I read that article too....nice. My concern about Miller is his terrible, and I mean terrible, shooting % for outside of 10 feet. It's weird, one would think a guy in the league as long as he has been could work and and improve his %, but it hasn't happen. It really closes down a defense. Maybe a reason he's been on some decent teams and never seen the second round of playoffs? I dunno....thinking out loud here. Seems like a lot of people are high on Miller. I've been wrong before, and hope to be wrong this time around, but i don't seem Miller as a huge improvement over who is lacing up in a B uni.
His efg% on jump shots is just a bit worse than Sergio (and Tony Parker for that matter). Not good, but when you consider that we are in effect trading Segio + Bayless minutes for Miller and not for Blake that puts us in good shape. Oh, and based on efg% for jump shots, Sessions is even significantly worse than Miller so maybe Miller was the safer bet after all.
Any stats to back that up? 82games.com says that Miller has eFG% of 40.7% on jumpers (only 59% of his shots.) To compare, Devin Harris, whom everybody's clamoring about as the dream PG for us, shot at 41.9 eFG% (61% of his shots). But the best thing is that he knows his limitations and has very good shot selection (averaged 48% FG the last two years). He knows he isn't good at shooting the 3, so he doesn't take them.
You're right. You "dunno". Miller's "pretty decent teams" have never been the favorite in any of those series and have never had home court advantage in a play-off series. In all cases, their opponents had better regular season records. In all but one case, their opponents won at least 10 more regular season games. Miller's team: 43 wins Opponent: 58 wins Miller's team: 49 wins Opponent: 59 wins Miller's team: 44 wins Opponent: 47 wins Miller's team: 40 wins Opponent: 59 wins Miller's team: 41 wins Opponent: 59 wins The best team Miller has played on was the 49-win 2004-05 Denver Nuggets. Unfortunately, 49 wins that year was only good for the 7th seed in the Western Conference and a 1st round match-up against the eventual champion Spurs. The only time Miller's team even had a shot at getting out of the 1st round was 2005-06 when his 44-win Nuggets met the 47-win Clippers in the 1st round. Unfortunately, going into the play-offs the Nuggets roster was a mess. K-Mart had been injured and was fueding with George Karl. He played less than 7 minutes total after game 1. Nene was out and didn't play at all. They ended up trying both Francisco Elson and Eduardo Najera at starting PF in K-Mart's absence. They didn't have a decent SG on their play-off roster. They tried starting both Greg Buckner and Ruben Patterson at SG, but in the end played 5'5" Earl Boykins more minutes than either of them. At full strength, the Clippers had a better starting 5 and a better bench (Corey Magette) than the Nuggets, with the injuries, suspensions, etc. Denver didn't stand a chance. It didn't help matters that their best player Carmelo Anthony had a horribble series and shot only 0.333 from the field for the series. Hard to blame his teams' failure to advance past the 1st round on Miller when he's always been playing on a far inferior team. BNM
I posted some of this in an Oden thread, but it has a better home here. Miller has not been my number one PG choice over these past years of debating how to get a decent PG in a Blazers uni. However, Miller's game and style, as long as we put a three point shooter on the court with him (get well Martell), is going to be very good for Oden and Aldridge. Very, very good. I don't believe Miller is going to come here and put himself above Roy and Aldridge and Oden. He is going to work with our guys to make them better. He is going to pick and roll (if Nate will call the damn play), drive and dish, and lob for dunks. Miller is going to average 10 assists per game and Oden is going to be a beast. Regardless of if one thinks the Blazers have poorly managed their assets over the past year and could have ended up with a better player, Andre Miller is the player we have. We were never going to get a 'perfect' point guard. We were never going to get Williams or Paul. Miller makes us better right now. It's not a matter of how much better Miller is than Blake, it's a matter of how much better Miller is than Sergio; or perhaps how much better Blake is than Sergio. Either way, this is a serious upgrade. I hope Miller exceeds my and every one else's expectations.
I was worried about Miller's shooting too, but you know what I noticed? Millers SG and SF were Willie Green and Iggy with Thaddeous Young coming off the bench. Those players are all collectively not as good of shooters as Batum, Roy, Rudy, Outlaw, and Webster. Yet Miller was still pretty effective, and so was Iggy. I think we're in better shape than we think
