Nik, you always seem to be a step ahead of what I'm going to post. Lost in Blake's crappy play is Miller struggling as well. Granted a struggling Miller will generally be better than a struggling Blake, but he's a much better player than he's shown us this season.
Agree that Miller has been crappy too, and at least this really creates an opportunity for Bayless and so far he is taking good advantage of it! One of Miller or Blake IMO will be traded by the Feb deadline IMO, and I think it could be either one at this time. Bayless goin nowhere IMO except on the floor with more minutes.
Wow do we really think that Bayless is ready to start at PG? I don't know. He's pretty young. He seems like he wouldn't be to intimidated, I think he has that chip on his shoulder. But in all honesty, I would really like some vet leadership. Why not keep Miller starting, then Bayless first option off the bench?
Just a point, but look at the last 2 teams we played, Milwaukee and Sacramento, I would say that with our Injuries we are on par with those 2 teams, and they both start Rookie PG's. Jennings and Evans.
Well like I said in another thread. I'm all for any change that will be a positive. Ive had a downer year so far with all these injuries. I just want something nice to come out of this season.
To what team and for what forward? I honest can't see a team that would want Miller. He's old, so rebuilding teams don't want him. He can't/won't shoot, so teams like the Magic don't want him (otherwise Miller for Bass makes perfect sense). He doesn't defend well either. There's a reason that both he and Sessions (another great distributor with suspect shooting and defense) found the FA market absolutely ice cold, and Sergio had to be given away for a bag of chips. The game's changed. (Makes you wonder if Rubio will ever come over.)
Actually I have read Philly misses him. They have been also having a hard time getting minutes for Thadeus Young. I would shit a brick if we could pull that off, but it is something ot think about. I still think the problem is that we don't run, and Miller is a running PG. Philly was sucking last year under Mo Cheeks until they fired him, and the new coach started running. Miller had been struggling there until then too. They started running, and next thing you know the team made the playoffs.
So what is your point, Nancy? You proved him wrong about Bayless "TRUE" breakout game. Do you feel better?
For a while I really wanted to keep Blake, but just as a 15mpg backup to lets say Bayless. After reading more about the situation it has become apparent that Blake needs to go because Nate feels forced to play him because of Roy. Only way to get around that is for him not to be on our team. I think this season hasn't gone as we expected it, so we should give Bayless around 25-30mpg. We can definitely have a positive come out of this year if he emerges as a really good up and coming PG for us. I think he could be a 12, 3 and 3 player this year, honestly, if he would get 25-30mpg. If he does, then the Bayless/Roy/Batum/Aldridge/Oden dream lineup may actually end up being that "future championship lineup" many of us were dreaming about since early last year. I really do see a Billups/Ellis ceiling for Bayless. My $.02
I kinda agree as well. I think we need to make damn sure that our team is designed to win, not make everyone comfortable (and I mean this by having a lower quality player play, instead of one that deserves to be there). I like Blake. There has been nothing he's done that would make me want him gone as far as attitude. Fact is, this isn't really his problem. He's just trying to play, when he's on the court. He's not demanding the playing time and seems very accepting for any role the team gives him. I think him being dealt has very little to do with Blake and more to do with our star not wanting to change. Hopefully this growing pain of Roy will subside. He needs to learn to adapt. If things are a little harder to manage with a different line-up, he needs to take it upon himself to change the game and get everyone involved. Roy's an amazing player and should be able to fit into any system. He needs to know that leaders lead and make others better.
I wonder if Brandon still feels this way. Miller seems willing to play off the ball now - at least he did last night in his first start with Roy. I'm watching the 1st quarter last night and it was Brandon who had the ball in his hands. Roy & miller both brought the ball up. When Miller brought the ball up his first pass was out to Brandon on the wing, then Miller would run to the week side. At the 4:31 (when Blake came in) Roy had touched the ball on every possession except one (a fast break that Miller dished to Webster)
I actually don't think that is the case at all. Brandon has said several times he doesn't prefer one guard over another. What he does want is for it to get nailed down so they can start playing together to jell by end of season. I believe the problem is with the coaches comfort level, not his.
I noticed that too. I was actually a little annoyed at times with how little Miller actually controlled the ball. But that first quarter had such fantastic ball movement that you can't really complain. I really don't think Brandon has a long-term problem with Miller. Certainly nothing that necessitates shipping Blake to clear up playing time issues. Miller has made the adjustment to quickly get the ball out of his own hands and into Roy's (or someone else). I don't have any numbers to back it up, but if anyone was dominating the ball too much I'd say it was Blake.
Blake is in a slump, yes, but he is traditionally a good shooter. I never said I favored Mills over Miller.
Post shoulder surgery slump? I know conventional wisdom is that last year was a career year for him and he's just sliding back to his average...but perhaps the shoulder is just not the same post surgery? Regardless, he's shooting like dung...
I disagree. I just think Blake had a career year last year and reverted to what he had been all along. An at best 7 point and a few assist per night backup. Go look over his career numbers. Last year was anomaly.
Miller is in a slump, but he is traditionally a better passer and creator for others than anyone else on the roster. Or do past seasons only matter for Blake?
Yes and No. Miller thrives in an up and down running game. Last year he struggled until Cheeks was fired, and they implemented a running system. Unless something changes here(highly doubtful after this many years), does it make sense to keep him here? I can't come up with any logical reason to keep him. I would just rather move forward with Bayless and Rudy when he comes back, and got o a 3 guard rotation and try to get those 3 to Jell.
I'm not in one camp or the other, but I think there is a logic flaw in your thought. Shooting is an extremely precise skill that takes exact repetition to master. You shoot from the same spot every day X amount of times to create a muscle memory for game time performance. But being a passer and creator is more of a fluid skill that also takes practice, but practice in general. Try a million different things and learn which ones are correct decisions or bad decisions. There may be somewhat of a slump by Miller, but more likely his poor performance is due only partially to that, but more-so to not fitting with the players/not fitting the system. He can certainly learn how to adapt, and I expect some improvement, but that will likely follow more of a traditional learning curve than breaking out of a slump. A shooter on the other hand often just needs such a tiny correction to break out of a slump, that once they figure out that small adjustment (harder than it sounds) the player will often fully recover from the slump and shoot as well as they always have. Apples and oranges. This does not mean that I prefer Blake to Miller, just that the slump arguement does have more credence in relation to Blake.
