This is just a funny photo. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Moving into veteran territory now, there’s not a whole lot of mystery left with a 34 year old point guard now on his fifth team in the league. For Andre Miller’s career, he has a flat PER of 18, an assist rate of 35 percent and an effective field-goal percentage below 50 percent because he can’t make threes all with good decision making, a manageable turnover rate and heady defense despite physical limitation, especially against the screen-roll.

His numbers last year, despite a rough start, weren’t all that far off from those career marks, and that helped put him into the discussion for MVP of Portland’s season. No, he wasn’t Brandon Roy, but he’s crucial to the Blazers, and having consistent goodness and aggressiveness — as opposed to Steve Blakeness — helming Portland going into next season is a comforting thought.

Thing is, there are still a ton of unanswered questions with this team, largely stemming from the expected reappearance, and hopeful reemergence of Greg Oden. As well as Oden played in his 20 games last season, Portland’s offense never quite gelled, and no bankable rapport developed between him and LaMarcus Aldridge. Combine that with the fact that Nate McMillan was having fun with his easy bake oven, shoving Blake and Miller into the starting lineup and seeing what came out, and none of the time Miller spent with a healthy Oden was consistent in rotations, lineups or even offensive philosophy.

Clearly, for Portland to ascend the steps of contention, they will need the consistency that health provides, but it’s on Miller, co-keymaster of Portland’s offense, to build the machine. In the offseason and early months, he’ll have to perfect the pick-and-roll with Oden, keep Oden diving to the rim and finding takeoff space for alley-oops. He’ll have to direct Aldridge so that LaMarcus stays involved, and within 17 feet, of every offensive set. And above all, while everyone is figuring things out, he’ll have to keep all those important point-guard items — passing, timing, efficiency — consistent, just like him.

Yes, we could nitpick a few things here and there. Sometimes Miller needs a better sense of when it’s absolutely necessary to use that generous space allowed him by the defense for a jumper. Sometimes he’ll need to sacrifice his own herky-jerky, pump-faking scoring to earn Oden and Aldridge confidence-boosting buckets in the paint. Sometimes he’ll have to…no, he can keep yelling at the coach a couple times a year, that seemed to work out well enough. But mainly, there’s not enough changeable about Andre to warrant a bullet-pointed list like all the other young guys got. He’ll need to adapt, some, but the evolution of those around him is the bear (sic) necessity.
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