Miller's phone not ringing

[mook]

The big difference to me would be that if we could run just a little we could add more 10 point wins and fewer nail biters. The Blazers are pretty good at squeezing out the dramatic victory, thanks to Roy, but it'd be nice to see Roy, Aldridge and Oden chuckling on the bench in the fourth quarter more.

Having a guy like Miller pick his opportunities to exploit a scoring run by opening up the offense could cause that.

 

[PapaG]

The big difference to me would be that if we could run just a little we could add more 10 point wins and fewer nail biters. The Blazers are pretty good at squeezing out the dramatic victory, thanks to Roy, but it'd be nice to see Roy, Aldridge and Oden chuckling on the bench in the fourth quarter more.

Having a guy like Miller pick his opportunities to exploit a scoring run by opening up the offense could cause that.

The Blazers were 5th in the NBA in point differential at +5.4 (behind Cleveland, Boston, LA, and Orlando), and that's at a slow pace. 6th was Houston at +4.0. Why mess with what's working?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Im not sure if you want to increase the pace. Blazers have one of the most efficient perimeter playmakers in Roy, and two of the best rebounding big men in the league, neither of which has shown the ability to play in a more uptempo game. Why would you want to increase the amount of possesions in a game.

I like Miller and would be an upgrade at the point, but not for the $10M/yr he is asking. Recently I have heard 3yrs at the midlevel and that does seem like a great deal.

Name the last team to win a championship with the slowest pace in the league?

 

[PapaG]

Name the last team to win a championship with the slowest pace in the league?

Not sure about that since pace is a relatively new stat, but it's a bit surprising to see this information.

Pace
The champions have had an average pace factor (explanation here: http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html#pace) rank of 17.7, slightly below average. Again, this does not seem to make a huge difference. Because a lot of these teams have been very good on defense, I assumed that these teams would generally play a slow, boring game of basketball. But that is not the case. For the record, Boston ranked 19th in the league in pace last season.

http://basketball-statistics.com/theanatomyofachampion.html

 

[Miksaid]

The big difference to me would be that if we could run just a little we could add more 10 point wins and fewer nail biters. The Blazers are pretty good at squeezing out the dramatic victory, thanks to Roy, but it'd be nice to see Roy, Aldridge and Oden chuckling on the bench in the fourth quarter more.

Having a guy like Miller pick his opportunities to exploit a scoring run by opening up the offense could cause that.

Is it just me or didn't we have a shitload of blowouts last season...? Weren't we among the leaders in point differentials...?

 

[PapaG]

Is it just me or didn't we have a shitload of blowouts last season...? Weren't we among the leaders in point differentials...?

http://sportstwo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2064418&postcount=32

 

[Mediocre Man]

Not sure about that since pace is a relatively new stat, but it's a bit surprising to see this information.



http://basketball-statistics.com/theanatomyofachampion.html

Yeah, on average 13 places ahead of us.

That article (a good read by the way) shows our other weak areas like age and defense.

 

[mook]

The Blazers were 5th in the NBA in point differential at +5.4 (behind Cleveland, Boston, LA, and Orlando), and that's at a slow pace. 6th was Houston at +4.0. Why mess with what's working?

We have to mess with what's working anyway.

I mean, Blake isn't a starting quality PG for a championship team, even though he was a factor in the efficient offense. Replacing him with anyone is going to "mess with what's working," but most people here think it's worth doing.

We were also going to add Hedo, who was going to change the look of our team too (making us taller, slower, a better passing team).

I'd prefer to add a PG who brought more defense to the table than Miller, but he still seems to be enough of an upgrade over Blake on that end to make it worth while.

Do I think it's imperative that we become a run-and-gun team? Definitely not. Am I comfortable having the slowest team in the league? I guess. But it seems like we could make it a little easier on ourselves if we just ran a little more. Miller would definitley help in that department.

 

[PapaG]

Yeah, on average 13 places ahead of us.

That article (a good read by the way) shows our other weak areas like age and defense.

Defense is my top concern as a fan and is the primary reason Portland lost the Houston series IMO. The team is going to be young barring a major reshuffling, so that's hard to correct, and pace may increase as the young players like Oden get a more varied offensive game.

Miller would help with pace though, no doubt about it.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Defense is my top concern as a fan and is the primary reason Portland lost the Houston series IMO. The team is going to be young barring a major reshuffling, so that's hard to correct, and pace may increase as the young players like Oden get a more varied offensive game.

Miller would help with pace though, no doubt about it.

I am not advocating it in this particular post, but until we fire Nate, our team will always have a low pace.

 

[PapaG]

I am not advocating it in this particular post, but until we fire Nate, our team will always have a low pace.

Low pace doesn't bother me, but I find it a bit contradictary that someone could want Oden to be a low-post beast on offense while at the same time increasing pace dramatically. I'm not sure any coach could run an efficient and fast-paced offense without getting hurt on transistion.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Low pace doesn't bother me, but I find it a bit contradictary that someone could want Oden to be a low-post beast on offense while at the same time increasing pace dramatically. I'm not sure any coach could run an efficient and fast-paced offense without getting hurt on transistion.

Efficiency isn't as important as differential IMO.

I also think if we scored a few more easy baskets it would help that category......Not that we were bad by any means

 

[PapaG]

Efficiency isn't as important as differential IMO.

I also think if we scored a few more easy baskets it would help that category......Not that we were bad by any means

It would help, but still, the point of posting up Oden while pushing pace seemingly opens the team up to easy transistion baskets by the opposition. I'm not sure the plus of pushing pace in that scenario offsets what could be given up on the other end by having your shot-blocker out of position.

 

[Mediocre Man]

It would help, but still, the point of posting up Oden while pushing pace seemingly opens the team up to easy transistion baskets by the opposition. I'm not sure the plus of pushing pace in that scenario offsets what could be given up on the other end by having your shot-blocker out of position.

I have said this before, but as a coach, and a good one at a lower level (no jokes please) I run an offense that I think would be good for Portland.

Brandon and Greg would be absolutely perfect as trailers. LMA, Batum and Bayless or whoever can get up court. If it's not there then kick the ball back to Roy who could start a pick and roll with Greg anywhere on the floor. Rotate from there. It is sort of the offense that Utah used to run with Stockton and Malone.

 

[PapaG]

I have said this before, but as a coach, and a good one at a lower level (no jokes please) I run an offense that I think would be good for Portland.

Brandon and Greg would be absolutely perfect as trailers. LMA, Batum and Bayless or whoever can get up court. If it's not there then kick the ball back to Roy who could start a pick and roll with Greg anywhere on the floor. Rotate from there. It is sort of the offense that Utah used to run with Stockton and Malone.

Sounds fine with LMA, but I still don't think running Oden up and down the court 94' on nearly every possesion is a good idea.

 

[KingSpeed]

The whole "can't hit a 3" complaint is overblown in my opinion. We need to get away from shooting so many jumpers and have a PG that can get to the lane and create shots for our bigs. I'll take a player like Miller that can do that over Steve Blake jacking up 3's any day.

But Blake hit at a 42% clip. We'll miss that if we sign Miller, which we won't.

 

[KingSpeed]

Is it just me or didn't we have a shitload of blowouts last season...? Weren't we among the leaders in point differentials...?

Yes. We were like top 5 and #1 since the All Star break.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Sounds fine with LMA, but I still don't think running Oden up and down the court 94' on nearly every possesion is a good idea.

That's the beauty of the offense. Oden wouldn't be coming up the florr any faster than he is now, and on break points he wouldn't come up at all. If anything he would run less in that offense.