So after 2 games...

[MadeFromDust]

The guy is clearly Armon Johnson for me. Not only does he play better defense, make better decisions and run the team better than Mills, he also is much more of a "Nate" player than Mills. I'm sure the staff is thinking just that. Plus he actually has an NBA body.

He made a few mistakes, but is still a rook and overall is just solid. Future backup PG anyone?

 

[maxiep]

The guy is clearly Armon Johnson for me. Not only does he play better defense, make better decisions and run the team better than Mills, he also is much more of a "Nate" player than Mills. I'm sure the staff is thinking just that. Plus he actually has an NBA body.

He made a few mistakes, but is still a rook and overall is just solid. Future backup PG anyone?

Yeah, but Paul Allen > Nate McMillan, and PA likes himself some Patty.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I dunno what either or their future's is, but I do know that I've been more impressed with Johnson's all-around game and his D than I have been Patty's ... at present he looks like a 3rd point guard that you might consider developing -- way too soon to say anything more than that.

Patty just confirmed for me what I've thought about him all along. More Mo Williams than Deron Williams, don't hate his offense, but his D makes my eyes bleed.

 

[Erroneous Subterfuge]

don't hate his offense, but his D makes my eyes bleed.

well I do hate his offense. i hate "point guards" who just run down and jack up shots all the time. either that or he just channels Sergio and tries to get all spanish chocolate with his passes, resulting in way too many stupid turnovers.

 

[Eastoff]

Yeah, but Paul Allen > Nate McMillan, and PA likes himself some Patty.

Paul knows he wants to corner that market from Australia.

 

[Pinwheel1]

well I do hate his offense. i hate "point guards" who just run down and jack up shots all the time. either that or he just channels Sergio and tries to get all spanish chocolate with his passes, resulting in way too many stupid turnovers.

Mills took 9 shots (making 6) not sure I would call that jacking it up. Johnson took 12 btw. They are completely two different types of players. i wish we could keep both. Johnson looks to have a more all around game, but Mills can flat out score.

 

[DUB]

What's the actual question?

Who would I keep? Or who do I think the Trail Blazers will keep?

Paul knows he wants to corner that market from Australia.

I don't reckon the Australian market would even cover Mills salary.

 

[mook]

I dunno. I'm more of a Mills fan than many here--maybe because I've seen him play with the Stampede. He'll never be a starting point guard, but if you need a guy to come in for 10 minutes, hit some shots, and competently bring the ball upcourt, I kind of like him. His three point shot is definitely legit.

It's a different league than when Greg Anthony used to play. Role playing backup point guards in the Aaron Brooks mold seem to do reasonably well, and that's Patty Mills' game. Down the road if there are a rash of freak injuries and Roy and Miller are out for a night or two, I can see throwing Mills out there for some minutes, and you at least stand a chance because he can give you some of the scoring those guys bring.

Yeah, his defense sucks. But then that's balanced out with offensively limited/defensive specialists like Pendergraph and Camby and Cunningham (and possibly Przybilla) on the bench.

I bitched and moaned about Damon Stoudamire for years and years, so it's not like I'm a huge fan of that style. But given how the team is constructed, Mills gives this team a speedster perimeter shooter it just doesn't have in anybody else. It's a good thing to have at least one of those guys at the end of the bench. If nothing else, in practice coaches can use him as a practice dummy in preparing to defend legit speedster guards like Harris and Paul.

 

[MadeFromDust]

What's the actual question?

Who would I keep? Or who do I think the Trail Blazers will keep?


I don't reckon the Australian market would even cover Mills salary.

Who you would keep. But yeah fell free to share who you think the Blazers will keep, there are no set boundaries in this poll.

 

[mook]

What I posted above is what I think Portland should do. What Portland will actually do is an interesting question.

Mills is a funny combination of Sergio and Blake. He's got Blake's three point shot (which Nate loves) but Sergio's high-speed fast-and-loose style and piss-poor defense (which Nate hates).

It really boils down to which guy Nate thinks he can mold.

Can he work with Johnson to develop lethal three point range? He hasn't had much luck so far doing it with Bayless.

Can he work with Mills to develop at least some defense, and a finer appreciation for reducing turnovers? He never got anywhere with Sergio.

My guess is he sees himself more in Johnson, and so will go with what's familiar.

 

[Nikolokolus]

What I posted above is what I think Portland should do. What Portland will actually do is an interesting question.

Mills is a funny combination of Sergio and Blake. He's got Blake's three point shot (which Nate loves) but Sergio's high-speed fast-and-loose style and piss-poor defense (which Nate hates).

It really boils down to which guy Nate thinks he can mold.

Can he work with Johnson to develop lethal three point range? He hasn't had much luck so far doing it with Bayless.

Can he work with Mills to develop at least some defense, and a finer appreciation for reducing turnovers? He never got anywhere with Sergio.

My guess is he sees himself more in Johnson, and so will go with what's familiar.

I'll give you one giant hint: Nate was being interviewed the other day (courtside I think?) and he slipped and called Armon A.J. recovered about mid sentence and called him Armon. Pet nicknames already? /justsaying

 

[MARIS61]

Where's the logical choice, "neither"?

Seriously, we should not even be wasting Summer League time on guys like these 2 who will never even be rotation players for us.

I'd rather have PK back again.

 

[MARIS61]

I'll give you one giant hint: Nate was being interviewed the other day (courtside I think?) and he slipped and called Armon A.J. recovered about mid sentence and called him Armon. Pet nicknames already? /justsaying

I heard him say AJ would win us 4 games this year.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I'll give you one giant hint: Nate was being interviewed the other day (courtside I think?) and he slipped and called Armon A.J. recovered about mid sentence and called him Armon. Pet nicknames already? /justsaying

Well you have to admit PM's
doesn't have the same ring to it.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I heard him say AJ would win us 4 games this year.

Sweet.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

PGoTF

 

[jlprk]

Where's the logical choice, "neither"?

Correct answer. How can either make the team? We already have our 6 guards. If you want to get rid of one of the below to make room for Johnson, you might as well get rid of two to make room for Mills, too. Or get rid of three to make room for Koponen, too. Where does it end?

Roy
Miller
Matthews
Bayless
Fernandez
Williams, Elliott

 

[JDC]

Mills took 9 shots (making 6) not sure I would call that jacking it up. Johnson took 12 btw. They are completely two different types of players. i wish we could keep both. Johnson looks to have a more all around game, but Mills can flat out score.

2 of Johnson's shots were end of quarter 3/4 court heaves and 1 other was a flaming bag pass to him at the top of the key with the shot clock running down and was forced to take a deep 3.

 

[JDC]

Correct answer. How can either make the team? We already have our 6 guards. If you want to get rid of one of the below to make room for Johnson, you might as well get rid of two to make room for Mills, too. Or get rid of three to make room for Koponen, too. Where does it end?

Roy
Miller
Matthews
Bayless
Fernandez
Williams, Elliott

Fernandez is as good as gone and Matthews is going to play a lot of 3 if he is indeed a Blazer. It's tight squeeze but there is enough room for Armon.

 

[mgb]

I went with the D.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Johnson is clearly a better PG than Mills. He would also do a lot better in Nate's pathetic offense

 

[Nikolokolus]

Johnson is clearly a better PG than Mills. He would also do a lot better in Nate's pathetic offense

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.

 

[Pinwheel1]

2 of Johnson's shots were end of quarter 3/4 court heaves and 1 other was a flaming bag pass to him at the top of the key with the shot clock running down and was forced to take a deep 3.

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.

 

[hasoos]

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.

 

[Pinwheel1]

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.

 

[Nikolokolus]

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'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.

 

[mook]

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.

 

[maxiep]

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.

 

[RR7]

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.

+1. Great view on things.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

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.