The Miller situation from a Miller fan perspective

Short recap.

Andre Miller, through his agent, says he wants to stay in Philly.

“Andre has a strong interest, a strong desire to come back”.

Ed Stefanski likes Andre Miller and thinks Sixers are a better team WITH him.

Ricky has always been a great fan of Andre Miller too and would like to have him back next year. And the year after.

In the meantime, the first day of free agency in the NBA was extremely interesting, with Pistons throwing crazy money at Ben Gordon & Villanueva (!), Clippers getting Q Rich for Zach Randolph (!!) – another proof that the “There must be a reason why they are GMs in the NBA and you are just a blogger” is wrong – and Portland reportedly close to make a huge offer to Turkoglu.

Rumors pile up, and since we are talking PGs, the three year offer ready for 36 y/o Kidd is the most shocking one to me, especially coming from a team in rebuilding mode like New York.

Back to Sixers’ PG situation, if the request of 30 millions for 3 years reported by Tom Moore is true, I would say ‘goodbye Andre’.

I assume the Dalembert+Green-for-McGrady trade will not go down, so Sixers have to mantain their flexibility for the summer of 2011, when with Dalembert, Green and newly acquired Kapono coming off the books they will have around 23 millions in expiring contracts.

So the third year, in any Miller deal, should be a TEAM option. Which of course the Millers (Andre & Andy, his agent) will be reluctant to accept.

Any two year deal with Andre Miller is fine for me. I’d leave the GM to decide the amount of $: 16, 18 millions? You pick, I think those would be fair deals for current NBA standards. With two more years of Andre, Jrue Holiday will have the chance to grow as a PG – with Miller as tutor – and (hopefully) be ready to take the helm in 2011.

There might be another possibility: sign Miller for ONE year. For a higher amount of money, perhaps. 10 millions? 11? I would like that, also. Then again, that’s not what Miller & Miller are looking for, but one year from now the situation might be totally different and surely there could be more options for a very good PG like Andre.

There are two facts that can play a role during the (long, they say) negotiations with Miller:

1) the US economy. But we have seen different signs in this sense. For all the Boozers & Korvers (wisely) picking up their player options for next year, you see Portland on its way to give a 30 y/o player a (too) large five year deal, NY willing to sign a free agent until he will turn 39 (that would make Darrell Armostrong look like a rookie), or a franchise UNDER the cap, that seemed to be in financial troubles – and uninterested in seriously making the team better – adding a loser like Randolph and his 35 millions owed for the next two years. The NBA is crazy. 

2) the boatload of PGs just landed in the NBA through the draft (9 in the first round). This can help the Sixers. Not saying every rookie will start and kick out the former starter, but, you know, a lot of teams now have many options for the spot and can entertain trades.

A solid veteran like Miller will always find a job and get paid big $ for it, but maybe his requests will be downsized a bit. This year, I mean.

To sum it up, I think Sixers are better off WITH Miller, but not at any price. I have faith Stefanski will do the right choice.

Yes, Miller has his well known flaws (defense vs quicker opponents, 3 pt shooting etc) but watching the team WITHOUT him has always been a pretty awful show. I like his silent leadership, the ability to always make the better choice, the clutchness.

We need him to continue in our process of growth, and I think Thad Young, Speights, Jason Smith, Lou Williams and the same Iguodala will greatly benefit by playing another year with Miller.

NOTES: I received an email announcing that on July the 4th there will be this ‘The best dunker in Philly’ event.

We are setting up an outdoor basketball court on Ben Franklin Parkway between 21st and 22nd this Saturday (July 4th), and will begin the competition at 4pm.  The event is FREE and is part of the “Party on the Parkway” event already happening that day.  (Btw…I heard Sheryl Crow and The Roots are doing a free concert that night!)

If anyone is interested, it should be fun. For me, getting there is a little complicated (LOL).

Reportedly, former Sixers Marc Jackson & Reggie Evans will NOT compete in the contest 🙂