The main reason I thought Hedo would have been a good fit in Portland is his ability to run the side pick-and-roll. He ran it beautifully with Dwight Howard in Orlando, and I really thought it would have have been a big help to Greg Oden's offensive game. In that respect, I also thought Hedo would have been a much better fit in Portland than in Toronto. Toronto lacks a post up center. So, Hedo becomes just another weak defending, poor rebounding perimeter player on a team that's loaded with them. He would have added something we don't have in Portland. In Toronto, he's redundant. Also, the Blazers are much closer to contending than Toronto. So, it makes more sense to overpay a 30-year old veteran with a lot of post season experience. Toronto isn't close to being a contender, even with all their of season moves. So, if Bosh stays, they probably won't ever get past the first round. If he leaves, they have a lottery team with multiple huge, long term contracts (Calderon, Bargnani and Hedo) tied up in guys who don't play defense or rebound the ball. Signing Hedo, and resigning Bargnani to that ridiculous extension, both smack of desperation by Colangelo. He had to do something to keep his job, and try to convince Bosh to stay, after last year's 33-win disaster of a season. In the process, I think he has doomed that team to years of mediocrity - at best. More like a couple years of mediocrity followed by another 3+ of total suckage. BNM
I love Miller compared to Jerkalu. I think Jerkalu was way overrated, and Miller was the missing piece. He is what is making Oden better. He sees the court better than blake.
I would like to point that while I thought (and still do) that Hedo would have been good for this team - I did not like the 5 years bit at all (and I am pretty sure that I was on record saying that 3 years is what we should really offer as guaranteed). Nothing changes about it - Hedo is a matchup problem - he is a very tall guy that can handle the ball and is not a bad outside shooter - so he can play off the ball pretty well. In this regard - he seems like a better fit than Miller - who is really not an outside shooting threat. There is a reason the team seems out of sorts adjusting - Hedo would have been able to slide in a lot more smoothly, in my opinion. I still think everyone will adjust to playing with Miller just fine. We are also lucky that Howard is on the team - because he seems to duplicate the ability to feed the post that Hedo would have provided - even if he does it in a different way. What I am happy however, is that Hedo did save us from ourselves as far as his long contract is concerned - because it would have come back to bite us where the sun does not shine in 3 years.
Howard has been the surprise of camp, hasn't he? I thought he could play in a pinch and would offer some veteran leadership, but I really had no idea that he was such an effective entry passer to the post.
And not to mention, the ability to post up and shoot the mid-range shot. He's like a more savvy Frye coming off the bench. The other great thing about Howard is he knows his role. If Nate gives him only 10 minutes a game, I suspect he would be fine with it.
We should have gotten Turkoglu. Every time we play Toronto and Turkaloo makes a good play, I'll boo Miller. When Turkolo makes a bad move, I'll cheer Miller. When Miller makes a bad play, I'll cheer Turgolu. And when Miller makes a good play, I'll boo Turkogloo.
