48 hours: Johnson v. Mills, the countdown is on?

Did Von Wafer hurt us because he was an undersized scorer, or because our perimeter defense was atrocious?

I'll go with atrocious defense, since he didn't hurt the rest of the league.

 

That's an interesting way to look at it.

 

I can't tell... are you being sarcastic?

 

This segment from an interview with Chad Buchanan on Blazer's edge might clarify a little:

"Now that Summer League is over where does Patty Mills stand in relation to making the team and what did you see from him this week?

Where he's at right now is that we will scout him in at the World Championships in Turkey. Another team could come in and make an offer on him right now and we would have the rights to match it or not match it. He could take the route -- if he doesn't get an offer from another team -- we could tender him a partial guarantee, a non-guarantee, anything along those lines. Where if he decides that I didn't get an offer from the Blazers but I want to try to make the team, and we offer him that type of situation where he comes in and tries to make our team, he could go that route if he really wants to be with us. Or he could try, another team might come in and offer him something that we decide we're not going to match. It could go that route.

This was a good chance for us to see him play a lot of minutes this week and obviously we're looking at both him and Armon. There are scenarios where we keep both of them too. I think it's something that we'll sit down as a staff this week and talk a lot about how both of those guys played because they both had bright moments this week. Patty can shoot the ball, we know what he is as a kid. We really like him as a person. Our players like him, our coaches like him, he's good for our locker room. He and Armon are very different players. It's a matter of our coaches feeling comfortable with what do they want from that spot.

 

Not really!

Cheers for the update though.

 

Well, my speculative take on the situation is that the Blazers would be happiest if no other team made an offer this summer and Mills would come to camp on a nonguaranteed contract. So, they would have the world championships and training camp to further evaluate him. Buchanan also says they might keep both; this would seem to be only possible if they made some kind of trade that resulted in the blazers having one less player. The worst thing for the Blazers would be if Mills was offered a guaranteed contract by another team before they make a trade like that, my feeling is they would not match. So if any team (San Antonio) is interested in him, I think that team would make an offer sooner than later.

 

No.

 

I think if you trade for Devan Harris then AJ is a better choice. If you don't, then it is a tougher decision. Overall I think AJ has a better chance to stick long term. Neither are locks, but I do like his size and toughness.

 

I'd say the odds of AJ working hard and developing a respectable 3-pt shot are a lot better than the odds that Mills will get taller and longer and become a good defender.

 

I'm somewhat loathe to add yet more youngins to the rotation, but if Bayless, Rudy and Miller are moved in a deal to bring back a "pretty good player" (in Rich Cho's words) at point guard then I actually wouldn't mind seeing both Armon and Mills retained. Mills isn't a pure point guard, but he does possess pretty good vision and his ability to stretch a defense could be pretty valuable. I also like the idea of having backups with vastly different skill-sets to give the team some flexibility depending on matchups. But really what it's going to boil down to is whether or not Miller and/or Bayless are traded and if so, what kind of point guard is brought back. If it's Tony Parker (a speedster with so-so defense) I think you'd be more likely to see Armon kept. If Harris was obtained (poor shooter, but quick and potentially a good dender) then Mills might be a better backup. And if through some miracle Chris Paul was picked up, it probably woudn't matter which guy you kept (though I'd probably favor Armon because of his size).

 

plus the fact that Nate describes Patty as uptempo, and Armon as defensive minded... leads me to be believe he will choose Armon to match Nate's style of play... slow and grind it out. But as was said.. if PA overrules him, it maybe Patty.