| Miles Could Be the Key to the Blazers Success Authored by Billy Ray - October 6, 2005 - 8:38 pm
The world of the NBA is filled with clichés, catch phrases, and sayings used to describe the condition of a team, player, coach or fan base. If any cliché could hold more true to the Blazers it is this: If the playoff door is currently closed, Darius Miles is the key.
The Trail Blazers are entering the second full year of Miles. Many coaches have tried, and all have failed at this point to unlock Miles' potential. Along the way Miles has been dubbed a “coach killer,” a “problem child,” and a “lost cause.”
At 23 years old Miles has plenty of basketball left in him, and still has some time to tap into that massive keg of potential that caused teams to drool over him in the 2001 draft. At the time Miles was projected as a 6'9” swingman with the potential to play four positions. He was compared to Kevin Garnett and was to be part of a new generation of NBA superstars. The Clippers selected him with the 3rd overall pick but Miles floundered.
Despite playing in 81 of 82 games his rookie year Miles could not get the starters minutes as a Clipper. During the summer of 2002 the Clippers traded Miles to the Cavaliers—a team floundering at the bottom of the Eastern Conference at the time—for Andre Miller and Bryant Stith.
Miles never found his niche in Cleveland. After a year and a half in Cleveland the Cavaliers packaged Miles to Portland in a trade for Jeff McInnis. In Portland Miles instantly excelled averaging 12.6 points per game. He allowed the Blazers who had been extremely sluggish in the transition game to start beating teams down the floor.
Miles energized a team that had grown stale with his flashy dunks and awe-inspiring athleticism. The Blazers missed the playoffs by one game and Miles became a free agent. After flirting with Denver the Blazers resigned Miles to a 6 year contract. But politics got in the way as management decided to showcase Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Miles was benched, and despite putting up a quiet career high in points per game, he saw fans and media turn on him with a well reported spat between him and then head coach Maurice Cheeks.
Nate McMillan is now charged with the task of extracting the talent out of Miles that has lead to many coaches giving up, losing their jobs, or simply dealing with inconsistency. Despite the fact that McMillan and Miles did not speak to each other until just a few weeks ago, things so far are sounded good out of training camp.
McMillan is pushing Miles to take a larger role on this team. As one of the older players and as a player with 5 years NBA experience under his belt, Miles has a lot of wisdom and abilities that have yet to be tapped as well.
Even bigger than a potential captaincy role is Miles' on court abilities. Despite being a natural small forward Miles' best game of his career came against the Denver Nuggets as a power forward. In that game Miles shot 19 of 33 from the field and 8 of 14 from the free throw line in route to a career high 47 points. In that game Miles showed not just flashes, but the instead the blinding light that is his talent—the talent that the Blazers so desperately hope Miles will use this upcoming season.
With Zach Randolph being the most consistent player out of the projected starting five battling back from a serious knee surgery, the team may need Miles more than ever if the Blazers hope to make a solid run at the playoffs.
So far McMillan looks to be on the right track with Miles as well as the rest of the team. McMillan is constantly driving home the details and hammering on the small things that trip teams up. Maybe with some luck McMillan will be able to drive home some of the small things that have tripped Miles up in the past.
One thing is for sure, the Blazers are an extremely young team with only one player (Randolph) that has proved he can score consistently at the NBA level. While Miles will not be looked upon to score 47 points a night, his ability to take a game over and not only score at will on the offensive end, but create offense for himself by being a disruption on the defensive end would prove quite beneficial to a team that many are picking to finish last in the western conference.
If Miles is able to improve upon his game from years past that will help the Blazers post a few more wins. If Miles can start to grasp that potential that shined through in the Denver game—the Blazers might be staring down the door of the playoffs.
But in order to open that door, the Blazers will need a key. |
