To be fair I think he would do a lot better than Patty in most NBA offenses. You are right however in that he seems to be pretty deliberate, preferring to curl off of picks and screens to get into the mid post to shoot that pull up jumper and floater or pass. Of course with the pathetic picks that the Blazers set I'm not sure how much good they're going to do him.
Very true. I didn't think either one of them took too many shots. There was maybe 1 3pt shot by both Mills and Babitt that were too quick, and 2 shots by Pendy where he was forced to beat the shot clock, but other than that for summer league, the offense flowed pretty well. Both PG's have to get credit for that.
Right now I am pretty much coming away from Summer league with the thought that not a lot of these guys are going to help us. Pendergraph and Cunningham, that's about it. Hopefully our 1st round draft pick that is sitting out is much better, but my gut feeling is no.
I can see a 8 man rotation with the others filling in. Miller, Roy, Bayless, Matthews Batum, Oden, Camby, LMA Camby, Matthews and Bayless will play 2 positions based on match-ups. The others will play, but these could be our main 8 players.
I'd narrow that list even further to just 1 -- Dante. JP is still a foul machine, and I haven't seen anything to suggest he's ready for big minutes behind Lamarcus (which doesn't matter because Camby, LMA and Oden should get 99% of the minutes anyway). Williams is a total unknown, Babbitt looks pretty terrible (at least for the role he'll be asked to play as a catch an shoot guy), Mills can't guard anybody and Johnson has promise as a defender, but his shot looks pretty shaky and I'm not sure if he's able to do more than make the simple pass. I guess we just wait and see.
Pendergraph fouls a lot, but isn't that what you want your 5th or 6th big man on the bench to do? Go in, grab some rebounds and whack a few guys coming at the rim, give the starters a rest, and then come out. He doesn't give up easy shots. I like that. (Well, unless your center can hit lots of threes. He seems to have a problem noticing that.) Cunningham definitely has a spot as third string SF. The two combined seem to be showing a lot of leadership out there. For a summer league team, there really aren't many bad shots going up. It could be the assistant coach, but I think it's also the influence of Cunningham and Pendergraph. They seem to be setting a tone out there of selfless, hustle basketball that I like to see in our role players. The team has totally out-classed the first two opponents. I'm also liking the battle developing for third string PG. I think both guys have futures on NBA teams. Babbitt is a real disappointment, I'll admit. My hope is he's another Batum, where he just doesn't handle Summer League ratball that well but explodes on a more organized NBA team. That doesn't happen often, though, so it's a slim hope. At least so far. Overall, if you were looking for a performance like Zach Randolph or Roy or Qyntel or Bayless two years ago, where a guy so thoroughly dominated that you had a sense they could become special NBA players, it's a pretty disappointing summer league. If you are hoping just to find a few guys who can fill specific roles on a playoff team that already has the major pieces in place, it's been pretty good. If it were 2005 and we were fielding this team, I'd be utterly crushed. But given our circumstances, I'm pretty happy.
I voted for Mills, but I think Johnson is clearly the better Nate guy. My feeling is that at the end of the bench, you take a flier on the kid with the higher beta.
Can we trade Bayless and Miller for Tony Parker or Chris Paul and keep both? In fact, let's compare both with Bayless: Mills is quicker, but not as strong. Johnson is probably as strong but not as quick. BOTH have better PG skills. Johnson is a better defender (already). Neither is the scorer Bayless is, but Mills is the better three point shooter. Mills: poor man's Aaron Brooks. Johnson: poor man's Eric Snow.
I can tell you this after watching OJ Mayo try to play PG yesterday. Bayless is a better PG than he is. 3 posessions Mayo couldn't even get the ball over the half court line, let alone start the offense.
I don't see a Neither option so I can't answer. I would rather have Portland keep at least one roster spot open so they can sign a vet during the regular season.
You can always waive one of the rooks if this becomes a real big issue. What are we talking about here - part of the NBA minimum salary that goes to waste?
If we trade for Parker using Bayless and Miller then I could see these guys playing passable backup minutes (though as rookies I'm not sure you'd want to push your luck here -- and yes I still consider Mills a rookie, having something like 30 minutes of NBA action to his name). If you need instant offense/shooting and the matchups on defense allow it you could run Mills some, and if you need stops and ball pressure for a few minutes you could use Armon. I wouldn't want to project either as a starter if Parker went down though (I also wouldn't want to see Bayless start if Parker went down).
While Babbitt has yet to light it up from outside, he is shooting close to 50%. He was more active in the first game and may have been limited by the strained achilles for the second. Him not having the deer in the headlights look Martell had for every year he was here already makes me like him more. Mills is looking good against Summer League competition, but so did Pooh Jeter. Would not be crushed if another team signed him. I like Johson, but would love to see them battle during the preseason. I also like Johson's poise over Bayless.
I think our debate will be solved when some other team offers Mills a guaranteed contract after summer league. I think we would prefer Mills compete in training camp. But I think he will already be gone. So I choose AJ.
I think I read somewhere that Mills has a non-guaranteed contract - that becomes guaranteed on July 23 if the team does not retract earlier - so it basically is up to the Blazers to make a decision if he is retained for next year or not, before another team can offer him a contract.
Mills hasn't accepted nor signed the qualifying offer though. So there's nothing to become guaranteed ... right?
