Roy officially signs with Blazers, talks championship, addition of Miller

Brandon Roy officially signs a five-year extension with the Portland Trail Blazers. GM Kevin Pritchard called this day "one of the most exciting and important days in Trail Blazers history."

Earlier this offseason, Brandon Roy was asked about the probability of signing an extension with the Portland Trail Blazers. His answer: “I think it’s about 50/50 right now [that a deal gets done].”I, as well as the rest of the Blazers fan base, was taken aback.

Discussions were so rocky with such a differing of opinion that the percentage was as low as a flip of a coin. This was unacceptable and, frankly, hard to believe. Portland’s front office  had to put aside their differences with Roy, meet his demands, and sign him. They had no other choice.

Well, Roy, after reaching an agreement on Wednesday, he officially signed the 5-year, $80 million contract and held a press conference to discuss the extension, the negotiating process, the possibility of winning a championship with the Blazers, as well as the addition of point guard Andre Miller.

On the extension and future goals:

“I just think about all the hard work that I’ve put into this dream. A lot of people think it just happened last season. But this has been a lifelong journey for me. And for me to continue to try and improve each day and each game and (that) it leads to this is great. But again, I always go back to…there’s still something missing… it’s that championship. It’s holding that trophy at the end of the season, knowing that we were the best team. My goal when I came to this organization was to help win a championship. And not just one. But we have to start with one. So I’m excited.”

Did committing to the franchise for five years concern you?

“No it never did. Honestly from my first year being a part of this organization, I knew this is where I wanted to be for a long time. When I was going through the negotiation process, I lot of people thought, ‘Are you sure you want to be locked in that long.’ And I said, ‘Yeah. Portland is where I want to be.’ I don’t know about some of the other superstars; they have ideas about other places. But I couldn’t imagine being anywhere but here in Portland. Our fans are unbelievable. The people who are part of the organization are great. We have a great owner who cares a lot about his team, so it was never a question that I wanted to be anywhere else. So five years was perfect. If I could have done 10, I would have done that.” (Why didn’t General Manager Kevin Pritchard sign him for ten, then?)

On why he was frustrated at the beginning of the negotiating process:

“Just because once the season ended, everybody was telling me your contract is going to be done in July and I think I even got my hopes up a little bit. But when early July came and negotiations began, I think I let my pride get in the way of just letting the process take its course. Both sides have to feel comfortable about the deal and I think we eventually got to that point. It’s hard to go back and say what exactly happened. I’m just happy the end result is I’m a Trail Blazer for a long time and I’m happy with it and I think the organization is.”

Thoughts on keeping young core together, starting with signing LaMarcus Aldridge to a similar extension:

“I think it’s extremely important. Me and LaMarcus came into this league together. It’s funny, we have the same agent, so we started workout out (together) right after college. So we’ve really built a relationship on and off the court that I think has been really important to our early success. I’m excited that I’m finally done, but now it’s time to get LaMarcus signed because I think he’s a huge part of what we’re trying to do. I think he’s a future All-Star for years to come. I think LaMarcus is a big part of my success. On the court because there are a lot of things he does to free my game. He gets me a lot of assists with that jump shot he has. I’m excited about getting LaMarcus done and getting him happy and that way we can continue to move forward with all the guys we have. He’s, again, a big part of our team.”

Thoughts on signing of Miller:

“I’m excited about it. I think Andre Miller was a great pickup…I just love his leadership capabilities and I think when you add a guy of his age and his number of years in the league, that’s what we were missing on this team.I think he is going to get LaMarcus a lot more easier shots. He pushes the ball. But more than anything, I think he’s also going to help Steve Blake. They’re going to push each other every day in practice and now we have Steve or Andre always on the floor. I think this is going to make us a much better team. I’m excited about this season. I thought we did a great job in the offseason. Things don’t always happen as fast as people would like. But you look at things now, I think they are coming around and everyone is excited about this season.”

Pritchard referred to Roy as “the pillar of the franchise.” He was spot on. Roy is the Blazers backbone. So, given his dedication to the team, I can’t help but feel excited not only for the upcoming season, but for the five years that will follow–the five that Roy just signed on for.

Shout it from the rooftops! Roy signs extension with Blazers

Finally! Now Portland Trail Blazers fans can breathe easy knowing their team's star, Brandon Roy, has signed a five-year extension worth $16.7 million per season. He's worth every penny.

Paul Allen is worth $10.5 billion and is regarded as one of the wealthiest people in the world. He co-founded Microsoft and currently owns three professional teams, the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, the MLS’s Seattle Sounders, and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Translation: The Blazers are rich, amongst the wealthiest teams in the league.

So, when star guard Brandon Roy’s agent, Bob Myers, calls Allen and General Manager Kevin Pritchard up and asks that his client receive a 5-year deal worth the maximum, Portland should immediately fork over the millions upon millions, right?

Money wasn’t the issue. It was the length. Roy wanted four years and a player option for a fifth year. Portland balked and was willing to offer four years not only without a player option, but a fifth year altogether. Roy’s camp was puzzled. This was the face of the Blazers franchise they were talking about.

After weeks of ongoing discussions, but no progress, the Blazers front office finally realized how much Roy meant to the team. He has won countless games for Portland and has brought a winning attitude back to a franchise once in turmoil. He is irreplaceable. Allen and Pritchard came to their senses and offered Roy the deal he wanted, the deal he deserved.

Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Blazers and Roy have reached a verbal agreement on a 5-year contract worth between $78 and $82 million. The fifth year, of course, is a player option, meaning he can choose to return for the final year or file for free agency. This is a huge move for Portland, even though, despite some skepticism, it was imminent from the get-go.

Roy won’t enter the final year of his rookie contract this season with doubts about his future with the Blazers. He won’t have the chance to leave after the season and enter an already star-studded 2010 free-agent class. He won’t be distracted. Now, he can just play relaxed and be the star he has become.

Roy’s extension puts him under team control through the 2013-14 season. To me, that is not long enough. He’s that good and that important to their success. Yet, Blazers fans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing their team’s star is staying for the large sum of $16.7 million per season. In basketball money, Roy, nicknamed “The Natural” for obvious reasons, is worth every penny.

Now, with The Natural locked up, the Blazers can focus on signing power-forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who, without a contract, would be entering the final year of his rookie deal. He is equally deserving of a maximum contract, but may have to settle for a deal worth $65-70 million since he’s not quite on Roy’s pedestal. But Portland undoubtedly should learn from the negotiations with Roy and give Aldridge what he wants. After all, they can afford to with the obscenely rich Allen running the cash register.

Pritchard gets his guy: Blazers sign point guard Andre Miller

This offseason, the Portland Trail Blazers have been tossed aside by Hedo Turkoglu, and wasted their time pursuing restricted free-agent Paul Millsap, whose contract offer was matched by the Utah Jazz. General Manager Kevin Pritchard had a hellish first few months, as he watched these two stars, along with many other possibilities, slip through his fingertips. Despite crushing blow after crushing blow, and the fact that talent grew thin, he vowed to stay aggressive, and pursue whoever was deemed a perfect fit. He found that player, someone they have coveted for years: point guard Andre Miller.

Miller, as I wrote here, has his drawbacks: he’s 33 years old, has little playoff experience, and can’t hit the side of a barn from three-point land. Yet, Pritchard and the rest of the Blazers front office saw him as an upgrade at the point guard position, someone of star quality who could take the pressure off stars Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. He saw a player who has missed an unbelievably low three games during his ten-year career. He saw a player that can score 20 points and dish 10 assists when called upon; Miller’s career averages are 14 points and 7 assists per game. He saw a player that can help the Blazers attain their goal: a championship.

After opening discussions with Miller this past week, the guard signed a 3-year, $22 milion contract with Portland. The Blazers worked their magic in negotiating this deal, as the third year is a team option. So, if Miller falters during the 2010-11 season, they can release him from his contract following the season. The Blazers are hoping he’ll work out, and by giving him essentially a two year contract worth $14 million, it’s a low-risk signing that could par immense dividends in the short-term.

Though I have been skeptical of the Blazers pursuit of various point guards this offseason, I really like this deal. Steve Blake was a good player, but the Blazers wanted more scoring and more versatility. Blake shot the three-pointer nearly 15 percent better last season, but with the return of guard Martell Webster, they already have three or four guys who can drain threes on a regular basis. Miller, who has been a starter for his entire career, unlike Blake, could be a valuable mentor to 20-year old guard Jerryd Bayless, who has demonstrated the skills of a scoring guard rather than a point guard.

Because the contract is so small, compared to the 5-years and $53 million Portland offered Turkoglu, it’s a very low-risk, high-reward signing. It also give the Blazers more money to throw at Roy and Aldridge, whose contracts expire at season’s end.

Miller can run a up-tempo offense, though he didn’t necessarily do so with Philadelphia, and is a very good perimeter shooter; despite his lowly three-point percentage of 28 percent, he still managed to shoot 47 percent overall. He’s strong, excels in the post–which is uncanny for a point guard–has a very quick release, and knows his limits. He is also unselfish, so given that the Blazers have so many outside shooters that spread the floor, he will certainly rack up the assists.

Pritchard confirmed the signing, saying “We are excited to add a player of the caliber and character of Andre Miller…He is one of the league’s ironmen who brings a wealth of veteran leadership to our team and is a great fit for our young and improving roster.” It sounds like a good fit to me.

Andre Miller commented on his move to Portland: “I’m really excited for this opportunity with the Trail Blazers and look forward to working with my new team…I hope to provide veteran leadership to a young talented nucleus and help Portland take the next step in the pursuit of a championship.”

After saying all year, on this blog and even more adamantly in my conversations with my father and my cousin Matt, that the Blazers don’t need a point guard, I have officially changed my tune. I am excited, not only because the Blazers were actually able to sign one of their targets, but because that player was Miller, someone who can give them a serious leg-up in the fierce Western Conference.

Pritchard staying aggressive: Blazers in talks with free-agent Miller

Andre Miller is 33 years old. In his current 10-year career, he has never reached the second round of the playoffs. Last year, with the Philadelphia 76ers, he took only fifty-three three-pointers and made just fifteen. He averaged nearly three turnovers per game, and didn’t run a particularly up-tempo style offense. So, why would the Portland Trail Blazers open discussions with him?

Well, he has been a steady scorer in his career, and, given his abysmal three-point shooting, has wisely lived predominately on the mid-range jumper. Because of his successful perimeter game and unselfishness (he averaged nearly seven assists last season, a tad lower than his career mark) he has been a borderline All-Star and very dependable.

Evidently, Portland is desperate to make a big splash, and evidently, they don’t trust Steve Blake, nor are they completely sold on Jerryd Bayless as their point guard of the future.

Blake helped the Blazers win 54 games last season. He averaged 11 points, 5 assists, and was fifth in the NBA among guards with a 3.22 Assist/Turnover Ratio. That’s not good enough for Portland.

They want a veteran, which Blake is. But they want someone who is more veteran, Miller, to replace him, someone that is on his last legs who has something left in the tank. Though this swap of sorts may seem to make little sense, Miller, even at his old age, can lot of things better than Blake: he runs an offense better, runs the pick-and-roll better, shoots better, even if his range is eighteen feet, and has a more versatile game; he posts up, and is more physical.

So, based on his upsides, General Manager Kevin Pritchard may not be as crazy for targeting him as I originally thought. I think the Blazers could improve upon their 54-win season with Blake as their starter, mainly because, overall, he succeeded in their scheme, and forged a substaintial amount of chemistry with teammates that will only get better. But I’m not sure that they could challenge the beasts of the West and make a run in the playoffs with him as their starter.

This is Pritchard’s thinking. Miller would be a gamble, but, like I said when the Blazers were targeting small forward and current Toronto Raptor Hedo Turkoglu, he could take the pressure off Brandon Roy scoring-wise, and be able to consistently answer a run by the opposition with a burst of his own. So, perhaps he’s a gamble worth taking.

Throughout this free-agency period, I have wondered why Pritchard hasn’t expressed interest in younger guards such as restricted free-agent Ramon Sessions or current Charlotte Bobcat Raymond Felton. Now I know why. He doesn’t want to block Bayless out entirely. He has faith in him, and still thinks, despite his scorer’s mentiality and iffy point guard skills, that he could take the reigns down the road. So, by signing Miller to, say, a two-year deal, Bayless has a mentor, a veteran and a proven star to look up to, and, once Miller’s contract expires, can take over at the sprightly age of 23.

A signing of Miller, an unrestricted free-agent, isn’t imminent, but is a distinct possibility. There had been rumblings that a sign-and-trade could be hashed out, meaning Miller would sign with Philadelphia, then be traded to the Blazers for Blake. Now, it appears Pritchard is looking at Miller solely as a free-agent, and wouldn’t acquire him. So, instead of trading Blake for him, he could get another player of need, a backup power-forward perhaps, for Blake and presumably Travis Outlaw.

If the Blazers feel the need to upgrade, and think Miller would fill their need, then pull the trigger. After all, given what he could bring to a team full of youth, he’s not a bad player to go after.

The Blazers point guard conundrum: Who backs up Blake?

Jerryd Bayless thinks he can start for the Portland Trail Blazers. Pooh Jeter, pictured, hopes to make the roster, and give both Bayless and Steve Blake a run for their money.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Jerryd Bayless is confident he can assume the duties as the team’s point guard. He was asked before the Summer League began if he could do so, and answered, “Yeah, no question.”

The point of the Summer League is for teams to evaluate young talent and pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses. Many of the players are trying to make the roster, hoping that their performance and style is to a team’s liking. Bayless, unlike a majority of his Summer League teammates, has experience in the NBA, albeit a tumultuous rookie season. He had something to prove, like his comrades, and needed to show Portland that he has the qualities a point guard must possess.

He was a scorer during his lone year in college, at Arizona, with a poor assist-to-turnover ratio. The assist-to-turnover ratio carried over into the NBA, but his scoring did not. When he played, he was aggressive, but also hesitant, and all too often dribbled aimlessly on the perimeter, clearly indecisive. Though the Blazers would have loved for him to consistently produce, and be pass-first, as a 20-year old in a new environment, his tentative play was expected.

Nonetheless, Blazers fans, many of whom disapproved of Steve Blake’s backup, Sergio Rodriguez, wanted to see him play, to see what he could do. He had a few bright spots, which mainly involved him scoring, predominately on dunks. But, as his fans knew, for him to be an integral part of Portland’s future, and start for years to come for the Blazers, he had to play as a point guard should. But he didn’t know how.

Portland, after watching him average 28 points per game in the 2008 Summer League, thought of him as the scorer he was, and took it in stride, thinking he could, down the road, develop a point guard’s unselfish mentality. But, though he possessed an explosive burst, with a incredible leaping ability at 6-foot, 3-inches tall, he failed to trust a shot that made him a touted NBA prospect. Instead, he was all too predictable on offense; he had poor court-vision, and when he did pass, he rarely hit his teammate in stride. He passed up too many perimeter shots, and when he did make an impact, it was usually because of his aggressiveness. But he was aggressive too much of the time.

Yet, it’s all part of the learning process; unless you have NBA-ready talent, a game suited for the position without much need for improvement, you have to fail in some way before you can ultimately succeed. Usually this is the case. Very few rookies are like the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose, who lit up the opposition with his scoring and passing ability from the onset of the 2008-09 season. Bayless wasn’t like Rose, who was inserted into the starting lineup from the beginning; Bayless was a bench-warmer, and when he did play, he tried to do too much and ended up doing too little.

But, as a cocky kid, he says he now ready to do exactly what’s asked of him. He was a turnover machine in the four Summer League games this summer, but for his growth, his turnovers were a good sign. It meant he was trying to make plays for others. There were spurts when he looked to score, but, unlike at this time a year ago, he kept his head up and made an effort to make passing his first priority.

Another point guard, Eugene “Pooh” Jeter, was a four-year star at the University of Portland and, unable to find a home in the NBA, made a name for himself with the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Developmental League. After leaving the 14ers, Jeter played for BC Kyiv, a Ukranian team, and, by averaging 14 points and 7 assists per game, was named the league’s top point guard. After a failed attempt to make the Toronto Raptors 12-man roster in 2008, he played in the ACB League, a league highly regarded as the second best in the world, behind only the NBA.

There he played with ViveMenorca, and played against some stellar competition, including Ricky Rubio, who was drafted fifth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2009 NBA Draft, and averaged 16 points and 3 assists per game. This caught the Blazers eye, and earned him an invite to their training camp with an opportunity to make his dream a reality.

Once the 25-year old Jeter stepped on the floor, it was clear that the 5-foot 11-inch guard, with much more experience than Bayless, was entirely the opposite of the rookie season version of Bayless. He was unselfish, and looked to score only when the opportunity presented itself. With that said, he didn’t dish a single assist in his first game (the blame, like in Bayless’s case, could go on the recipients). Over the final four games, however, he showed his true colors, accumulating 6, 5, 4, and 8 assists.

With Patrick Mills, a fellow rookie point guard, hurt, and expected to miss all of the 2009-2010 season, Jeter should make the roster, and certainly deserves to.

Bayless, unphased by Jeter’s emergence, had this to say regarding his role with the Blazers:

“Obviously, Steve [Blake] is the starting point guard but I don’t think Steve would want it any other way [than a battle]. I don’t think he just wants me to come in and just mess around. I’m going to come out there and battle him. You never know what could happen…I’m in a different place… Last year I kind of knew I was bound to be a backup. This year, Coach [Nate McMillan] is giving me an opportunity and it’s up to me.”

I am glad Bayless feels he can give Blake a run, but, he will soon find Jeter breathing down his neck. He may think he’s fighting for first. But, given the doubt surrounding him and the play of Jeter, he may be in a bigger fight for second.