I don't like Miller because he's a passive-aggressive jerk. That doesn't mean I automatically go against him in a situation like this. I'm mocking Mixum's knee-jerk anti-Nate stance regardless of the circumstances more than anything else, lol... My position is this: Let's see how this shakes out. If Nate and Andre end up coming to terms with better lines of communication running in both directions when all is said and done, this will have been a good thing, kudos to Andre for finally opening up. If they can't come to some sort of understanding, then I hope the door does hit Miller in the ass on the way out the door, and I hope it leaves a mark.
Yeah, who could have ever hoped we'd get a PG who would put up 22 points and 16 assists one game and then 16 points (on 7-11 shooting) and pull down 10 boards the very next night - in three quarters before getting benched by a clueless coach. Miller is every bit as good as advertised - when he's allowed to play. Hard for him to contribute much when his ass is glued to the bench. If Nate had his way, Blake would still be starting and playing 30+ MPG with Bayless gettign the rest of the PG minutes. Injuries have forced Nate to play Miller and Miller responded in spectacular fashion with impressive back-to-back doubles - only top be rewarded by getting benched in the 4th quarter by McClueless. It's like Miller made Nate look bad (for choosing Blake over him) by playing so well that Nate benched him to save face. So much for players earning their minutes. When was the last time Steve Blake put up back-to-back double-doubles. How many career double-doubles does Jerryd Bayless have? Yet, it's Miller than gets benched. BNM
I don't think many of the folks here know any of the players well enough to know if they are really a jerk or not. They may think they do, but for some reason, I doubt it.
I'll take a passive-aggressive jerk who is producing over a nice guy with a single digit PER. I'll also take a passive-aggressive jerk who is producing over a coach that lies to his players and whose ego is costing the team wins. BNM
You are so upset with Nate, I think you are mixing you're facts up alittle. Nate did bench Blake for Miller (before Blake got hurt). I think many agree that Nate may have messed up last game, but Miller has been anything but spectacular, IMO. You keep saying double double . . . but that's as frustrating as others using +/- to prove a point. Getting a double double is great and all, but you got to look at beyond the numbers and Miller was not getting back on defense (instead trying to get that offensive rebound) Personally I would have put Miller in for Bayless with about 6 mins left, but the only way Miller was spectacular is if it is relative to his play this season.
He got 16 assists by stopping the ball as it swings around the perimeter, then breaking down his man and penetrating and dishing. The ball does move, but not the way Nate's offense is designed to move the ball. For example, Say Brandon works the high pick and roll on the right side, passes to Marty in the right corner. The defense starts their rotation. The ball goes back to Lamarcus who pops out to the top of the key after setting the pick for Brandon, then he swings the ball to Andre, who is then supposed to swing it to Marty or Brandon in the left corner. Instead of a steady flow to beat the defensive rotation and get an open 3 in the corner, Andre stops, waits for the offense to reset, then starts the whole thing back up again. I'm not saying Andre swinging the ball to the open shooter in the corner is the best method, I'm just saying that's the method Nate has decided upon, and it's the player's job to execute the coach's game plan. Both sides have a legitimate beef. Nate's beef trumps Andre's beef ten times out of ten.
It is a different situation. For us to be good, Brandon's usage rating needs to be high. It's been hovering just over 27% the past two seasons. Come Playoff time last year you know what happened to that number? Skyrocketed to 33%. This usage produced a 24PER during the regular season and a 26PER in the Playoffs. Put quality shooters around Brandon, like last year, and we win. Philadelphia is not nearly the same. Iggy isn't nearly the superstar Brandon is. Philly wasn't going to be better with him balling every single possession, because frankly he's not the playmaker that Brandon is. His usage rating is only 23%, and in the Playoffs last year 25%. At this usage rate, regardless of heading into the Playoffs, his PER was 18. If we didn't have Brandon, Miller would be a fantastic guard to have. We have Brandon. We need the floor spread out. Miller doesn't help provide that.
Whoa....you and I are on the same page. I've basically posted every word you've said here on one thread or another today. What I was saying was that (IMO) we got Andre this summer to upgrade the PG position and make us a more dangerous playoff team. Due to whatever reason (coaching, injuries, rotations, etc) we've not had much of an upgrade in PG play and I don't think we're a more dangerous playoff team. That's all.
Andre Miller is not a win producer. The team wins 50% of the time he is on the court this year. Philly won 51% last year when he was on the court. Philly won 50% the year before that when he was on the court. He is an good individual stats player, but he is not a win producer. It is time to look at his history and realize that Andre Miller is a lot like Zach Randolph. A good individual stats player, maybe one of the best in the league for his position, individually, but these stats just never really seem to help a team win...
Ding ding ding. It's as if one half of the Blazer fandom is watching an entirely different game than the other half. Andre Miller produces when he's playmaking. The problem with that is then Brandon's not. I'll take Brandon over Miller everytime. The point is this. This team needs players that will compliment him, not hinder him. We need a guard that can defend the quicker point guards, hit from deep, and playmake when Brandon's out or being paid too much attention. Andre Miller for all his strengths doesn't fit.
So will I, as long as that passive-aggressive jerk doesn't hand grenade team chemistry, which I don't think has happened yet. Can you be specific about how Nate lied to his players? As for your assertion that Nate's "ego is costing the team wins," I find that patently absurd.
If there's anyone to blame, here, I'd say blame Roy. But, we can't as he's our franchise player. It is what it is.
I think a ton of people are still upset over the last game, and they are letting it cloud their thinking on this issue. That is just one of many things that has happened this season. Losing causes frustration. Players who don't get to play when the team loses, when they think they should be playing, tend to get the most frustrated. Bayless voiced his frustration earlier this year. Miller is voicing his frustration now. The best thing that could happen to this team would be a consolidation trade, to get rid of some of the run of the mill talent and get a player where there could be no argument about who is playing when. This would also take a load off of Roy before he gets hurt any more trying to carry this team on his own. This would achieve the following: 1. If the player obtained is of sufficiently high talent, there can be no argument as to who should be playing in crunch time. Just like when Damon was here, he would bitch that Pippen would be running the show late in the game. But it was Scottie Fucking Pippen. So nobody cared. 2. The player of said talent can take a load off of Roy and prevent his career from being shortened by injury.
How many of those assists occurred in the fourth quarter? Seems to me not that many. He does help the team, just not in the fourth quarter when Brandon's playing.
Only after Blake SUCKED for WEEKS while starting and playing more minutes than Blake. So much for Nate's claim that players EARN their minutes. No, it's not the same. +/- is a team stat - more accurately, it's dependent on the performance of ALL 10 players on the court. It's NOT an individual player single game stat. People who use it as such either don't understand what it is, oir deliberately misues use it when it suits their argument. Points, assists and rebounds are all individual stats. Obviously, there is more to a player's game than those three stats, but when I player is excelling at them, it makes little sense to bench him in favor of one who is not. Wrong. He's also been "spectacular" all season in comparison to Steve "Single Digit PER" Blake. BNM
Hard to get assists in the 4th quarter when: 1) Your ass is glued to the bench 2) Every fucking play you run is an isolation You blame Miller for this? He's not the one making these stupid decisions. BNM
