Definitely agree that Miller doesn't tip the scales in the 2014 finals. But Miller provided a key skill in the 2013 finals (floor spacing) and was still on his last legs as a somewhat productive NBA player who could provide that skill when Miami made the move to amnesty him. Plus Bron loved him. We can argue degrees of cost savings and what is appropriate (and I think some of your criticisms/points are valid) but when the tax bills were about to get really big like an Ariza bill would have been, Arison did make moves at the expense of roster depth to avoid them.
Hmmm....yea I think thats fair. But if not amnestying Miller meant keeping Bron, than he would/should have paid that tbh. But as you and I can agree Mike Miller was no needle mover for keeping Lebron nor winning a championship. If you dont pay a starter, replace roster losses with minimum players, dont use the MLE AND waste trade assets coming off a 65 win team who's roster problems were marginal upgrades than you are doing a bad job. He didnt have to do all of those things maybe two of those things were enough but the fact that he did all three of them is inexcusable to me. He should have paid, he did not. People with worse situations have paid and it makes him look worse. Arison got rid of Mike Miller and Joel Anthony yea Arison was also a cheap guy who cut cost when he shoudlnt have but i dont htink its more egregious than what Tillman has done since he has bought the team but that's also because Tillman has most likely interfered with Morey's job as a GM.
Sorry for semi grunching this thread. I didn't expect it would be multiple pages, so my bad if my point has already been made. I would just like to add that personally, and I think others feel this way too, I'd be more okay with Tilman's thriftyness if he were humble about it. I do swear reading one quote way early on when he said he was poor relative to other NBA owners, so that would impact how he spent on the team. After that quote though, there were many many more quotes and interviews where he just tooted his own horn and bragged about him doing whatever it takes to win, including spending. I just hate the used car salesman slimey blowhard persona, especially when it has a lot of false bravado behind it. That's all. I'll go back to read this thread now. Hopefully it's full of interesting takes.
