I don't see how the Blazers are getting Mr. "Legit young PG" without moving someone like Matthews or Batum....possibly more.
Then move one of them. Trying to lowball every team as the deadline approaches isn't working. When we are bounced in the 1st round we can all think back to the missed opportunities as we let these assets expire.
The need for a top PG is overrated. Fisher won the last two titles. Rondo wasn't a top PG when Cs won. Also, Miller has taken good care of himself and is not your typical "old PG.". He'll play till he's 40.
Let's not forget how his PG skills were against the Suns last playoffs. There's a reason he's never been out of the 1st round in his entire career.
Yeah, he dominated them in Game 1 and then forced them to change the focus of their entire team defense to stop him. It's a shame Portland had no one capable of exploiting their single-minded focus on Miller. Yes, there is. Basketball is a team game and Miller has never had a particularly talented supporting cast in the playoffs. The Blazers with a literally hobbled Roy (~5 PER [literally!] in the playoffs) and an injured Batum were not particularly good. Miller isn't and has never been a superstar. He's a very good point guard. If your standard for point guard play is "single-handedly win playoff series for us or GTFO" I think you're unlikely to see the Blazers find an acceptable point guard within your Blazers-rooting lifetime.
If "their entire team defense" is Grant Hill 1-on-1, then I agree. Hill shut him down. Not double teams.
But since Hill moved to defending Miller, shouldn't someone (Batum? Roy?) have been lighting up Nash for the rest of the series??
I'm afraid not. Not only did they put Hill, easily their best defender on him, they also continually rolled help defenders in his direction to get the ball out of his hands and disrupt his passing lanes. No perimeter player gets hard double teams because putting two defenders out on the perimeter compromises a defense too much...even Michael Jordan didn't have two guys on him out on the wing. If you think that lack of double-teams on the wing means that the team defense hasn't changed, I think you're confused about how team defense works. Only post players get hard doubles, because the second defender is still close enough to the basket to be involved in the play. Perimeter players get one defender out on the wing and then, if the defense wants to focus attention on them, they'll get a help defender (or more than one) rolling to them when they make a move towards the basket.
Yes. Batum made Nash pay this season when they tried it, because Batum wasn't hurt this year. A healthy Roy would have destroyed Nash utterly. Injuries enabled the Suns to play that strategy successfully. They wouldn't even have attempted it had the Blazers had a prime, healthy Roy and Batum.
