Mike Miller Backing Out of Heat Deal?

[Snakehead]

if LeBron plays Point Forward, who is he passing to?  he's the best 3 point shooter on the team, and he's not particularly good.

Read the thread title: Mike Miller signs with Miami... like that's the title of this thread bro.  He shoots 40% + from three.  Also Mario Chalmers is a good 3 pt shooter.  I'm sure they'll be adding more.  Also, this just in: there are shots besides 3 pt shots. He will assist on plenty of midrange and layups and expect alley-oops all the time.

Rondo's jumper percentage may be similar to last year's, but that does not mean he hasn't improved tremendously.

He is taking more jumpers than before.  Many of these jumpers are more difficult than those he took in previous years.  Most importantly, he now actually takes these jumpers at pivotal moments of games, rather than relying on botched drives, or cop-out hand-offs to one of the Big 3 (who are often double teamed or in a position of compromised scoring likelihood).  

Next year, I'm sure we'll be witnessing a 5 percentage point raise in his jumpshot...at the very least....possibly even 10 percentage points.  This alone will vastly change the way teams guard the Celtics.  No more "roaming".  No more "hack-a-rondo".  No more 4 on 5 offense.

His jumpshot is improving but his free-throws haven't been.  Hopefully his jump shot will continue to improve and his free-throws will improve immensely.

Obviously the jumper would be great, but how about just the free throw shooting.  How can't he make a better percentage of his FT attempts?  Even if Rondo never becomes a good jump shooter he will be able to be so much more aggressive if he can draw fouls and go at some bigger defenders.  As is it's a great idea to foul Rondo going to the rim.

I still don't get that signing for either team. Mike Miller can get much more PT elsewhere, and probably even more money. He won't even take a backseat if they do anything good next year, more like he'll be in the trunk. As for Miami, they have much bigger needs than a backup SG/SF.

If they are looking to play him alongside Wade and Lebron, they are asking for trouble.

In the regular season, you face so many bad teams and very few great ones, that you can afford to play around, that's why you see so many teams with superb records get knocked off earlier than expected, because they beat up on the bad teams and surprise the great ones in the regular season.

When Miami won in 2006 (one of the most crooked Finals ever), they had conventional PG's in Jason Williams (don't laugh) and Gary Payton (again, don't laugh).

The addition of Mo Williams to Cleveland's roster in 2008 turned them into a 60-win team. Before that, they were a .500-.600 team. LeBron didn't get magically better, he just had less ball-handling responsibilities.

Neither LeBron or Wade will be able to effectively run - or defend - the PG position in the playoffs. Not against Rose. Not against Nelson. Not against Rondo.

Mike Miller would've helped us a lot more than he can hurt us.

Mike Miller will start and he can't start on a better team in the NBA.

You really think Mo Williams was what made the Cavs better of the years?  You really don't think it was LeBron?  You know he won the MVP those two years they won 60 games right?  He didn't "magically" get better, every player gets better and LeBron is probably the best player in the NBA.  Mo Williams is unreliable and even at his best not a "2nd best player on a great team" kind of guy by any stretch.  Obviously he contributed, but make no mistake that was LeBron's doing.  Watch how good the Cavs are this upcoming season, and then we will return to your post.

LeBron is an outstanding passing and only needs to have a coach use him as a point guard.  He didn't in Cleveland, they ran CYO offensive sets under Mike Brown, I have to imagine it will get better and LeBron can absolutely run point forward.

The 2007-08 Cavs won 45 games. The 2008-09 Cavs won 66. That's 21 games. You think LeBron "magically" got 21 wins better? The replacing of Daniel Gibson with Mo Williams sure made a difference. The offense still ran through LeBron (as his assist numbers remained the same), but he was able to do less to facilitate the offense. Do you think I don't know LeBron was far and away the best player on the Cavs? I don't care if the Cavs win 11 games next season or 51. I'm saying spending nearly $50 million on a starting lineup in one offseason and not getting a conventional PG is a bad idea.

I'd assume we're gonna see less of Wade and LeBron together (except for the start and end of the halves), and more of Mike Miller with one of them, not both. It creates a constant barrage of superstar talent, instead of the bench undoing whatever good the starters did. Bosh will have to play with as many stars at one time as possible, because it is evident he cannot play by himself.

If you believe Miller will definitely start, it doesn't quite add that much to their starting unit (there's only so many shots available), and it significantly lessens their already terrible bench.

They are not adding complimentary players at the moment. Miller is a nice player, but his overall game won't be utilized playing with the Heat. He will essentially be reduced to a 3-point specialist with that starting lineup. You can get just as good shooters for far less, like Anthony Morrow, and then address bigger needs.

And, I really like the Celtics lineup against them if that's the case.

Wade - Rondo
Miller - Allen
James - Pierce
Bosh - Garnett
?? - ??

You like Wade trying to cover Rondo? I don't. Rondo will definitely have his hands full defending Wade, but I expect Rondo to at least keep him in front of him and force him to be a shooter, although the refs love to let Wade live at the line.

Ray will stay with Miller no problem, as many SG's are better off the dribble than Miller. All he really has to do is limit the space he gets and keep a hand in his face. Miller will NOT be able to chase Ray for 35-40 mpg.

Paul and LeBron bring the best out in each other, and they both have trouble getting into a groove when facing one another. LeBron may hold the statistical edge, but Paul's team has the better record.

I am not worried about Bosh. KG can and will neutralize him. KG went up against Beasley, Jamison, and Lewis, and easily outperformed them, including lockdown D. Even against Gasol, he did a good job, especially the last five games of the series.

Whoever we have at center will be significantly better than whoever they trot out.



O yeah, and don't even get me started on Orlando. I truly believe they would wipe the floor with Miami easier than the Celtics or Lakers would. This is all here and now, as Boston, Orlando, and Miami all still have work to do this summer to fill out their rosters.

Mike Miller doesn't just shoot.  And he does shoot very, very well and will be open all day.  What does he add to the team?  He stretches the floor and provides scoring from range.  That's extremely valuable to an offense.  He's also a good rebounder and solid passer.

Look at Mo Williams assist numbers vs. LeBron's assist numbers... again, he is not running the offense.  He handles the ball some but at the end of the day he's another spot up shooter off of LeBron James, like basically that whole Cavs team.  So who improved the team? How about other roster moves? Mo was part of that, but also this guy LEBRON.  NBA players get better as their careers progress man, idk what you are talking about with this "magically" talk, and LeBron now has an impact all over the floor.  One of the biggest changes for him would come from his defense.  While he was pedestrian early in his career he is now the best defender at his position in the league.


As for the matchup against us:

1) Wade vs Rondo: Probably will be the matchup.  Rondo can guard Wade as well as anyone but Rondo is a great defender in the way he causes havoc off ball and makes plays, not neccessarily how he stays in front of his man.  In fact, he gets blown by a pretty decent amount of times.  Wade is an amazing penetrator, so that may be a problem.  Wade can guard Rondo as well as anyone, and with a good defensive scheme you can sag off Rondo anyways. Remember how Wade always torches our team without LeBron and Bosh playing with him? Yeah...

2) Miller vs Ray: Miller can have a tough time chasing Ray around for sure but he's not a bad defender and I think he will step up his defense on this team.  Ray Allen was a mediocre defender before he came to our team and now he's pretty solid, so I could see Miller doing that same.  As for Miller on O, the problem is that Wade and LeBron are going to need help defenders for us to cover and Bosh will in the post.  This will leave Miller open, especially in transition.  He will do damage.

3) James vs Pierce: You are living in the past.  The two have had a good little rivalry going but James is 25 and not even in his prime yet, Pierce in the twilight of his career.  James can really hamper Pierce's offense with his defense and while Pierce can do a good job against James he needs help and it will be very tough to provide consistent help with Wade and Bosh on the floor as well and Miller stretching the defense.  James held down Pierce's production in a more one-on-one defensive matchup while Pierce had a lot of team help to hamper James.  The Celts have been great at stopping these one-man-teams but this Miami team will not be that.  It'll be tough. I don't like Pierce covering LeBron without as much help, don't expect that to be a good matchup for us.

4) KG vs Bosh: KG has absolutely owned Bosh... on the RAPTORS.  The Raptors were a bad team. Bosh had to carry and now he will be joined by Wade and LeBron.  Expect him to be devestating on the pick and roll.  As long as KG stays healthy I'm sure he will do as good of a job as anyone on Bosh next season but he will need help which again will be tough to provide.  Don't compare Bosh to "Beasley, Jamison, and Lewis", he's a far better player than all of them.  I think he's better than Gasol too but just as good and won't get blown past like Gasol did on the faceup once KG figured that out.  Like with LeBron, KG will also be a year older in the twilight of his career with Bosh entering his prime.

5) Who knows.  I think yes we will probably have an advantage in the Center matchup but Miami will be able to get a big body who bangs and rebounds and defends.  That's all they need.



I don't see why Orlando matches up so well.  Because they have terrible defenders at all positions but C? Because Miami has long athletic defenders that can seriously bother Howard in help to challenge shots or try to swipe at the ball? All they need is a big body to hold him in place at C and they matchup just as well as anyone. Howard will hamper them all going to the rack but Bosh/LBJ/Wade all good enough passers and finishers so that they will play against him as well as anyone in that area.  They also have some bigs who can stretch the floor against Orlando possibly.  They do not have a bad matchup against Orlando, assuming they just pick up a big body 7' which I'm very certain Reilly will do.  I'm not sure what you are thinking there.