The only way the Miller-Roy backcourt could have worked is if this team played the way Miller and Iguodala played in Philly, that means a running team that uses the break the same way that Nate uses the iso. It became pretty evident to me that for whatever reason (inability, unwillingness, whatever) Roy is not a runner, it's just not in his mental makeup. I was a big fan of signing Miller and I had high hopes for it eventually being a success, but much of that hope was predicated on the Blazers playing uptempo ball. Generating stops with D and using long outlet passes from rebounders to streaking guards and wings for easies at the other end. Whether that isn't happening because of coaching, personnel or some other intangible undefinable factor, it remains that this team is a half-court, grind it out offense for as long as Nate is the coach and Brandon is the team's max contract guy. Miller-Roy in the half-court is mostly an abomination. Brandon (and Greg) both need shooters to spread out a defense to the point where both of them can either get into the paint to score or to pass to the open shooter on the wings or in the corner, or to even dump it to a cutter. Miller was mostly spotting up as a strongside shooter from the deep corner whenever Brandon handled the ball and that is a poor use of Miller on the basketball court, conversely Brandon was taking 15-20% more long jumpers so far this season which has severely depressed his shooting percentages from a year ago and he's just not a good catch and shoot guard, no matter how much I want him to be. For better or worse Brandon is the guy this team is built around and the only thing for it is to ride the him as far as he can take you. I think the writing is on the wall; the Miller experiment just didn't work, and I don't really see it being the fault of anyone in particular, it's just a bad fit. Just like Shaq in Phoenix completely marginalized Amare' Stoudemire last year, arguably the Suns most effective player. On a somewhat positive note, I thought the team did a pretty decent job of getting Oden the ball in a position where he could do something with it, and if Brandon is going to show a commitment to getting him involved in the offense and is OK at it, then the Miller "debacle" (for lack of a better word) bothers me a bit less.
Yeah, I just don't understand why they don't even try out this line-up (Miller & Roy as the guards and Webster as the SF) in the regular season? Wouldn't that be the most logical line-up change to do next? 1. Opening night line-up: Blake, Roy, Webster, Aldridge, Oden. We play this line-up through the 5th game of the season. Nate doesn't like what he sees/feels something is wrong with the line-up, so he... 2. Changes line-up to Blake, Miller, Roy, Aldridge, Oden. We have a six-game winning streak, and then play some uninspired ball the next 3 games. So Nate says, we're done with this line up. And then... 3. Changes back to the opening line up?? Wouldn't that present the same problems that we had in that first 5 games of the season, the same problems that originally necessitated the change in the starting line-up? I don't follow the logic of this decision without giving the Miller-Roy backcourt a try. Perhaps, Nate has tried it in practice and doesn't feel like it works better than the first 2 line-ups that he's tried this season. It's strange that Nate won't even consider trying to play a Miller-Roy backcourt.
All I can say is, Roy better back it up. He got his way, and the burden is on him to prove he was right.
That's how I see it too. Roy has got the superstar contract, and apparently he now has the superstar ego, so I guess it's all up to him to provide the superstar performance. Hope his "supporting cast" is good with that. barfo
That seems odd to me too. Why not try Miller as the starting pg with Roy the sg? Miller can hit a shot, does it have to be a 3 pointer shot to clear space? But now that Blake learn from Miller to get the ball to Oden this lineup might work better than it did originally. Also perhaps the problem isn't so much Roy playing sf, it's other teams double and triple teaming him which won't change with him playing sg. Hopefully Blake and Webster continues to hit 3s because once they don't we'll struggle again.
Hey mgb, did you get to go to the game last night? Did you get to see the game? I ask because I did not, and I value your opinion. In your mind was the fact that Blake and Web finally started making the open threes the primarily reason the team did so well. Did Roy really do that much better than before? It sounds to me even though I did not get to see the game, only listen to Wheels, that maybe it had little to do with Roy and a whole lot more with those two hitting shots for a change. Also sounds like Roy may not want to adjust for the team as much as some think and may just be comfortable with certain guys and his style of ball. If the latter is true, then can this team be any better than last year?
