76ers president and general manager Ed Stefanski and agent Andy Miller met yesterday, but nothing changed with Andre Miller. "We are still in the sign-and-trade mode," Stefanski told The Philadelphia Inquirer about his talk with Andy Miller. According to the newspaper, the 76ers have not received a lot of sign-and trade offers for Miller. # Knicks president of basketball operations Donnie Walsh confirmed that he has had "conversations" with both Andre Miller and Andy Miller. "We've had conversations, but with no resolution -- that's the extent of it," Walsh told the Philadelphia Daily News. "We're interested enough to talk, but we're not in any kind of deal mode at this point, and I'm not sure where it will go. I do think Andre is a good player." Andy Miller told the newspaper: "We're definitely looking at New York as an option. We've talked about a couple of other things, both internally and with Ed [Stefanski]. We're still sorting through it all. I don't know if I can say Andre's time in Philadelphia is over, but it seems as if a sign-and-trade is primary at this point." Andy Miller also confirmed that Andre Miller recently visited with the Blazers. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors
Well Andre would be a huge addition for at least a season or maybe two. Shooting wasn't our problem last year, it was penetrating the lane and having a playmaker besides Roy on the floor. Even if he can't bring it for 35 minutes a game, having another element to the offense would be huge for us. He's basically Sergio with the ability to finish for himself.
Does anyone ever stop and wonder why Philly has expressed zero interest in resigning Andre Miller? For a guy who supposedly "made that offense go" and had "one of the best statistical seasons of his career" don't you wonder if the Sixers' brass knows something everyone else doesn't? No thanks.
Why would we be talking to Miller and not even offering an MLE sized piece of our magical "cap space" to Sessions? I just don't get it. I swear I will slap a fool who mentions 3pt shooting. Miller and Sessions both suck at it. I would hope we would at least talk to the younger guy. As far as 3pt shooting goes is Bayless any better then Sessions?
Does anybody ever wonder why the Bulls expressed zero interest in re-signing Scottie Pippen? Sometimes the team needs just don't align with a particular player. I'd be pretty happy to see Miller come in and replace Blake, provided the deal was reasonably priced and relatively short (not beyond three years, preferably two). The length matters more to me than the price. At this stage of his career, Miller is an average or slightly above average starting NBA point guard. Blake is in the bottom 25%. Miller is starting to decline, so at the end of two years I can easily imagine him being as bad as Blake. Hopefully by then another solution comes up.
Perhaps it has more to do with usage rate? Sessions and Miller are ball dominating guards in the purest sense. Sessions and Miller have usage rates of ~22%. Roy has a usage rate of ~27.5% and his backcourt partner Blake has a usage rate of ~16%. Maybe the FO believes that Sessions/Miller, with their lack of shooting, are useless without the ball and would take away from Roy.
Yeah, it sucks. But I'm starting to take the long view. A year from now I doubt I'll be aggravated that much about the Summer of Futility. Oden will be better. Aldridge will be better. Rudy will be better. Batum will be better. Roy will be Roy. Somebody will come along and replace Blake. Most of us will look back on this summer as "that year we were nearly buried under a bad Turkoglu contract. Thank god that didn't work out." It's the Trenton Hassel debacle on steroids. Compare this summer to the frustration of watching Damon Stoudamire overdribble, whine to the media, completely give up on defense, take way too many shots at a low percentage, yet continue to get starters minutes and stupid big contracts for year after year after year after year. It doesn't seem so bad now, does it?
That's a real possibility. I think this is a more important concern than their (lack of) shooting. KP is looking for 'fit.' It seems that Bayless, who does not appear to have the 'it' that makes a guy a true point guard, might have the 'fit' to take some PG duty pressure off of Roy (defense, ball handling) without taking the ball out of Roy's hands.
But wasn't the problem that Roy dominated the ball too much? I think the team would be much more effective if we had at least 2 players that could handle the ball throughout the game.
Aahh! Thanks! That actually did have a calming effect. Everything is relative, isn't it? What I especially liked was all those post-game interviews where $amon was obviously stoned; and his utter inability to talk about any game in any team context -- rather, everything was always all about him.
Personally, I'd much rather have a true distributor PG (what we used to hope Sergio could become) and force Roy to learn to play off the ball. But I'm not in charge. (OK, save the sighs of relief.) Edit: I didn't mean Roy should play exclusively off the ball; but if we had a true PG who could run an offense it would take some pressure off of Roy to carry the load and take a beating every night.
