7/31 ESPN Insider - Clips won't match on miller (Yawn )

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Clippers may start over at point -- again
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Thursday, July 31
Updated: July 31
11:51 AM ET


Sometime tonight, the Los Angeles Clippers might have their third starting point guard in three years. and Andre Miller might be starting for his third team in that same amount of time.

The Clippers must decide by midnight ET if they are going to match the $51 million offer sheet Miller signed with the Denver Nuggets 15 days ago. The value of the deal could balloon to $55 million with incentives and is already frontloaded with a $14.5 million payout before Miller ever takes the floor.

For the Clippers, the point guard progression the past three seasons reads Jeff McInnis, Miller and maybe Keyon Dooling or Marco Jaric running an offense for the franchise's third coach in that span.


For Miller, it will be from Cleveland to Los Angeles to Denver, playing for teams that won 32 games in 1999-2000, 30 games in 2000-01, 29 games in 2001-02 and 27 games in 2002-03.

Vindication hangs in the balance for both of them.

"We're still looking for a couple shooters and maybe a big man," Nugget GM Vandeweghe said in the Rocky Mountain News with rumors already flying that Stephen Jackson of the defending champion San Antonio Spurs wants to join Denver if Miller is there. "I would love to have had it done yesterday. You have to make sure you're patient about it. You have to pick your spots. Hopefully we get lucky with Andre."

And, hopefully for him, Andre gets lucky with them as several media sources are expecting the Clippers to let the deadline pass without making a move.

In 2001-02, Miller had his best year as a pro, averaging 16.5 points per game, leading the league with 10.9 assists and shooting 45 percent from the field.

In 2002-03, Miller regressed for the first time in his career, his scoring falling to 13.6 points per game, his assists dipping to 6.7 per game and his shooting finally leveling off at 40 percent for the season.

The difference, though, had little to do with him. He was a product of his surroundings, and while it may be difficult to tell the difference between a Cleveland team that won 29 games and an L.A. team that won 27 games the next, the difference meant everything to Miller.

In his last year in Cleveland, Miller was the point guard. Period. He handled the ball. He did the dribbling, the passing and directed the offense. And, as mentioned, his 10.9 assists led the league -- no other Cavalier averaged more than 2.3.

Power forward Tyrone Hill led the team in rebounding average with 10.5 per game while no other Cleveland player averaged more than 6. When on the floor, Hill grabbed more than 25 percent of the missed shots for a team that combined for only 42.1 percent shooting.

To Miller's right and to his left were always Lamond Murray, the team's leading scorer, and Wesley Person, the team's best shooter. Between the three of them, they would lead the Cavs in scoring in 58 of 82 regular season games. That's 70 percent of the time that Miller knew who would be scoring.

Murray and Person would go on to make 244 of the team's 387 3-pointers while shooting a tidy 42 percent and 44 percent, respectively, from long distance.

The Cavs' top five scorers missed only 45 games combined all season with the oft-injured Zydrunas Ilgauskus accounting for 20 of them by himself. But Miller knew about Ilgauskus' history going into the season.

That was the team. For good or for bad, everybody had a role, everybody knew their role, and Miller flourished in it.

Last season, Miller was a point guard on probation. Maybe the Clippers would re-sign the soon to be restricted free agent or maybe they wouldn't after trading away fan favorite Darius Miles just to get him in the first place.

In a tumultuous season, the Clippers ended up starting 15 different players. Miller was the only stabilizing factor, playing in a team-high 80 games. His backup, Jaric, played in the third most with 66. Little used Sean Rooks was second with 70.

The other four starters missed a total of 117 games.

As a result, the team had 10 different leading scorers, the most consistent being Corey Maggette, who once led the team in scoring for seven consecutive games, by far the longest streak of the season, only to see the team lose six of those games.

There were five different players who made between 42 and 62 3-pointers on the season, and no one on the team made more than 80.

Michael Olowokandi sometimes led them in rebounding, when he wasn't sulking. Elton Brand sometimes led them in rebounding when he wasn't rehabbing.

By the final month of the season, the Clippers had five different leading scorers in a span of nine games and a locker room full of players about to become restricted free agents -- including Brand, Odom, Maggette and Miller -- and one, Olowokandi, about to become an unrestricted free agent.

That was an entire starting rotation in flux, and Miller failed miserably to lead it.

The end of today will, most likely, mark a new beginning for both the Clippers and Andre Miller.

The Clippers will look to stabilize a troubled franchise by spending a lot of money on a lot of players that don't include Miller. Miller will try to stabilize a career by going to a team that won only 17 games last season.

We'll soon know a little bit more about both of their futures. In 82 games, we'll know even more.