Sixer-by-Sixer 07/08 breakdown: Andre Miller

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

Sixers4guidos starts its player-by-player analysis of the season with the guy who in my humble opinion should receive the ‘Sixers MVP award’, point guard Andre Miller.

OVERALL EFFICIENCY AND RATE

Miller had arguably the best season of his career.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you should know I am not a stat maniac, but his 17 PPG and .492 % FG (both career highs) are pretty impressive, especially coming at 32 y/o. 

Seven assists for 2.5 turnovers is a nice ratio as well, considering he plays 36 minutes in an up tempo team.

He’s always been known more as a playmaker than a scorer, but this year we saw that in the right system he can be also a reliable #2 option for his team, carrying the load offensively in many nights. He often knocked down clutch shots down the stretch, which never hurts….

My rate for Andre Miller is 9 (scale is from 1 to 10, being 10 the top).

WHAT HE DID WELL

Basically all: leadership, scoring, passing, shooting, rebounding, in that order.

Dude played in 733 of his possible 736 games in the NBA (!!!), is solid as a rock (knock on wood) and a great presence in the locker room. He’s one of the best players to set up his team mates in the NBA. Alley oops, passes from the dribble, passes for the man coming off screens are his bread-and-butter.

He also gives Sixers the best low post presence offensively, which is sad and true at the same time, but not for Andre’s fault !!!

WHAT HE DID WRONG

Not much, honestly. He notoriously has troubles guarding smaller, quicker opponents that like to drive to the hoop (Chris Paul and Deron Williams had fantastic nights vs Sixers), but I challenge you to name me a player that can limit the guys I mentioned…

Billups killed him in the last two games of the playoffs, but Miller gave him the same treatment in the first games, so I’d say INDIVIDUALLY that particular match up ended with a tie. He surely didn’t come up short in the post season.

THIS SUMMER PLEASE WORK ON…

Uhm, can a guy get better at 32 y/o ? Maybe he could work on getting in a better shape for the start of the season, he usually starts slow, for his own admission.

WHAT TO DO WITH HIM

Keep him, he was the key of Sixers’ successful season…. I think only Calderon will be an upgrade over Andre Miller right now, but I doubt Raptors will let him go.

Unlike many Sixers fans, who think he’s more of a SG, in my opinion Lou Williams CAN play the point full time, but he still has to learn from Miller… that’s why I say wait at least one more season with Andre at the helm, keeping Lou coming off the bench, and see if he can improve his playmaking skills seeing what Andre does. 

Then, if it will be clear that Lou can’t/will not play PG, extend Miller even after 2009.

People who want to trade Andre MIller now should remember that his 10 mill coming off the books in the summer of 2009 will be even more that the current asset later, when we’ll approach next year’s trade deadline….

(Up next: Willie Green)