Miller offered for Battier? (RUMOR)

Hit a fucking open shot and play defense. What else do we need our SF to do?

 

What are you talking about? Sergio was a fantastic small forward

 

What I meant was, do you see Battier helping us win more games than Miller? I don't.

And even if he does improve our record, the increase will be marginal, and not worth wasting Nic's development.

 

The only problem I have with this statement is that it implies it is easy to find these sorts of guys.

 

He would absolutely improve our record.

A) He would instantly become our best wing defender by a long shot. Nobody even comes close. Not even Batum.

B) He is another three point shooter who can hit shots when it counts.

C) We could move Bayless into a larger role in the rotation (maybe even the starter).

 

That does sound pretty enticing.

I still have hope that this coaching staff can figure out how to use Miller, though.

 

Me too, but if it doesn't work out, it's not a bad trade by any means.

 

In fact that is part of what I was saying. I know a lot of the Blazer fans love our guys because they were drafted by the organization, and they anticipate players turning from a project into a high end players and playing their whole careeer here, and they envision some sort of magnificent career run here. But that is not how it works out most of the time. From what I have seen, projects for the most part are failures, and rarely successful. There have been free agents and draft picks we have passed on repeatedly over the last few years which would have upgraded the Blazers at the SF position easily. Some of them as late as the second round in the draft.

I am not saying Batum might turn into a pretty good player one day. I am just saying that a known "good" is exactly that. A guy that can provide the spacing for our stars to go to work. A guy that the defense can't afford to leave because he will hit the open jumper. Other teams have that guy. We haven't for a really long time now.

 

If the Rockets traded Battier it would be for youth. There is about zero chance of them agreeing to that trade.

 

I think you're overrating Battier's defense a bit. I think he's a very good defender, but no longer all-world. I think Batum comes close.

 

If Miller is Moriarty with the negative waves in the locker room, then I'd trade him for a handful of Corn Nuts and a warm six pack of Olympia.

However, that's an awfully big if.

 

Weird. I was perfectly satisfied with Nic's production as an 18 minutes a night "starter" last year. He hit at a pretty good percentage from the floor (44%), he has a natural complimentary player mentality (willing passer, understands space and movement) and even his 3 pt shooting was fine at 37%. As for his defense, I thought it was some of the best team defense and man defense I've seen from a Blazers small forward in years. The biggest knock on Nic was that he seemed to become too passive at times on offense and will probably need to be more aggressive in the future if he's going to become a true 35+ minutes a night guy, that and he needs to add some bulk.

 

True, and his taking on a leading role for his national team really got me interested to see what he'd do for Portland this year. I think that's the sort of thing that could do wonders for his confidence. His injury really took a lot of wind from my sails going into the season.

 

I've held the opinion for the longest time that Battier is overrated. Reading the Rockets forum provided a lot of good laughs.

What surprised me is they seem very willing to get rid of Aaron Brooks. They also seem to be huge Rudy fans.

Always interesting reading another teams boards.

 

Weird. I hated that movie.

 

This would be a good deal - if the Blazers had a hope of contending the next couple of years. Non-contenders don't need vets.

 

If we are going to trade Miller, we should stop showcasing him.

(Hope NY didn't catch that last game)

 

You mean "The Hobbit of Notre Dame"?

BNM

 

Nic is only 20, he was showing progress in the preseason in putting the ball on the floor and creating offense.

 

The entire league had their chance at Miller last summer, and there was no interest.

That is why he is here.