I know a lot of you don't have Insider, so I'll copy the whole thing for you-.................. I didn't like Andre Miller going to the Blazers if it was going to cost them $40 million. At $14 million guaranteed? At that price, I can talk myself into it. Miller's three-year, $21 million deal -- which includes a team option for a third year that's part of a growing trend I'll discuss in a moment -- is unusually good value for an unrestricted free agent, especially a veteran point guard with a consistent track record who never, ever misses games. Put another way, Miller's deal pales beside the one Dallas signed with Jason Kidd, even though Miller is younger and had a better year last year. Sure, there are some ways this doesn't exactly fit. Miller does a lot of damage in the post, and the Blazers already have a couple of players (Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge) occupying those slots fairly regularly. He's also an up-tempo guard on what was the league's second-slowest-paced team last season, and his inability to make 3s is an odd fit with the Blazers' habit of spacing the floor with shooters around Brandon Roy. But at some point, it became the only sensible move left on the chessboard. Portland had a limited pool of realistic candidates to pursue -- the Knicks were going to match David Lee and no sign-and-trade could be concocted to please all sides, and the only other halfway decent unrestricted free agent, Lamar Odom, seems sealed to the Lakers despite their public standoff. Meanwhile, the dip in quality in the unrestricted pool after Miller and Odom is staggering. The only legitimate alternative was to make a run at Milwaukee's restricted free agent Ramon Sessions, but again the Blazers were risking the offer's being matched -- much as Utah did with Paul Millsap earlier this summer. That cost the Blazers a week, and if they had lost another week, there might not have been any players left worth signing with their $7.7 million in cap space. The Blazers could have made a trade into their cap space, as well, but they would have been taking on another team's trash and it likely would have cost a player on their end -- the most realistic proposal out there would have swapped Travis Outlaw for Kirk Hinrich, and compared with that, getting Miller for free looks like a much better alternative. *edited: Fair use precludes providing all, or most, of another's work, especially when it costs money*
Thanks for posting. I'm really looking forward to seeing this I think Batum might be the one to benefit the most from Miller's signing. In the half court, he'll probably get more open shots off of Miller's penetration, and in transition he'll actually have a PG that can take advantage of his speed and hops to throw him an alley oop.
I think most everyone is going to benefit because he can penetrate and find the open man. We already have Roy, Rudy, Batum and (maybe) Travis and (maybe) Martell to shoot the 3. On the other hand, almost the entire roster is going to benefit from having a PG who can throw lobs in transition.
Can you guys imagine a real PG running a fast break with LMA and Batum on the wings and with Roy or Oden trailing? That's easy $$$
