. but several times i've seen miller's experience mentioned as a positive. it isn't(even if you think experience is important). he has no more experience than steve blake, has never been on a team that won 50 games, and has never played in the 2nd round of the playoffs. in my mind, those aren't negatives against him but they also aren't an upgrade of anything the blazers had last season. same goes for when people say he's going to be great for oden/aldridge. if there was evidence of him playing well and improving allstar caliber bigs in the past, i would agree. but there isn't evidence of that. miller has only played with an allstar caliber big once in his career. that doesn't mean that he won't be good for oden/aldridge, just that the expectation that he will be isn't really based on anything he's shown so far. miller does have positives. he'll be another blazer with the ability to attack the basket and create his own shot. he'll take some of the pressure off roy during the middle of games and let roy work off the ball some to not use up as much energy. i just have to disagree when people name things like experience as one of the positives miller brings to the table.
the rockets were down 1-2 with yao. they went 2-2 without him. of course the two losses with yao both included artest being ejected unfairly(though one of the games was already basically out of reach when it happened). and the two wins without yao came in houston when the lakers really didn't bother to even show up to the game and let the rockets build 15+ point leads immediately(17-4 in the first win without yao and 17-1 in the second).
Oh. Comparative arguments confuse me at times. There isn't much of a comparative baseline on comparing series, which was my point. It appears to me that both Orlando and Houston were 4-2 better than Philly and Portland, respectively. Still not sure what the meaning is, but the point of the OP is clarified. Thanks!
When you've done something for a long time, as Miller has with basketball, you learn a LOT about the game. Even if you haven't won a championship, as he has not, you learn the league, you learn the refs, you learn the game. Andre Miller brings an understanding of the game to our team that will make us better, I think.
Andre Miller has FOUR MORE YEARS of experience than Steve Blake. And Miller has the current record for most consecutive games played. At like 530! Andre Miller has suited up, tied his shoes, taken the ball, and run the point for a total of 815 games in this league. He shows up every night and competes and his teammates like him. Now, in Portland, he finally has teammates that he can take deep into the playoffs. Games played in NBA: Andre Miller 815 Steve Blake 419 Minutes played in the NBA: Andre Miller 28,462 Steve Blake 10,658 Career Assists in the NBA: Andre Miller 6,020 Steve Blake 1,753 Andre Miller has FAR more experience in this league than Steve Blake.
Also you can't compare Houston and Orlando based on how they played against the Lakers. The Houston-LA series was in the second round where the Lakers had focus issues. They had trouble getting up for the games they were supposed to win so that they could get to the Finals. They got better as the playoffs went on, really taking off during Game 5 of the WCF and then steamrolled Orlando because they were so fired up to get the job done. Think of the Houston series as the 2nd quarter of a game and the Orlando series as the 4th quarter. The great teams turn it up during the 4th.
You don't get to play 10 years in the NBA merely because you show up. The average career of an NBA player is 5 years. He has been effective enough in this league (and as a starter the whole way) to last twice that. He's done fine with his teams. He hasn't had great teammates up this point in his career. And hell, in Cleveland, with no one on his team, he still managed to get 10 assists per game. Portland will be the best team he's ever played on. He will have more people to pass to than he has ever had in his career. Welcome him with open arms, Blazers fans.
"effective enough" doesn't put us in the NBA elite. we're still dark horses with Miller.....only thing that can propel us to NBA elite is if Oden just dominates.
thinking it's a bad move and that he won't improve the team is different than wanting it to be a bad move and wanting it to not improve the team.
Oden may dominate because of Miller. Look at Billups' career. He put in a lot of time in this league before having real playoff success and then he won Finals MVP. Billups' best season, statistically, was his 10th.
