Kobe, Nash, Allen, or Miller?

[NomarFachix]

Reggie Miller is a glorified Michael Redd.

 

WOAT

[Oliver P]

I'd like to say a few words about the Miller-Allen debate as I watched both players at their prime.

 

First of all let's take a look at both players' career stats :

 

Miller : 18.2 PPG (47.1 FG%, 39.5 3pts%, 88.8 FT%), 3 RPG, 3 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG.

Ray : 20.4 PPG (45.2 FG%, 39.8 3pts%, 89.3 FT%), 4.3 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.2 BPG.

 

I would like to point out that Miller ended his career at the age of 39 and his stats started to decrease at the age of 36, while Ray Allen is currently 35.. This has to be taken in consideration.

 

Anyway as we can see those stats are pretty similar.

 

Then, as we all know, the both players are the ones who made the most 3 pts in the history of the game. And they both clutch, it's impossible to tell who was more clutch than the other in fact. Both players were as clutch as they could I don't see how each of them could have been more clutch than the other.

 

So in fact both players are pretty similar in fact, and it's very hard, I would even say impossible to say that one of them was better than the other FOR SURE.

 

But this said, if I have to pick one, I would personally pick Reggie Miller. For a simple reason : I believe that Reggie was just a better leader.

 

First of all at Ray's current age, Reggie had led his team to the playoffs ten times. Every time as the leader of his team. While Ray has made the playoffs seven times so far. And only four as the leader of his team.

 

Now we have to take the quality of the teams in consideration as well of course, and when we look at it we can see that Reggie has not had better teammates than Ray through his career. It would actually rather be the opposite...

 

During all his career Reggie never had a very good second option. In the 90's his best teammate was Rick Smits, who was a decent center but he was not a star, nowhere near the Ewings, Olajuwons, Robinsons, etc... Sure Mullin joined the team at the end of the 90's but he was not even close to the star he used to be... His other teammates were a bunch of above average role players like the Davises, Action Jackson, McKey, Rose, Best, etc...

In fact the first time that Miller had a star as second option was when Jermaine O'Neal arrived in the 2000-01 season when Reggie started to get downhill... Yet despite the absence of another star at his sides Reggie managed to get his team to the playoffs ten times as the clear leader of his team, five times in the ECF and once in the Finals. And his Pacers almost beat the mighty Bulls in 98, the second time that the Bulls had to play a seven game in the playoffs since they won their first ring...

 

Meawhile Ray Allen's accomplishments as a leader are certainly not as great... This despite the fact that he had better teammates overall. First of all in Milwaukee Ray played with several stars, Big Dog Robinson, Vin Baker, Terrell Brandon, Sam I am... It's when Cassell arrived in Milwaukee that the Bucks started to be competitive. The Allen-Robinson-Cassell Big Three was one of the best in the entire league. In 2001 they were clearly the most talented team in teh East, yet Ray was unable to make his team wins against a Sixers team that was way less talented... The following year ? The Bucks were even better on paper, they had signed Mase in the summer. Result ? They didn't even make the playoffs...

In his Seattle days Ray only made the playoffs once. His teammates were not as good as in Milwaukee but still had Shard as a second option and players like Radmanovic, Daniels, Fortson, Ridnour, Flip were quite decent. He managed to make the playoffs once with that team so he could have done it again anyhow...

 

The only thing that this shows is that Ray Allen was not really leader material. Not a terrible leader but not a great one at the same time... It's really in Boston, as a second-third option, that he was clearly at his best. While Miller proved that he was a leader material indeed. And that is why I give the edge to Reggie "Killer" Miller here.

 

For the record here are some of Miller's most impressive accomplishments :

 

In 1992, he scored 57 points against the Charlotte Hornets at Charlotte Coliseum in a 134-122 win. In this game, Miller was 16 for 29 from the field, including 4 for 11 from 3-point range, and 21 for 23 from the free throw line. His 57 points was the highest single-game total for a player in the 1992-93 season, and still stands today as the Pacers single-game record.

 

In the Game 5 of the 94 Pacers-Knicks, he scored 39 points total and 25 in the 4th quarter of the Pacers' 93-86 victory at Madison Square Garden.

 

In 1995, Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks, leading the Pacers to a stunning 107-105 victory.

 

In 1998, the Pacers trailed the Chicago Bulls two games to one in the series and were behind 94-93 in Game 4 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis with less than three seconds remaining. Miller got free from Michael Jordan, caught the pass and made the game-winning three-point shot. As I already said the Pacers eventually pushed the series to a game seven in Chicago, in that game the Pacers even led in the fourth quarter but eventually lost.