[Old General Record] Before King James, the Cavaliers turning point!

Back before the millennium, Cleveland had not yet obtained the chosen son. For the Cavaliers at that time, it was a special team in the league that was quite keen on cultivating defenders.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this trend that in the 1999 draft, the Cavaliers targeted the defender Andre Miller from the University of Utah early on.

This big defender, who is 191, strongly helped the University of Utah to defeat the first-seeded University of North Carolina and enter the NCAA Finals a year before entering the league. As the team history steal king of the University of Utah, while performing well, Andre Miller's shortcomings are also obvious. He averaged less than 2 outside shots in four years of college, and his shooting percentage was only 29.4%.

These shortcomings also affected his draft prospects for a while, and it was also revealed that the Cavaliers tried to consider upward trading rankings before the draft, and instead fought for Warri Szebiak from the University of Miami.

According to reporters, after choosing Miller with the eighth pick in the first round, Cavaliers development coach Keith Smart had communicated with young players in private. In these exchanges, Miller mostly showed himself in a silent role. It was not until the fourth exchange between the two sides that Miller began to gradually actively communicate with the team members.

Borrowing what Miller himself said, the Cavaliers were not an ideal place for him:

"The team wanted me to be the opinion leader in the team, but it was not my style."

As a bad newcomer, Andre Miller's performance on the court was completely opposite to his quiet state off the court. In Game 47 of the rookie season, Miller won his first triple-double in his career. At that time, the Cavaliers had no player to play triple-double in five seasons before Miller.

After just two seasons, Andre Miller averaged 10.9 assists per game in the 2001-02 season, ending Jason Kidd's three-game assist king at the time. Especially when thinking about the quality of Miller's teammates at that time, Miller's data value can be more obvious.

Referring to the Cavaliers lineup at that time, Sean Kemp, who was aging, was the only partner in Miller's Cavaliers' career who could stand on the stage, but he only had one season with the team. Most of the time, the introverted ball dominant scorer Ramond Murray, and later scorer Weisri Person.

This Cavaliers, composed of a group of monotonous role players, can basically see how they will achieve their final results before the start of the season.

As the best among these mediocre players, Andre Miller first stood on the fan stage, which was the 2000 rookie challenge.

In that game, Jason Williams relied on his unpredictable pass and attracted fans' praise. Compared with the former's gorgeous style of play, Andre Miller adheres to the same stable style of play. Before the end of the first half, Miller received a long pass from his teammates' steal. Facing the untouched basket, when all fans were hoping to see a flying dunk, Miller chose an ordinary layup.

Basketball entered the net safely, Miller scored smoothly, but booed in the audience. It was really difficult for fans to give warm responses to such a playful style. But even so, Miller was not affected. He chose to end up with a simple layup in the face of boos, and scored the highest 18 points in the team in the game, helping the rookie team defeat their opponent 92-83 in overtime.

In the post-match interview, Andre Miller also responded to the booing of the fans on the sidelines:

"I was just a little nervous and afraid of messing up the game, so I kept my own pace and saw my teammates show their talents. You know, those flashes, dunks, etc. don't matter, I just care about winning."

The head coach of the rookie team on the game on the spot also took the team for Miller:

"It makes no sense for fans to boo him because he doesn't dunk. He was selected into the team based on his performance, and it has nothing to do with whether he will dunk."

For Andre Miller at that time, this kind of stable and calm style of play was really special. If he took over the Cavaliers who were slow-paced in the mid-1990s and beat the defense, he would have a very likely chance of becoming the Cavaliers' successor. But unexpectedly, the better Andre Miller performed on the field, the more worried the Cavaliers management.

When Miller's rookie contract has only one year left, he can basically confirm in advance that he will ask the Cavaliers for a maximum salary contract with a total amount of about 80 million. The Cavaliers were not unwilling to issue a maximum salary contract at that time, but they didn't want such a seemingly excellent but slightly ordinary player under the maximum salary contract.

There is another key reason. The Cavaliers have early seen the basketball genius from Akron: LeBron James. The team needs a bad record to ensure the No. 1 pick. Even if the No. 1 pick is not drawn, other rookies behind James are worthy of all the means to strive for.

In the face of higher talents, Andre Miller was sent to the Clippers by the Cavaliers in exchange for the 20-year-old young forward Dalius Myers. After

Miller, Murray, who averaged 16.6 points per game and Person, who averaged 15.1 points, the Cavaliers sent away the team's main players one after another. For the Cavaliers who needed to make key decisions at that time, when Miller's future ceiling was still unclear, putting the opportunity on the potential newcomers in the 2003 is naturally a choice with higher expectations.

From the perspective of hindsight, the Cavaliers really won the first prize after giving up many main players, and finally won the Chosen Son who reversed the Cavaliers' fate in the draft.. But later there were also some criticisms. The Cavaliers successively gave up their first-time players, which directly led to the difficulty of James' support from stable helpers in the first two seasons of joining the team, and even the trading chips used to strengthen were quite scarce.

Recalling the three years of rookie in the Cavaliers, Andre Miller's best result was that he averaged 16.5 points and 10.9 rebounds in the last season. He also won the league assists that season, which is also the only regular season personal honor in his personal career.

Although he did not leave Cleveland early, he did not bring much qualitative value to the Cavaliers. After leaving the team in 2001-02, he rarely had any contact with the Cavaliers. Although he had a simple style, he played hard and did not finish his last season with the Spurs in the 2015-16 season.

Although not many fans remember this No. 24 defender, as the connection point between the old Cleveland era and the James era, Andre Miller is still worth recalling for the Cavaliers.

After the Cavaliers reversed the Warriors 1-3 and won the championship in 2016, the team's official website also posted a special player picture to thank this old player who is not very eye-catching but definitely deserves to occupy a place in the team's history.