Much Ado About: Mike Miller

I've never really been a huge fan of Mike Miller, maybe because I only remember remember him from the Grizzlies.  After his trade to the Timberwolves, everyone thought that he and Al Jefferson would be a potent inside-outside combo, I mean the guy shoots a career average of 40% from beyond the arc.  However, that doesn't seem to be the case.  The Timberwolves really haven't improved significantly, and honestly, I think Miller is getting ousted out of the lineup even before he had a chance to fit in.  He is coming off of an ankle injury, but you get the sense that he isn't really being involved in the offense he's averaging a career low 9.6 points per game in 31 minutes of play.  31 seems like a lot, but not if you consider that he hasn't really seen over 30 minutes of floor time since December 17.  Again, he's coming off an ankle injury so the Wolves aren't rushing him back, yet you get the feeling he's not really working with the system.  I mean, 9.6 points?  Really?  The guy is supposed to be a shooting stud, he's coming off a year averaging 16.4 points on 50% shooting and 43% beyond the arc.  It didn't hurt that he had a career high 6.7 rebounds either.  He's a big SG that rebounds like an SF, a lot of teams could use that, just, not the Wolves, apparently...  Which actually makes sense, the Wolves need to develop their young talent more and honestly, I think their biggest struggle isn't finding another scorer (Randy Foye does that just fine) but actually in finding a way to best optimize Al Jefferson.  I personally don't think that's at the C slot.  I think it's hard on Jefferson when he's the only starter standing over 6-7, and he's not really great defensively.  Kevin Love was supposed to be the answer, but, his defensive liabilities at the PF slot are almost identical to those of Jefferson at the C slot.  Slow feet, a little on the small sad, poor rotations.  They need a big man that can man up the big centers but also not take away from Jefferson on the block.  That's a little hard to come by, but there might be some possibilities, and something is better than nothing.

So who would be top suitors for the 6-8 SG/SF?  Well, I think any championship caliber team looking for immediate impact.  The Wolves aren't going to get better any time soon, and with the Sebastian Telfair/Randy Foye combo looking promising, Miller will likely lose his spot on the roster eventually to the retunring Corey Brewer next season.  Maybe Miller will get healthy and prove me wrong, but right now, Miller isn't a horrible contract, especially if he can contribute at the caliber that he normally would, that is, a solid scorer and spot up shooter.  Granted, he's a liability on defense, but I'm sure teams are willing to take that risk and try to hide him on the floor.  If healthy, Miller's major contributions are fairly obvious, scoring and threes (perimeter threat), however, what also helps is that he rebounds well for his position (that is SG/SF), if you take a general comparison, current rebounding leaders of SG/SFs are Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala at 6.2, for pure shooting guards its Kobe Bryant at 5.3 per game.  Currently Mike Miller has been averaging 5.7 rebounds per game and has averaged a solid 6 rebounds per game in his last two seasons at Memphis.  So in summary, what you get with Mike Miller: scoring: career average 14.2 ppg, shooting and perimeter offense: career average 46% FG and 40% 3 pt, and rebounding: career average 4.8, solid numbers for an off guard.

Two teams I think he could make an immediate impact on: Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs.

Jeff Clark at CelticsBlog kind of already addresses Mike Miller for Boston.  So I'll leave that to him.    His offer ends up being something like Brian Scalabrine, Eddie House, and Tony Allen, adding a scoring punch off the get-go for the Celtics, but as he points out, might not make a whole lot of sense for the T'Wolves.

Here's my take on the Spurs.  The package would center around Fabricio Oberto (hear me out), including either Bruce Bowen or a package including both Jacque Vaughn and Michael Finley.  A combination of Bowen and Oberto create an immediate salary decrease for the T'Wolves of about $1.4 million, if that's what they're looking for, the Finley/Vaughn combo gives them a decrease of closer to $1.65 million immediately due to salary differences and then leaves only Oberto's $3.5 million on the books the year after (both Vaughn and Finley are expiring).  As far as on the floor reasons (because we need to think of the stuff other than making salaries match), the reasons for the Spurs are pretty obvious.  While probably not the defensive stalwart that Greg Popovich would like, Miller's offensive skills, especially his 3pt proficiency would make him an immediately valuable asset to the team.  He'd easily slide into Michael Finley's starting slot and perhaps enable Pop to go back to the rested 6th man Manu scheme.  Either way, he's pretty flexible within the roster.  So why for the T'Wolves?  Beyond the obvious financial reasons, though we're not sure if McHale is trying to save money or not, Oberto gives the Wolves a big that plays center, but also has the range to stay out of the paint on offense, which I think would help out Jefferson a lot.  Finley is an expiring wing-player, who at the very least, can't be worse than starting tandem forwards of Craig Smith and Ryan Gomes, and should they get Bruce Bowen, he'll tide them over until Corey Brewer gets back, and either becomes trade bait, or can be a defensive mentor to Brewer.  It gives the Spurs some instance offense (which they needed last year).  With George Hill playing as well as he is, Jacque Vaughn is now highly expendable, especially since Roger Mason can handle the ball as well.  

That's my take, and my deal to make the Spurs better, I really don't see much of a future for Mike Miller with the T'Wolves, and honestly, I think it's a waste of good talent.  

If the T'Wolves were willing to take on more salary to try to make their team more effective over the next couple of years, trades for Samuel Dalembert, Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby, or Brad Miller would work money-wise as well.  Of course, there are questions as to whether or not players like Dalembert and Kaman could coexist on the floor with Jefferson.

Dunno, makes sense in my head.