Miller Trade Watch Inching Closer to Red

The trade deadline is less than 48 hours away. The Mike Miller Trade Watch is as hot as ever.

There are so many Mike Miller rumors out there, I'm not even going to attempt to provide all the links. Go to the hoopshype rumors page and see most of them.

I'll summarize where we are at:

-- Mike Miller is clearly the most mentioned name right now in NBA trade rumors. He also might be the player most likely to be traded that can make an immediate impact on the team he is traded to.

-- Miller's name has been linked to something like 11 teams (Denver, Clippers, Miami, Dallas, New Jersey, Indiana, Spurs, Blazers, Bulls, Cleveland, Lakers).

-- Denver seems to be the most interested, but also seem to be looking at either Miller or Artest (wait, they also want Lowry too!).

-- Cleveland seems to be the next most interested in Miller (and Lowry as well, imagine that). Although the problem with Cleveland is that they have very little to offer. Check out this craptastic trade offering Chad Ford spits our way.

The deal, as described to me by a player agent, would send Miller, Cardinal and Lowry to the Cavaliers for Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall, Shannon Brown, Cedric Simmons and Dwayne Jones along with cash and at least one first-round pick from Cleveland.

The trade works using the RealGM Trade Checker, but I still say Yuck! I understand this pu-pu platter contains the prerequisite expiring contracts and draft picks, but I would hope we could land at least 1 current player to add to our nucleus when trading Miller (and/or Lowry). Even getting rid of Cardinal's two more years isn't that exciting because Marshall has one more year left. I understand the reasoning in also trading Miller now and increasing our cap space even further, but I'm still dumbfounded why a cheap and producing player like Lowry must also get traded for nothing? He cost very little, has been a solid backup, and currently nobody else on the roster looks like a full time backup PG. Why is it a must we trade Lowry before the deadline again?

-- Rumor has the Clippers wanting to send Sam Cassell and filler for Miller (what? how does that makes sense? are we buying him out too?), but the Griz wanted their pick and they said no to that.

-- Rumor has it that Indiana has offered Daniels and Diogu (I'm not appalled, at least).

-- On the radio, Verno and Hassletine were fairly certain that Miller would be traded.

-- Miller, after getting undercut by Ridnour, was suddenly done playing for the rest of the Sonics game. Didn't want to risk injury before a trade???

-- A report was that Miller said bye to all his teammates before the all-star break, just in case he was traded before the Sonics game. And another report then mentioned that he flew to Seattle for the game on his own and his teammates were happy to see him show up for work at the team hotel.

It sure seems that Miller is going to be traded before Thursday. And if not then, it is highly unlikely he plays with the Griz in 08-09. Miller's trade value seems to be as high as ever right now, as many teams are rumored to be chasing him pretty hard. I hope Wallace can turn a Miller trade into something good for the team. If Miller does make it past the trade deadline, I'd fully expect to see him moved during the draft. The Mike Miller Trade Watch never seems to end...