Andre Miller and the Art of the Super Assist

In basketball, not all assists are created equal. There are assists and then there are assists. It's the difference between passing the ball to the open guy five feet away from you on the perimeter and threading a perfect alley-oop pass over multiple defenders in traffic. Needless to say, the latter takes a lot more skill than the former and results in a much higher percentage shot. Indeed, there's such a big difference that basketball statistic gurus have long lobbied for the creation of new box score stat to reflect so-called "super assists", i.e., assists that involve feeding a player close to the hoop for an easy bucket.

Luckily, the folks at 82games.com keep track of this information, breaking assists down into four groups -- 3pt, jump, close, and dunk -- based on the kind of field goal they result in. For the purposes of determining which point guards produce the most easy buckets for their teams, let's focus on the latter two categories.

In 2008-2009, Chris Paul racked up an incredible 163 dunk assists. Close behind him, at 154, was current Blazer backup point guard Andre Miller. No one else was even close. Only three other point guards had over 100 (Steve Nash with 127; Chauncey Billups and Deron Williams each with 110). When you look at "dunk" and "close" assists combined (what I'm calling "super assists"), Miller recorded 301 last season. That was fourth best in NBA, behind only Nash, Paul, and D. Williams (Nash had 375, Paul 345, and Williams 303). Again, no one else was close.

When you look at those numbers, you can't help but wonder whether the Blazer coaching staff is making proper use of Miller's talents. He's now playing for a team that's as young, tall, and fast as anyone else in the league. Literally everyone in the Blazer rotation, with the exception of Steve Blake, is more than capable of completing the business end of an alley-oop. On paper at least, the combination of Miller and Portland's young, athletic roster should result in obscene numbers of super assists.

But that hasn't happened, at least so far. So what's the problem? Well, for starters, relegating Miller to the backup role probably hasn't helped. It has reduced his overall minutes as well as reducing the number of minutes he's playing alongside the most obvious beneficiaries of his passing abilities (Aldridge, Oden, Webster, and Roy). More importantly, though, Portland's slow tempo, unwillingness to push the ball in transition, and general lack of off-the-ball movement on offense has reduced the opportunities for the kind of passing Andre Miller excels at. Opportunities for super assists don't just materialize on their own. It takes players cutting to the basket, either in fast break situations or as a result of effective pick-and-roll and other off-the-ball movement that generates momentary defensive confusion.

It remains a mystery to me that a team as young and athletic as Portland routinely finishes toward the bottom of the league in transition scoring. LaMarcus Aldridge may well be the most talented transition scorer at his position in the league. On the rare occasions where he gets out ahead on a fast break, he's remarkably graceful, covering huge distances with his long strides and finishing with ease.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is Steve Blake, who when he finds himself in a 3-on-1 fast break situation, all too often telegraphs a pass right at the lone defender, who promptly shuttles it back down the court for a score on the other end. On second thought, I guess it's not such a mystery why the Blazers get so few transition buckets.

Look, I don't mean to pick on Blake. He's a good player who plays hard and does a lot of intangible things that don't show up in the box score. But with Andre Miller, the Blazers finally have the kind of top-notch distributor they have long coveted, a guy who is among the very best in the league at producing easy buckets for his teammates. Given the amount of lineup shuffling and experimenting that has gone on so far this season, I'm surprised that the Blazers haven't tried the most obvious option: turning the keys to the offense over to the one proven point guard on the team and seeing what he can do with it. If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out, but at least we'll know. I think it's time to let Miller be Miller and see where that takes us. In time, even Roy may come to appreciate the benefits of being on the receiving end of a super assist.