http://www.nba.com/2009/news/featur...numbersgame.miller/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1 Sorry if this has already been posted.
I hadn't seen that. And because I vowed to make no more suggestions or posts analyzing or complaining about the team and its lineups, style, etc. until something actually changes I'll just say one word, "interesting."
I haven't vowed any such things, so I will simply say NO FUCKING KIDDING!!!!! Has it made sense to anyone with any sort of basketball backgraound that Blake is starting over him AND playing more minutes?
I mentioned it previously that, though he might not be a good on the ball defender, Miller is a better defender than Blake is. The difficulty with trying to lock up wing players is, playing them very tight often means getting beat to the basket for easy shot opportunities. Blake is a better on the ball defender than Miller is. But by playing, or trying to play tight man defense on the perimiter, he tends to get beat off the dribble, and is more susceptible to getting picked on the P&R, and having to rotate coverage. Miller seemed better at navigating picks, to me, which is a help to our bigs.
He is also better at getting steals from the on-ball defensive position. Blake might play the passing lanes better, but I tend to think they're about equal in that respect.
What Miller does is force his opponent to the strength of the defense. He may not be that "Ron artest" guy that's up in your grill, but he knows he's not going to "out-hustle" you defensively, but rather use his "know how and veteran savvy" to entice you to drive into the thick of the d. Blake isn't a bad player. I would even say he's a damn good role player. What Blake lacks is leadership on the floor. He does what the coach says, not making on court chances in fear of the coach yanking him.
Half of good team defense is forcing your guy to help at the right place. The other half is keeping your head on a swivel, rotating, and moving your feet. A very small part of it is watching film to know your opponents tendencies. The part Blake struggles at is funneling his opponent to where he wants him to go. Its more likely that the opponent gets to go anywhere they want to go, and leaves Blake in the dust. Last year when we were playing Houston in the playoffs, if just once, had our PG watched film on Brooks they would notice that every time he takes one of those outside shots he was killing us with, he jumps left right before launching it. When he goes right, he misses a very high percentage of the shots, or he feel's uncomfortable and moves the ball. If just one of our PG had watched film and figured this out, the series would have been much different. But no, they let him get to wherever he wanted and take anything he wanted. I don't even get paid to notice this stuff. Did our coaches notice it and not say anything? Or did they sit down and watch film with the players, but the players dropped the ball? I don't know. But if I noticed it, they sure as hell should have, because they get paid a hell of a lot of money to notice it, and put a plan into action.
Well, afterhis first two games, he didn't do anything all that great in the series, so maybe the did watch film of it. 3-11, 1-5, 6-20, and then 5-11 which is good in the last game. But he followed up his first two good games with crap games. Everyone seems to forget about those.
Thats the funny thing. He actually did make him move to the correct direction for 2 games, and then he stopped doing it again. But I can't figure out if it was dumb luck, or he was actually doing it on purpose. Because he let him have his way in that last game. So, considering he didn't force him right in that last game, I attribute it to dumb luck, or just being out of his mind and bending under pressure.
So you're saying Andre can actually play, and has a positive influence? Nooo! We need more Blakey hitting the side of the backboard.
Haha..."Ok Steve, drive the baseline...make an extremely awkward move and throw it off the bottom of the backboard or the side of the backboard..."-Nate
