The Reason Andre Miller Learned How To Post-Up

Posting up is not normally in a point guard’s repertoire.

In the 2000s and early 2010s, Andre Miller was one of the most difficult players to defend.

And it wasn’t because of his superior athleticism or talent or anything like that.

It was because he knew how to use his body and strength and diversify his skills.

Sometimes he would bring the ball up and run his plays at the top of the key. 

Sometimes he would catch it on the wing and decide his next move through the triple-threat.

And many times -and this was arguably his most effective play- he would post up his defender, who many times was smaller than him, and run plays through there.

This made him special because many point guards couldn’t do this. They didn’t have the strength and body control that Miller had. 

Additionally, many didn’t have the size and strength to handle him in the post.

However, this wasn’t a skill Miller had coming into the league. He learned it from greats before him, such as Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, Sam Cassell and Mark Jackson.

“I loved watching Jordan shoot that fade-away. I loved watching Gary Payton do his spin,” Miller said on the Forgotten Seasons podcast. “I just tried taking all that stuff and putting it into my toolbox.”

He went on to explain that he didn’t post up that much in college or his first year in the league. 

It wasn’t until his second year in the NBA that his coach, John Lucas, ran plays for him down on the block.

“My second year, John Lucas came in and he was our coach in Cleveland and he just started calling actions where I would go into the post. And I just found myself down there, you know? ‘I could just post up dudes and put my butt and just have somebody on my butt and just kinda shoot over them and just put them under the basket. And it kinda made my job easier because ‘I’m like, man if they got to start doubling me, then I can make passes.’ And that’s something I watched Jason Kidd do early on. He was more of a passer in the post than a scorer in the post.

“It made me realize that I could do other things than just run pick-and-rolls and make passes. I can actually go down there and ‘you know what? I can score on you this way.’”

Miller played in the NBA for 17 seasons and averaged 12.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals.

He suited up for a few teams during his career but spent most of his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets. 

In that time, he also led the league in assists in the 2001-02 season, was an All-Rookie in 1999-00 and became one of the few masters of the guard post-up.