Does Miller Fit Portland? The Portland Trail Blazers have found their man and it's point guard Andre Miller. The deal – according to Chad Ford of ESPN – will be a three-year deal worth $21 million, with the third year being a team option at $7 million.
Miller's old team, the Philadelphia 76ers, did not want to spend the money Miller was asking and the New York Knicks did not want to give him the years he was asking for – and could not pay as much as Portland, who had $7.7 million available compared with the Knicks only having the MLE to spend ($5.9 million).
Last season Miller averaged 16.3 points, 6.5 assists, and 1.33 steals on 47.3% shooting overall. In six playoff games he posted 21.2 points, 5.3 assists, and 1.17 steals on 47.5% shooting.
So how does Miller fit Portland? Decently, but not perfectly. His biggest weakness as a perimeter player is his three-point shooting, but as is obvious from his field-goal shooting as a whole he makes generally good shooting decisions with shorter jumpers and drives to the hoop. In 2008-09 he got to the free throw line about five times a game, shooting 82.6%.
Portland's game – with Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge in the middle and Brandon Roy driving to the hoop – demands the other players on the floor be shooters. As long as Miller can still find open space inside the three-point arc due to the play of the other players, it shouldn't be an issue.
Miller is an outstanding decision-maker at the point position, and having a player who has excelled at the position for so long should take some of the pressure off All-Star Brandon Roy to initiate so much offense. It's not that he'll stop or no longer be asked to; it's just that Roy will have more help.
Miller is a very good rebounder at his position, and also an excellent player in the post because of his size.
"It's a perfect fit, I have always felt that way,'' agent Andy Miller told Jason Quick of the Oregonian."I think he can take the Blazers to the next level in their quest for a championship.''
(UPDATE - it's official.)
MORE BY JASON FLEMING
NBA PM: Trading Chandler For Okafor?: Hornets and Bobcats talking Chandler for Okafor?...Thunder acquire Etan... 
NBA Chat With Jason Fleming: Chat with HOOPSWORLD editor Jason Fleming about all things NBA, inlcuding... 
NBA PM: Grizz Need Guards: Grizzlies after another guard...Jason Williams is back...Spurs sign... The same would be true for any team, not just Philadelphia. Signing Miller likely means Portland has another move in them this summer. It also means the extensions of Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge will become the most important thing on General Manager Kevin Pritchard's to-do list.
Spending Money 2009: There has been a lot of talk about how the economy is impacting spending in the NBA, but has it really? The only way to figure that out is to compare how much money is being committed this summer to free agents and compare it with the past few seasons. HOOPSWORLD has data back to the summer of 2006, so it's not a huge sample size, but you can see a trend. (Click on the links for detail – numbers in $millions; the detail on these pages do not include minimum contracts or rookie scale contracts.)
2006 - $1,518.8
2007 - $1,193.8
2008 - $1,722.4
Right now we are about a month into the season of committing dollars to players, so what's the total so far? "Only" $684.1 million. It's still early, but it definitely looks like its unlikely spending hits the billion dollar mark in 2009. There could still be plenty of deals done – and extensions to Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy could add well over another $100 million to this total.
So who is spending? With the acquisitions of Jarrett Jack and Hedo Turkoglu, plus the extension to Andrea Bargnani, the Toronto Raptors have committed $123 million – or, for the people who like math, about 18% of the dollars that fit the criteria.
Detroit is next with $96 million for Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, and Chris Wilcox, and the Cleveland Cavaliers (Anderson Varejao and Anthony Parker) and Dallas Mavericks (Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, and Quinton Ross) have all topped the $50 million mark.
Should Portland complete the deal with free agent Andre Miller and sign their young stars to the aforementioned extensions, they could blow away Toronto's $123 million mark as this summer's big spenders.
Still, the summer of 2009 seems to be lagging a bit as teams deal with the new salary cap, the desire to have cap space in 2010, and lower ticket sales. HOOPSWORLD will keep an eye on this trend all summer long.
Nike's Mea Culpa? Nike is giving back the tapes of LeBron James getting dunked on – at least, that's how it's billed – at his own basketball camp. But that doesn't necessarily mean they think they are wrong.
"It was never about the play or the player, it was always about our media policy," Nike said in a statement. "The interest in the tapes has greatly overshadowed the focus of the camp, which is to help young athletes improve their skills, and that is regrettable. It was Nike's decision to take these tapes based on our media guidelines, which we will continue to enforce."
Now, this is curious. The two tapes in questioned belonged to the video cameras of journalists approved to be at the camp. Nike claims they had a policy not to record video, yet at the same time these two journalists were obviously recording video. It's been my experience – at least with the NBA – that all such rules are clearly posted. It's also been my experience that you don't carry a video camera to a sporting event as media unless you intend to use it.
Either those guidelines were not clearly communicated or posted, in which case Nike is in the wrong, or the guidelines were clear and the two journalists shouldn't have been doing video, and did so anyway, making them in the wrong. If the former is the case Nike didn't exactly apologize in their statement. If the latter is the case, why give back the tape at all? All that is needed is a clear explanation of what the media policy and that these two should have known the rules.
Again, not being there and not knowing the situation it's not possible to know the truth – but it sure looks like Nike caved on a policy they realized they couldn't enforce or wasn't enforceable due to media pressure.
Every event has guidelines journalists must follow, so there is a right and wrong here. Nike's statement clarifies nothing.
NBA, Other Leagues Sue Delaware: The NBA joined forces with the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NCAA today in filing a lawsuit against the State of Delaware for allowing betting on single games. Here is a copy of the press release:
The four major professional sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL and the NHL) and the NCAA today filed a complaint against the state of Delaware in federal court in Wilmington, DE seeking to stop the state from offering single-game betting on pro and college games.Obviously it will take some time for the legal wrangling to work itself out, but at least from where we sit it looks like Delaware is in the wrong.
The leagues and the NCAA assert that the state's recently announced decision to offer single-game betting as part of the 2009 Delaware Sports Lottery violates federal law. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act ("PASPA") became law in 1992 and prohibits states from operating a lottery or betting scheme based on pro or college games.
Four states, including Delaware, were grandfathered in the legislation since they had previously operated sports betting. The exception only applies to the type of wagering scheme that occurred in the states from January 1, 1976 through August 31, 1990.
Delaware did not conduct single-game wagering during its 1976 sports lottery, which was limited to parlay bets on NFL games. The PASPA exception does not permit Delaware to now conduct single-game wagers on the NFL or wagering on sports other than the NFL, the lawsuit states.
The leagues and the NCAA recognize that Delaware has many pressing economic issues but more legalized single-game wagering presents a direct threat to the integrity of their games and long-term health of their sports.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment