Starter: Andre Miller

Who Is He? Andre Miller is the crazy-haired point guard for the Portland Trailblazers. At 34 years old, Miller is the leader of the Blazers’ thirtysomething-threesome (comprising Marcus Camby and Juwan Howard, 36 and 37 respectively) that has brought leadership and stability to a very young and very injured team.

Why Do We Like Him? Miller started this season with a question mark. No one was really sure how he would fit in with the young Blazers, especially in an offense that likes to slow down the pace of the game and where the ball almost always goes through Brandon Roy, and those concerns seemed to be validated when Miller and coach Nate McMillan had an argument after a mid-season practice, presumably about Miller’s lack of playing time. I assume Miller’s anger came, justifiably, from playing behind Steve Blake. Then the Blazers went and got all broken, losing Greg Oden, Joel “Vanilla Gorilla” Przybilla (I have to mention his nickname at every opportunity), Travis Outlaw, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez, and even Brandon Roy to injuries. Not all of these injuries happened at the same time, but a lot of them did. During this time, Miller took his consecutive games streak—which, now at 604 games, is the longest active streak in the NBA—and kept playing at a consistently high level. He’s done everything the Blazers have needed him to do. With Brandon Roy out, Miller took control of the offense and even dropped 52 points against the Mavericks, which you’ve probably heard about. I also like a point guard who can post up on any defender.

All this stuff is great, but here are the real reasons we like Andre Miller. We like that he takes “jump” shots where his feet never leave the floor, but that he can elevate if he really wants to (see the dunk below that shocked everyone watching). We like his out of control hair (more pics here and here). Because I’m a wordnerd, I also love that his high school, Verbum Dei, is referred to as “The Verb.”