Without any doubts, this year’s off-season has been a rather disappointing experienc for the Portland Trailblazers. Despite going after Hedo Turkoglu with all their cap space, the latter preferred to play in Toronto due to the city’s relatively big Turkish community. Afterwards, GM Kevin Pritchard targeted Utah’s dynamic power forward Paul Millsap but the Jazz matched the Blazers’ offer for their restricted free agent.

One concern throughout the 2008-09 season was the struggling performance of Portland’s point guards. More specifically, starting 1-guard Steve Blake is a valuable player but not really a playmaker that would be able to create open shots for his teammates night in and night out. Therefore, the Portland Trailblazers contacted unrestricted free agent Andre Miller who was not satisfied with the one-year $6 million offer from the Philadelphia 76ers. Both parties were able to agree on a three-year $21 million contract for the 33-year old veteran point guard. Throughout his ten years in the NBA he averaged 14.6 points, 7.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game. Even more remarkable than his performance is the fact that he only missed three games in his entire career and currently leads the NBA with 530 straight appearances. Last year, Miller put up 16.3 points and 6.5 assists per contest for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Considering the way Andre Miller likes to run the offense he can be expected to be an excellent fit for the Trailblazers. Firstly, the Blazers are one of the youngest teams in the league and will certainly benefit from the veteran leadership provided by Miller. Furthermore, he should be able to take some pressure off franchise player Brandon Roy who will not be forced to do more ball-handling than necessary. Likewise, Portland has excellent three point shooters such as Rudy Fernandez, Jerryd Bayless and Steve Blake. Therefore, Miller’s poor shooting beyond the arc should not be an issue for the Blazers’ offense.

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