Miller is a much better rebounder than Barry
Miller has the ability to play four positions, and he does duplicate some of the skills that Barry has which makes me less apprehensive about trading Barry for him. With Damon in the fold and the rest of the west moving away from small ball, there is less of an immediate need to pull the trigger on a Miller deal. However, we are going to need someone to play after this season, and Millers deal fits perfectly in the next cap space scheme. I would probably do it.
Chump is right here, but is Miller available?
I think Miller's rebounding and playmaking is underrated.
He is much more than just a 3-point bomber.
Miller > Barry now and in the future. I'm all for keeping Barry around unless the Spurs can get a vastly better player. Miller is vastly better.
Plus, you have to factor in Barry's injuries. Even after he came back from his first calf injury, he wasn't moving too well and his shooting suffered. Now that he hurt the same calf twice, there's a definite chance he won't be fully healthy at any point this season. 36-year-old guards don't tend to bounce back from injuries very fast ... especially repeated injuries.
I don't want the Spurs to trade Barry just to trade him but if you can get a guy like Miller who can shoot, has a variety of talents and has a decent enough contract, you do it. Miller is pretty close to the perfect fourth wheel on this team and after seeing him play with Team USA this summer, I'm even more confident that he'd fit the role as a hired gun perfectly.
Good to see that Bruno acknowledges the existence of The 2010 Plan. And yes, as you said, this trade deadline is hugely important to the Spurs. If they make a trade that hurts them a little bit in the short term but helps them over the next two years, I'll understand. After the trade deadline passes, the Spurs flexibility will all but disappear until the summer of 2010. That's a long time to wait.
This summer the Spurs will have a lot of expiring contracts but they won't be able to do much if they are intent at opening up room for a maximum contract in 2010. What they'll have is an MLE contract for two-years available (that'll probably work out to be something like a two-year, $13M contract). With that type of contract, the only type of player you can hope to land is a washed up veteran looking for one last contract.
If the Spurs want to add a talented young player to the mix, they have to do so now. Otherwise, the alternative is to wait two and a half years until the flexibility returns.
The 2010 Plan? Are you serious.
How about we call it the The 20/10 Plan, because only hindsight is 20/20.
Who we gonna woo in 2010?
Rasho?
Question.
The plan is to woo the players that will comprise perhaps the best free agent class in NBA history that includes the like of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
But yeah, the Spurs will probably end up signing some scrub like Andrea Bargnani.
You take Miller over Barry in a heartbeat, Miller adds a lot now and in the future, but has there even been an inkling that Memphis is shopping him?
You're probably right.
For once.
We went after Kidd, Brand and J. O'Neal and came away with Rasho.
Same diff.
And stop misquoting me.
A few blocks does not make Bargnani the next Mark Eaton.
Since the Grizz are for sale and currently hemorrhaging money, one could conclude that any cost cutting move would be attractive to them.
So, no, Mike Miller is still not available.
Damn, I hate getting my hopes up on personnel, as I have publicly many times on this board. Miller would be a perfect steal and fit at this moment.
I'm pretty sure that dumping Miller for an expiring deal or 2 would be a cost-cutting move.
No dummy. The Grizzlies are for sale and are losing $20-25 million this season and just made a trade that will assure they are going to suck for years to come.
It makes perfect sense to pay Mike Miller $19 million to play on a horrible team while it is on the auction block. In fact, the thought of paying him $19 million will make the team MORE attractive to potential buyers.
Think outside the box!
Okay, guys.
So because you say Memphis is still in a cost-cutting mode, Mike Miller is available after they traded Gasol and Swift and waived D. Stoudamire.
Good enough for me.
Please post the link when he is traded.
The one thing stopping the Spurs would be that he makes $9 million next year and then one more. That's a chunk for your fourth guy.
True enough. It would keep the Spurs from spending most of their MLE next season, but most of the roster spots could be filled by Splitter and the new picks.
Nowhere does it say that Memphis is shopping M. Miller and it seems unlikely after they just moved three (3) players in the past week.
And then there's that.
Nice player, though.
Heisley is trying to sell the team. The more contracts he can get off the books, the more valuable the team will become on the market.
That said, there will probably be a pretty huge market for Miller. The only advantage the Spurs may have is their expiring contracts and their willingness to throw in draft picks. A trade for Miller isn't likely but it makes a lot of sense.
Here are other players who would fit with The 2010 Plan as far as taking on a bad yet short-term contract and who the Spurs would have to give up to get them to make salaries match:
Joe Smith (Brent Barry)
Jeff Foster (Brent Barry)
Cuttino Mobley (Brent Barry and Francisco Elson)
Tim Thomas (Brent Barry)
Udonis Haslem (Brent Barry)
Desmond Mason (Brent Barry)
Jamaal Magloire + Nenad Krstic (Brent Barry)
Rasual Butler (Francisco Elson)
Andre Miller (Brent Barry and Francisco Elson)
Ron Artest (Brent Barry and Francisco Elson)
Brad Miller (Brent Barry and Francisco Elson)
Mikki Moore (Brent Barry)
Earl Watson (Brent Barry)
Chris Wilcox (Brent Barry)
Damien Wilkins (Francisco Elson)
Wally Szczerbiak (Brent Barry, Francisco Elson and Jacque Vaughn)
Jason Kapono (Brent Barry)
Antonio Daniels (Brent Barry)
Brendon Haywood (Brent Barry)
Obviously I wouldn't approve of all these trades but these are the types of trades the Spurs could look at.
If anything the Spurs are risk-averse. What if Miller doesn't work out? They have an albatross around their neck, a guy making as much as Ginobili does.
Granted, _I_ don't see any big reasons it wouldn't work out - someone has mentioned his good play for Team USA and for all intents and purposes he sounds like a solid teammate - but $9million seems to push well past the F.O.'s realm of tolerance.
It's that time of year again. I'll be pulling this one out of the rack today:
How long did we have Steve Smith on the books?
Really this is the only deal that jumped out at me given the two teams' respective situations and Miller's talent. Trades are never easy to pull off, it's just that this season there are more possibilities than the Spurs usually have. I figure as long as the Spurs can stay under the tax threshold and still have the 2010 plan online, they can do a trade like this.
None of those appeal as much as Miller. Okay, maybe a guy like Haywood, but doesn't Washington keep him?
Someone upthread was making the claim that only a handful of teams have the expiring contracts to offer Memphis for Miller. There's a yahoo article about Danny Ferry trying to pry him away from the Grizzlies, but all his bad contracts, the Damon Jones types, are expiring next season, not this one.
Miller would be a ridiculously good fit, IMO, which is not to say a 100% shot at success. Granted, he'd not play the extended minutes he is now playing, which are about 37 mpg or so, and so his stats would decrease, and he's historically never shot at such excellent percentages as he now is shooting at, but the guy is 28, is athletic, seems like a smart ball player who is team-centric, and he's a dynamite shooter. He'd instantly solve a lot of the problems we've had scoring the ball; he's an excellent spot shooter, but can also get his own shots. Not to mention he's pretty familiar with Stoudamire by now.
Talking about Tyrus Thomas is one thing - he's intriguing, but there's a lot of flaws. Mike Miller would be the low radar kind of move that would pivot against the Gasol/Shaq trades excellently. It's just that price tag - and whether Memphis is selling.
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