Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “McMillan said he doesn’t recall the Blazers being in the market for Miller last winter, but he does remember Miller during the team’s January stop in Philadelphia. As the Blazers arrived at the 76ers’ practice facility for a workout, it was shortly after Philadelphia had finished their practice. The rest of the 76ers players had left the facility, but Miller loitered around the locker room door. ‘He stood there and watched us,’ McMillan said. ‘It was as if he was checking us out. For like five, 10 minutes, he just looked at us and observed as we got taped up and put our shoes on. All of our coaches remember that. … It was like he was seeing if he fit our team.’ Six months later, over dinner in Las Vegas, McMillan and Pritchard got their chance to see if Miller would fit. According to McMillan, the conversation was open, and Pritchard remembers being stunned at how much Miller talked. McMillan said Miller addressed the knocks on his game — poor shooting, lack of playoff success, and whether age has affected his defense. ‘He was honest,’ McMillan said. ‘But we felt comfortable with all the things we heard.’”
Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus: “Miller brings plenty of skills; he rated by my system as the second-best offensive free agent on the market. His ability to create, both as a scorer and as a distributor, means he will bring the Blazers an added dimension when Brandon Roy is either on the bench or is limited by aggressive defense as he was in the series with the Rockets. The problem is what happens when Roy is on the floor and has the ball in his hands. Away from the ball, Miller is much more limited. He is famously not a three-point shooter. He made 15 threes a year ago, and that was a breakout year–Miller combined for 19 triples the previous four seasons. Even a step inside the arc, Miller isn’t much of a shooter. He hit 40.9 percent of his long twos, per NBA.com’s HotSpots. By contrast, incumbent Blazers point guard Steve Blake was a 48.0 percent shooter on long twos in addition to his 140 three-pointers at a 42.7 percent clip. With Miller at the point, the floor will be smaller for the rest of the Blazers as defenses can offer help in the paint with relative impunity.”
Chad Ford and Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com: “Before they committed to Miller, the Blazers made a strong push for the Knicks’ David Lee, a power forward. On Tuesday night, Blazers coach Nate McMillan and front-office executives Pritchard and Tom Penn had dinner with Lee in Las Vegas to make their recruiting pitch. One source said the Blazers offered Lee a variety of options, including an opt-out clause that would have made him an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2011. But the Knicks and Portland could not agree in discussions Thursday on any kind of a sign-and-trade deal, and the Blazers did not want to risk losing Miller over the seven-day waiting period had they chosen to use their cap space to tender an offer sheet to Lee, which New York would have had the right to match. Lee, attending Team USA’s minicamp in Las Vegas, confirmed the Tuesday night recruiting meeting and said he was intrigued by the possibility of playing for Portland, although he never thought a deal was close.”
Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post: “Flip Saunders was on with the Sportsy Junkies this week, and was asked which Eastern Conference team made itself mo’ betterest between the Magic, the Cavs and the Celtics. His answer was the Wizards. ‘I think the other three teams, when you look at the end of the year, their records will not be any better and probably worse than they were last year,’ he said. One of the Junks mentioned the Shaq experiment in Phoenix. ‘How’d that work out in Phoenix?’ Saunders asked rhetorically. ‘It’s totally different when you have a center that’s in the paint all the time, because there’s someone there always for help. They’ve always played their best, in Cleveland, when they’ve had the ability to spread the floor and have openings for LeBron.’ So Wise conveyed these general sentiments, with perhaps a little more enthusiasm, to Shaq. ‘Flip Saunders should have said what I did to him when I busted his ass earlier,’ Shaq replied, more or less. ‘I remember all comments, I’m taking all comments. I’ll see him very soon. Keep after Haywood, keep after McGee, because I’m coming.’”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Until Friday, the concept of Michael Beasley at small forward mostly was an abstract, one that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra carefully attempted to steer clear from. But then the Heat allowed Jamario Moon to leave for the Cavaliers and was left with the middling cast of James Jones, Yakhouba Diawara and Dorell Wright at the position. Amid the damage control, Heat President Pat Riley noted, ‘Michael Beasley will be getting significant minutes at both forward positions and this opens up more opportunities for him to become the player we all expect him to be.’ So that’s all it took to inject Beasley into a more significant role: the departure of Jamario Moon? Who would have thought? In discussing Beasley at small forward, Spoelstra has been guarded about overstating the possibility. Even Beasley was cautious at the end of the recent summer camp at AmericanAirlines Arena. But now Riley has entered the equation.”
Pete Thamel of The New York Times: “In the past, players would not try out for USA Basketball because they were afraid of the hit to their ego and image that being cut or being named an alternate would bring them. ‘If you develop this and we bring in 15 and 18 guys, it would be an honor to be an alternate,’ Krzyzewski said. When USA Basketball has success at the top, there is a trickle-down effect, too. Sean Ford, USA Basketball’s national team director, is still giddy over the program’s Under 19 world championship victory in New Zealand over the summer. USA Basketball won the title for the first time in 18 years with a team of players who had little name recognition but blended well. Many of them weren’t even the best player on their college team the previous year. Ford’s hope is that the United States can build its credibility in world basketball by winning the 17-and-under championships next year and the 2010 world championship in Turkey. USA Basketball has not won a world championship since 1994. ‘If we take care of business, we could be the reigning champion in all three of FIBA’s major world competitions at one time,’ Ford said. ‘I don’t think that’s ever happened.’”
Rob Miech of the Las Vegas Sun: “When Colangelo, the chairman of USA Basketball, and Krzyzewski compare notes about this mini-camp, both will include Durant in the first line of their status reports. The 6-foot-11 guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder started out strong Thursday afternoon at Valley High and didn’t let up. In three 10-minute scrimmages Friday, Durant led everyone with an unofficial 15 points, on 5-for-9 shooting. He made all five of his attempts from the line. ‘He has had two outstanding seasons in the NBA,’ Colangelo said. ‘He’s determined that he’s a player to be reckoned with. He has separated himself, and that shouldn’t be a surprise. He’s showing a lot more, overall, in his game and leadership, and I like that.’ Krzyzewski also raved about Durant. ‘He’s a world-class talent with a world-class attitude,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘He’s a very unique player, a perimeter player at 6-11. I was impressed with his defense (Thursday). Going forward, we want length. We may not have bulk, but if we have length that’s a good thing. He gives us good length.’”
Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Derrick Rose has had a battle on his hands in Las Vegas as Team USA wraps up its minicamp at 8 p.m. today with an intrasquad scrimmage at the Thomas & Mack Center. New Jersey’s Devin Harris and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, his primary competition, have looked good in the first two days. Charlotte’s D.J. Augustin played well Friday, so Rose knows he has to raise his level of play to remain in the hunt. ‘I’ve got to be a little more aggressive, especially at the defensive end,’ Rose said. ‘It’s a more physical game in international ball, so it’s different. But I still need to play my game, push the ball, make good decisions, knock down the open shots and execute.’ Colangelo said while he thinks Rose has the tools to compete, he faces an uphill climb to make the USA roster. ‘He has a lot of competition,’ Colangelo said. ‘That said, he certainly figures in our minds as an Olympian. He has size. He has strength. He can finish. I’m looking for the other things — his body language, how he relates with his teammates, does he fit what you’re looking for?’”
Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger: “Bruce Ratner inherited a championship team and gutted it. He stumbled into a growing fan base and alienated it. Now, for his final act, he is seeking anyone rich and dumb enough to help him rip the Nets from this community. Congratulations, Bruce. You make the Secaucus Seven look like the Rooney family. The real estate magnate, as first reported in The Star-Ledger, is desperately trying to sell his crumbling vision for Brooklyn to a reclusive billionaire, a Russian businessman and his co-investors. But at some point, don’t you think they’ll ask what, exactly, that vision is? There is no blueprint for his arena. There is no world-class architect designing the complex. There is no financing in place for the project, and there is still the messy matter of the Court of Appeals hearing that, if lost, would sabotage the entire Atlantic Yards deal once and for all. Other than that, it’s a great investment. The team still insists it will call Brooklyn home for the 2011 season, never mind the small detail that somebody still lives in a condo at halfcourt of where he wants to build his arena.”
