Some fun facts about Andre Miller after three games in (screw the prohibition on small sample sizes ) http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/millean02.html - Second highest assist rate since his 3rd year in the league when he led the league - Highest PER of his career (yeah, yeah 3 games, shut up ) - Highest shooting % of his career - Best use of no athleticism and craftiness since that one pasty white kid in Hoosiers Deal!
I like what we've seen from Miller so far. If he can keep hitting guys for all those easy baskets at the rim, keep up a high percentage on his 17ft set shot, and keep getting to the line on penetration then I'm not as anxious to see a move made for a 'better fit' PG.
Roy is playing well, Miller is playing well. They can coexist. IMO, this is how they were playing together late last season until Roy got hurt prior to the playoffs.
Nah, Steve Blake died when he signed with the Fakers, kind of like when Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side, he became Darth Vader. Steve Blake is now Darth Blaker.
One complaint about him in the past (notoriously last training camp) was about him not being in shape to start, and working his way into the season. No evidence for that in these early games!
And like how they were playing for the first 10 games last season when Miller FINALLY got to start at PG in place of Blake. Note: I'm not referring to the goofy 3-guard line-up that had both Roy and Miller playing out of position and guarding much bigger players. I'm referring Miller and Roy, starting together, at their natural PG and SG positions. With Blake playing like shit, and unable to do the one thing he usually does well (hit a wide open 3-pointer), the Blazers lost 5 of 8 games before Nate finally pulled his head out of his ass and did what most intelligent people had been asking for since the very first preseason game - start his best two guards at their best natural positions (why that was so hard for Nate to figure out, I'll never know). With Blake unable to hit a wide open 3 (7-29, 0.24 3FG%) Roy was also struggling during that stretch as teams sagged off Blake and doubled up on Roy cutting off his penetration. Miller is inserted into the starting line-up in place of Blake and the Blazers win 8 of the next 10 and Roy plays his best 10-game stretch of the entire season (perhaps the best 10-game stretch of his career). Yet, the clueless continued to insist Roy and Miller "can't co-exist". What a load of bullshit. The whole Roy and Miller can't co-exist mantra was started by the idiots in the local media (like Canzano is suddenly trusted for his sage basketball wisdom) and perpetuated by a few Miller haters on this forum (one who was jealous because Miller is 100x the player his now-out-of-the-league-fave-PG will ever be). Face it folks, Andre Miller is a good player and he's a smart player. He knows how to recognize weaknesses and mismatches and exploit them - just like in the 4th quarter last night against the Knicks and just like he did when he single-handedly won that game in Dallas last year with Roy out injured and none of his other teammate able to hit an open shot. No, Miller is not a good 3-point shooter, but he does so many things Blake can't do (drive the lane for easy lay-ups, get fouled and get to the FT line, pass the ball into the post) he really takes a lot of pressure off Roy and gives the Blazers a way, other than the Roy ISO, to score in the 4th quarter. I thought the whole reason Miller was signed was to help take some of the pressure off Roy so he wouldn't have to carry this team on his back every night and breakdown physically over the course of an 82-game season. The Roy/Miller starting backcourt is now 31-12. That's a 0.720 won-loss percentage. That's a 59-win pace with Juwan Howard starting at center for almost half of those games and Nicolas Batum missing over 1/3 of those games. And yet there are still posters in this forum (and John Canzano) who absolutely INSIST that Miller and Roy can never co-exist. I guess the only way to silence the fools would be to go undefeated with an injury depleted roster, because evidently, a 59-win pace with an injury depleted roster just isn't proof enough. BNM
Andre's even hitting a few outside jumpers to keep defenses honest. It's ugly as hell but they're going in. Andre and Camby are playing great right now and look like they could play for a few more years.
Nice post, BNM. If I had one critique about the way Miller is playing right now, it's that he's not involving Batum enough in the offense. But that can be said about everybody on the team (and especially the coach). So many times I saw Roy or Aldridge or Miller pull a tough one-on-one move in the post and Batum was just left wide open. One thing I'm really digging so far is the lob. Camby and Miller are both throwing those at a much, much higher frequency than last year. You sag off on Miller, and he's going to find Aldridge or Camby or Batum for lots of buckets. Roy is hitting threes right now at a .500 clip. Batum is at .467. When you've got two perimeter guys canning them at anything close to that rate, you can definitely live with a PG with no perimeter shot who throws lobs as well as Miller does.
Andre has been playing good. The better motion offense and the fact that he is in shape are clearly working, as well as Roy's fantastic ability to add a new twist to his game and play better off the ball. The real test, however, will come when playing against teams with good perimeter defense - which we have not faced yet, this year.
QFT. Dre is the best PG the Blazers have had since, who? Rod S.? I couldn't believe the stuff people were saying about Andre in the Suns game thread. I guess some folks just need something to whine about. Go Blazers
