HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

In today’s edition of the NBA At 2: Blazers becoming a hot topic in trade rumors…Just how good is Andre Miller?…With Rudy Gay injured Grizzlies have decisions to make…NBA Chats.

Bill Ingram is tackling All-Star Weekend 2011 in Los Angeles and will be back Tuesday.

Blazer Rumors Explode: Over the majority of the first half of the NBA season the buzz around Portland has been quiet when it came to trade rumors. General Manager Rich Cho has played things very close to the vest and despite everyone’s best attempt to get some dirt Portland has kept things locked down.

Until today.

The thing with rumors is they can come from either side of a deal and most teams aren’t nearly as buttoned up as Portland has become with Cho. The leaks on the other end of the talks mean not only is Portland gearing up for potentially multiple moves at the deadline, but also those talks are becoming more serious.

One of the rumors hitting the mill today has Portland talking with Philadelphia for center Marreese Speights. The word out of Philly is Portland offered forward Dante Cunningham and a second-round pick for Speights, but the Sixers weren’t excited by the offer.

Portland has a $2.29 million Traded Player Exception from their deal with New Orleans for Jerryd Bayless earlier in the year and they would have to use that to acquire Speights. Cunningham makes only $788k and the pick has no dollar value in a trade, so the TPE would need to be used to acquire Speights’ $1.77 million contract. Then it would become two small trades, with Cunningham going east on the minimum salary exception (minimum salary players can always be traded/acquired).

Again, it should be noted Philly wasn’t excited, but it means Portland is looking for a big man.

The second rumor of the day is much more in the mega-trade category. The New Jersey Nets and Blazers had talks earlier ancillary to the Nets-Denver Nuggets talks surrounding Carmelo Anthony and according to Al Iannazzone of The Record (note, again, this comes from the New Jersey side) those talks have started again.

The key components of the deal are point guards Andre Miller and Devin Harris (more on Miller below), but Jersey has interest in trading Travis Outlaw and Portland has interest in Anthony Morrow (Morrow is a Base Year Contract player because he was signed and traded from the Golden State Warriors coming off a minimum salary deal). Other names being mentioned are Portland center Joel Przybilla and Portland reserve guard Rudy Fernandez.

The word is New Jersey isn’t that thrilled about the play of Harris – five years Miller’s junior – but in reality this is a money move. Harris, Outlaw, and Morrow count for $20 million this year and $20.3 million for the 2011-12 season. In contrast, Miller, Przybilla, and Fernandez count for $15.9 million this season and – potentially, if Miller’s team option is declined – only Fernandez’s $2.2 million next season, effectively cutting off $18 million in obligations for the Nets.

It would also clearly make the Blazers luxury tax payers this season, barring any other moves; as of now they sit right on the edge.

And what about on the floor? For the Nets it wouldn’t matter much – Fernandez can replace some of what they lose in Morrow, but it’s about the money. Portland would get younger at point guard, Morrow would be an improvement in consistency over Fernandez, and Outlaw would add depth (albeit at $7 million per season for four more years, a deal ridiculous when it made and the Nets seem to be realizing that). Would it make them better this season? Probably not.

Portland, Philadelphia, and New Jersey fans, what do you think about the rumors?

Andre Miller Conundrum: Andre Miller is not a warm and fuzzy kind of player. He’d prefer not to be interviewed and he’s not one to sugarcoat things when he does speak; he likes his privacy. Miller is also very misunderstood as a result, so when he says something like he "doesn’t care" if he gets traded, it gets construed as him not liking Portland when in reality that’s his way of addressing the fact he can’t do anything about it so why address it?

John Canzano of The Oregonian had a very interesting column on Miller earlier this week talking about how what Miller brings to a team isn’t obvious until he’s been around a team for awhile. His teammates love him, he makes them better (ask LaMarcus Aldridge). He’s smart, he makes good decisions, and even if he isn’t a good outside shooter he comes to play hard – every single game.

{AUTHOR_BOX}So while the Portland Trail Blazers weigh whether or not to trade their point guard, it’s important to keep in mind how essential Miller is to the chemistry the team has built this season in the face of adversity. Injuries to key players like Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, and Marcus Camby could have torpedoed their season, but instead Miller has helped turn Aldridge into a dominant force and the Blazers are currently the five seed in the Western Conference.

It begs the question: just how good is Andre Miller?

He’s never been an All-Star. In six appearances he has never been out of the first round of the playoffs with Denver, Philadelphia, and Portland. He has played for five teams.

If that’s all you knew about Miller, the safe assumption would be he is a journeyman player. Perhaps a solid one, but a journeyman nonetheless.

Did you know Miller currently, at 34 years old, sits 16th all-time in NBA history in assists? If he doesn’t miss any more games this season – and Miller doesn’t miss games – he will break 7,000 for his career and pass Hall of Famer Bob Cousy for 14th all-time (see the list at Basketball Reference). His career average for assists per game is 7.2. Say he plays only two more seasons, 80 games per season, and averages 7.0 assists a game – he will pass Rod Strickland and sit behind Gary Payton for ninth on the all-time list. He’ll probably play longer than that.

Why is this interesting? Because from Payton up to the top of the list those are Hall of Famers. Payton isn’t in yet, but he’s a shoo-in. Steve Nash and Jason Kidd are ahead of Miller too, but they are still playing and also first-ballot Hall of Famers. Mark Jackson isn’t in yet, but he should be.

Are Miller’s best days behind him at his age? Probably, but he is still a very, very effective player. How Miller never made an All-Star team is an excellent question (then again, neither did Strickland), but when his career numbers put him in that company as a point guard, it begs the question:

Is Andre Miller one of the best point guards ever? A Hall of Famer? Or, at the very least, perhaps we can all agree he is vastly underrated? And, perhaps, it’s best to think about the whole package when the Blazers discuss whether or not to trade him; not just his $7.3 million contract with a team option for next year.

What say you about the career of Andre Miller? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

What’s Next, Memphis? With the Memphis Grizzlies cruising – five games over .500 and winners of 12 of their last 15 games – they heard some very bad news yesterday afternoon: forward Rudy Gay will be out for at least four weeks with a shoulder injury.

The Grizzlies are in a good position. They sit in ninth place in the West, but the three teams in front of them – the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz (whom they are tied with record-wise), and New Orleans Hornets – are struggling and Memphis has closed the gap to where they sit just 1.5 games behind fifth place Portland. Four weeks means Gay will miss nine games, minimum. That schedule isn’t too bad – five home, four away, seven against current playoff teams – but losing perhaps their most dynamic player for that length of time at this point in the season could be a killer.

The timing really couldn’t be worse. Yes, one week is the All-Star Break, but the trade deadline comes right behind that and the Grizzlies won’t have time to evaluate whether they need to make a trade or not. There were rumors they were willing to entertain offers on power forward Zach Randolph and his $17.3 million expiring contract, but with Gay out he is their best player hands down. Trading Randolph now, with Gay out, could undermine all they have built so far.

It’s more likely the Grizzlies choose to weather the storm, unless they still want to trade guard O.J. Mayo for a piece they think can help them now. On the other hand, with Gay out perhaps keeping Mayo and giving him many of Gay’s minutes, sliding Sam Young to small forward, could be an answer as well.

Gay records 40.0 minutes, 20.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.67 steals, and 1.08 blocks a night – replacing that production will not be easy.

All-Star Note: Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans will miss Friday’s Rookie Challenge with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. He has been replaced on the Sophomore team by guard James Harden of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

NBA Chats: Joel Brigham, based in Chicago and covering the Bulls as well as the rest of the NBA, takes your questions Thursday at 4:30pm Eastern. Lang Greene, based in Atlanta, takes your questions Thursday evening at 8pm Eastern Time.  All the upcoming chats can be seen here – and all the chat wraps are here.