Lots of interest in Mike Miller, with Durant, Marc Gasol recruiting him

Kurt Helin

 

Jul 20, 2013, 6:30 PM EDT

Reuters

This has been one of the dominant themes of this offseason — good shooters have value.

Guys like J.J. Redick and Kyle Korver are getting longer deals (four years) well over the average NBA salary because they are deadeye shooters. Meanwhile, if you dominate the ball and are not an efficient shooter you find the market pretty dry (Brandon Jennings, for example).

Which is why there is a lot of interest in Mike Miller— the guy can shoot. He can barely stay healthy, but when he plays he’s a solid team defender and he can shoot from three.

Miller is a free agent after being amnestied by the Heat. He then threatened back surgery to keep teams from grabbing him off waivers and it worked. He gets to pick where he plays — and a lot of good teams are trying to recruit the three point specialist, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.

Kevin Durant and Marc Gasol trying to recruit you, that has to feel pretty good.

I get why Memphis was in the mix. It was evident in the playoffs they need shooting to space the floor to take the next step, but for most of the offseason they have sat on their hands while other teams in the West (Clippers, Rockets) got a lot better. Miller is exactly what they need.

You can also see why Houston and OKC want in — again, shooting has real value. Those teams have guys who can create shots what they need are guys who can space the floor and make the defense pay for collapsing on Durant or James Harden.

Miller can do that. When he’s healthy. And because of that he’s got options.