Sam Smith: Andre Miller to Blazers

Apparently that's "the talk".

 

Hehe, Sam Smith loves to speculate.

 

If we could just sign him as a FA, and give up nothing, it would be pretty hard to turn down.

 

I like "the talk." Then if we could land Dejuan Blair in the draft, we'd be rock solid.

 

Miller is such a no brainer they should just let the Blazers sign him now. It's going to happen.

 

Or "DuJuan" as Smith calls him in that same piece, somewhat hurting his credibility. (If he has any left to hurt.)

 

'Dre Miller would be very nice and would be perfect in terms of his age if we're planning on developing Bayless into the permanent point guard of the future. Ideally, he will be.

 

I've wanted him here for the past 4+ years.

 

I would really love to see this happen.

 

Interesting that he acts like it's a given that Hinrich is gone, but doesn't connect him with Portland.

Meh, consider the source.

 

Actually, he did...

"I’ve long thought the deal that made the most sense for both teams with Hinrich was with Portland. Their GM is a Kansas guy like Hinrich and Steve Blake would be an ideal and cheaper backup combo guard."

BNM

 

You are right. I took what he said to mean that he aways thought Hinrich to PDX was a good match (as in the past), but that it is no longer a happening thing. I don't know that it's out of the question that KH could end up here.

 

Well it looks to be that it is back to the "Blazers are involved in every deal that could possibly be imagined." mode.

 

Do I sense KP winding up for an EPIC Pritchslap?

 

Not really. Blake is due 4 million (un-guaranteed) next season, Hinrich is set to make 9.5 million, that sure looks like 58% to me.

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/blazers.jsp
http://www.storytellerscontracts.info/resources/08-09salaries.htm

I'm not sure what the Bulls cap situation looks like, but if they were really committed to freeing up all of the money associated with a trade for Steve Blake (and if the trade happened at the draft) then they could simply decline to pick up his contract; this would effectively mean Hinrich was traded in a pure a salary dump, which I can't see happening.

Personally, I don't see the deal happening because I don't think the Ben Gordon situation will get resolved until later in the summer, and I think the Blazers won't want to drag things out much beyond the draft or the start of free agency.

 

This is actually ridiculous. The "talk" he's referring to can only be hunches from himself or his sources.

So much can happen at this point. And, to be honest Portland would have to turn down a multitude of options first just to have the chance (albeit a good chance) at signing Andre Miller. All this for a player that very well could begin declining in performance.

I don't think so. I would bet Portland improves the team through the draft and trades. I question whether they'll even use the damn cap space in any other way other than via a lopsided trade.

 

This is Andre's last chance at a big contract. I'm sure winning is important to him . . . but it will hard for him to pass up the team that offers him the biggest long term contract (financial secuirty for the rest of his life)

I'm not as big on Miller as many here, so I don't want to see the Blazers overpay for Miller or offer a 4-5 yr contract. If he comes at the right price (based on knowledable posters here) I guess he sounds like a good fit. But PGs seem to fall faster than other postions (thinking of Francis, Maurbury off top of my head) and I would hate to be paying 8-10 mil/yr 3-4 years from now for a PG who has slowed down.

If KP/Penn can do his thing . . . maybe a shorter contract but worth more each year than what he can get on the open market . . .

 

Marbury/Francis were more combo/scoring point-guards than real pass-first points. If anything - Miller's pass-first mentality seems to put him in the Nash/Kidd/Stockton mold more than these score-first points - and these guys played into their mid-30s...

Personally, I would only want to see Miller if Blake is still around - we can not trust JB's long-ball yet - and it would be a big problem if we did not have another good ball-handler with long-ball ability to put next to Roy. For all of Miller's attributes - shooting the long-ball is not one of them.