Portland Trail Blazers guard Andre Miller heads back to the Denver Nuggets: NBA Report
Veteran guard Andre Miller is making his way back to the Denver Nuggets for a second time after Portland Trail Blazers carried out a trade with the Bronchos, swapping him with Raymond Felton. Both the Blazers and Nuggets will trade
their first round picks, No. 21 and No. 22 respectively, as a part of the trade.
The Denver Nuggets team management made sure they were not making a mistake by taking in their former starting guard, who had rather left quite abruptly.
Masai Ujiri, the Nuggets vice-president for basketball operations, spoke to Miller beforehand and made sure he would not be propagating any sort of disrupting waves in the team camp, a thing that might harm the franchise. Miller’s
response was pretty calm and he assured of having no such intentions.
“I think he moved on,” Ujiri said. “He even said it to me even without me bringing it up...”
Miller past with the Denver Nuggets was not that rosy. He was sent by the Denver Nuggets to the Philadelphia 76ers unwillingly. The Nuggets landed with 11 times National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star guard Allen Iverson,
in return. Andre Miller was actually left quite disappointed. So much so, that he did not talk to his former coach George Karl even once after having been traded off.
"It wasn't the fact that I was disappointed. It was how it went down," said Miller sharing his views with the media.
Last Sunday, after signing back with the Nuggets, Miller finally had a chat with new, and former, Coach George Karl. Miller says he had taken the matter rather personally than professionally. He denied any knowledge about his former
coach having tried to contact him once he left the Nuggets camp. Miller said the time had not been right. At the time, there was a really bad blizzard in Denver of his trade which made things even worse when trying to shift all of a sudden.
“…but you know, at that time, we had that big blizzard (in the Denver area)… To be shipped off when it feels like its 10 feet of snow, it's tough to carry a conversation,” said Miller when asked for comments on the matter.
Now that he is back, the Nuggets are looking up at the Portland Trail Blazers’ former starter guard, Andre Miller, as a back-up to Ty Lawson. Miller is reported to have started 915 games out of his career’s 978 games. In the last
season, Miller started 81 games as the Blazers’ guard. But for Miller, the starter problem does not seem to be an issue at all, which was the major issue with Felton. Miller, on the other hand, is satisfied with coming off the bench and playing his part in
the game.
The Nuggets have an upper hand over the current deal. Andre Miller has only one year left in his current contract with a team option of about $8 million. If he does not work out for the Nuggets, they might as well just lose him
to the open market in a year’s time. But Miller seems determined not to let anything such happen. He intends to finish off is career here in Denver with the Nuggets. Miller, while sharing his plans, said he wishes to play till the age of 40.
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