I blame KingSpeed. He's been conspicuous in his absence today amidst all the heated debate. That's so unlike him. I think he's been secretly sending Andre Miller IMs urging him to call out Nate in front of the team and media. KS is a huge Blake fan. This was just his way to get Miller traded so Blakey can have his starting role back. BNM
Miller was not one of the best players on the court in most of those games. I think that what we can learn is that when Miller blends in, and allows Roy, Bayless or others be the best players on the court - we win. When Miller puts gaudy individual numbers, we lose. Again, this team wins only 50% of the time that Miller is on the court. For a team that wins at a higher percent overall - this is not a good indication of Miller.
McMillan for saying every spot is up for grabs and the players who perform the best will start. Then McMillan lied and started Blake. Nice coaching.
You need to look at more than just that one single number to see the whole picture. Thanks to Nate's retarded (excuse me, "questionable") line-ups and rotations the bulk of Miller's minutes he's been on the court with Steve Blake. That means at least one of them (and Roy too, if he's on the court with them both) are playing out of position. You need to remember that Win%, like +/- is a TEAM stat, not an individual player stat. It is HIGHLY dependent on who you are playing with, and who you are playing against. Blake has played more minutes next to Roy, Oden, Aldridge, etc. than Miller has (so far). So, it's only natural that his Win% would be higher than Miller's. He benefits from playing with superior players. If you look at several additional stats, you start to see the whole picture: PER (from basketball-refernce.com): Blake = 9.9 Miller = 15.7 Bayless = 14.7 Advantage Miller Production vs. Opponents (from 82games.com): Blake: OWN = 11.0, OPP = 14.2, NET = -3.2 Miller: OWN = 16.4, OPP = 14.8, NET = +1.6 Bayless: OWN = 16.4, OPP = 16.2, NET = +0.2 Advantage Miller Win Shares (from basketball-refernce.com): Blake = 1.5 Miller = 2.4 Bayless = 1.3 Advantage Miller Net Points Per 100 Possessions (from 82games.com): Blake: On Court +4.8, Off Court +5.8, Net -1.5 Miller: On Court +6.9, Off Court +2.3, Net +4.7 Bayless: On Court +7.5, Off Court +3.9, Net +3.6 Advantage Miller Even though Blake has played more minutes than Miller (59% vs. 57%), the team has outscored their opponents by more (+107 points vs. +72 points) when Miller is on the floor than when Blake is. For the sake of completeness, Bayless has played less than half as many minutes as Blake or Miller (27%) and the team net scoring is +50 points when he's in the game (comparable to Miller's +107 points in 57% of the team's minutes). Also, the team record with Miller starting is 15-6. With him not starting, it's 7-9. This may be the most important stat of all in Miller's favor - and the ONE stat you think Nate would care most about. I could continue to site many more stats that show Miller produces more individually than Bayless (slightly) and Blake (greatly) AND that the team does better with Miller on the court, but hopefully this will be enough to get a general overall view of individual and team production for the three players in question. I really don't think you need all these fancy stats to see that Miller is a better player than Steve Blake. The comparison between Bayless and Miller is much closer, but still slightly in Miller's favor. BNM
Why should anyone vote for Miller? Dude's been a good PG throughout his career, and has had generally good chemistry with all his teammates on the floor. Isn't it odd that he blows up here?
Maybe it's just my warped sense of humor, but I find it very funny that when you view the poll results, the first person who voted to blame Andre Miller is B-Roy. How appropriate is that? BNM
Not very. Roy just had the best month of his career with Miller @ PG. I think he's quite fine with that position and Dre.
Kill joy. Haven't you heard? Miller and Roy CAN'T co-exist. That was trotted out as a FACT before they ever set foot on the court together and it took one of the WORST months of Steve Blake's career before Nate could even be convinced to TRY starting Roy and Miller together in the backcourt. BNM
True, and we all knew that was the Miller we were signing when he came on board. He has been in the league 10 years. He has always been all about attacking the paint and posting up weaker point guards. He has always had problems in games where he gets lazy and just starts shooting 3's and outside shots. He usually seems to have one of those about every 3 or 4 games. The only difference for him really, is his minutes are spotty now. He wasn't going to be the savior. He was a dice throw to be a possible upgrade to Blake. They threw their dice, came up snake eyes, and now it's time to get ready for another throw.
I voted McMillan. Although Miller should take a lot of responsibility also. He likes to give the impression that he's been a good soldier by being quiet. But in fact he has only been quiet with his coach, the guy he should have been talking to. Instead he talks to the press, making little jabs at McMillan and Pritchard. But Miller is just a player, McMillan is the coach. He knows Miller is unhappy, he needs to have called him into his office and talked with him. The funny thing is, they are both similar, both of them were building up resentments and then it all exploded for both of them. And a coach has got to be better than that; the situation should never get to the point where the coach is saying "I don't give a shit what you think". I think the situation could still be saved; this IS something that needed to happen. However i think Mc Millan still needs to call him in his office and take some responsibility for his part in not communicating; he needs to say I DO give a shit what you think. He needs to say maybe this isn't an ideal situation for you and this team but let's work together to optimize your value to the team.
+1, but I still voted for KP, because the signing is ultimately his responsibility, and if he wanted him then it implies that he either A) wanted to alter the team's methodical style of play and make it more dynamic, or B) is bad at understanding that making a point guard (or any wing for that matter) with no jump shot a weakside, off-the-ball player is idiotic.
or c) caving to coach on personnel matters again. http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/07/blazers_notebook_miller_was_mc.html Granted, it's Quick, so take it with a grain of salt. But Nate knew Andre wasn't a shooter and still set up him the way he has.
R.C. Buford, Mitch Kupchak, Daryl Morey, Mark Warkentien, Joe Dumars and Sam Presti (amongst others) would all like to dispute this. KP made the decision to carry 4 point guards into this season, KP is the one who talks constantly about being super active and having to force himself to sit on his hands when in fact there is a pretty good body of evidence that all of this supposed "activity" is little more than talking a good game backed up with not a whole lot of moves aside from drafting some really nice players who may or may not fit all that well together. No disrespect, but I need to see a whole helluva lot more from KP before I'd even dare to call him a top ten executive in the league, let alone the best in the biz.
All 3 levels--player, coach, and GM. It's Miller's fault because he's limited in his outside shot. It's McMillan's fault because he's limited to slowdown isolations and can't use any other kind of player. It's Pritchard's fault because he's limited in his trading ability, so he can't acquire the players to fit a limited coach. Of all these limited people, I voted to blame the top, Pritchard, because ultimately it's his responsibility, because he has the most authority, to change things. (Another reason is that he has a lot fewer votes than McMillan, to even it out...)
If you're serious, there's a box to check when you make a poll that says something to the effect of "Make Poll Public". If you're not, I just got rolled.
