What the Loss of Mike Miller Really Means
So Mike Miller is out with a thumb injury on his shooting hand at least until January. That may prove to be a big blow at first glance, but when you look at the Miami HEAT's roster that may not be as big of a deal as one might think.
What the HEAT need are spot-up shooters that will literally camp out on the perimeter. Mike Miller isn't exactly a spot-up shooter. He's a versatile swingman who is capable of creating his own shot. Many people tend to forget that it was Pau Gasol and Mike Miller leading that pack of that Memphis Grizzlies squad that won 50 games not too long ago. And in the past few years he's been jerked around while playing for bad teams that have not fully utilized his talents. While his numbers may look as though he's dropped in production (and thus ability, as well), the truth of the matter is that his terrific shooting and passing abilities are still there. His offensive rating is still fantastic for a guy who has been getting inconsistent minutes with three different squads since his career year where he averaged 18.5 ppg on 46.0% shooting.
However, none this really matters. Why? Because there aren't enough touches to go around for Mike Miller to play on a near-all star level again. When you have LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on your team, you don't exactly want anyone taking more shots than those three guys. And while Miller is a very talented player, it's spot-up shooters that the HEAT really need and not another ball-handler to set up the offense.
Having defenses worry such a great deal about Miami's big dogs is going to space the floor for the 3-point shooters to thrive. It is the star players that make the role players better and vice versa. Guys like Eddie House, Carlos Arroyo and James Jones who are all pretty much end of the bench rotation guys are going to look like solid rotation players with the open looks they will be getting in the regular season. I like to call this the "Jameer Nelson Effect". Jameer Nelson was never really considered a great point guard until Hedo Turkoglu joined Orlando's starting until and became the primary ball-handler. With defenses focusing so much on Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, they allowed Nelson to shoot lights-out from beyond the arc. Suddenly, Nelson was taking twices as many 3PA's and his 3-point shooting skyrocked from 41.6% the previous year to 45.3% the year Turkoglu was promoted to the starting lineup.
I would imagine that we're going to see similar gains in at least one of the HEAT players mentioned above this season. And with those guys getting most of Miller's touches in his absence we'll get to see just how important they really are to Miami's squad. They may not have had the same opportunities with Miller healthy, so this could be a blessing in disguise for the HEAT. And this situation might make them all the more dangerous.
