“From German BBL Playoffs to NBA Playoffs. What a difference a year makes.”
That Darius Miller tweet – sent out by the forward after New Orleans clinched a spot in the NBA postseason, via an April 9 road win over the Clippers – neatly summed up what’s been one of the league’s best individual stories in 2017-18.
Released in ’14 by the New Orleans team that drafted him in the second round two years earlier, Miller headed overseas, excelling in Germany’s professional league for three seasons. The same man who used that ’12 second-round pick on Miller, Pelicans GM Dell Demps, liked what he saw enough to give Miller a second chance at earning a spot in the NBA. Both individually and team-wise, his return to the world’s premier hoops league couldn’t have gone any better for the 6-foot-8, lethal three-point shooter.
After a rough start in October, the University of Kentucky product and native of the Bluegrass State caught fire in November, shooting a gaudy 56.1 percent from three-point range. He maintained a high level of accuracy for the balance of the regular season, finishing at 41.1 percent, good for 26th overall and eighth among players ESPN.com lists as small forwards (Miller often plays more minutes at power forward in small-ball lineups). A player who toiled in relative basketball obscurity the previous three winters managed to place his name near the top of NBA three-point percentage lists, sandwiched between the likes of Kevin Durant (41.9 percent in ’17-18) and Paul George (40.1). Now he has a chance to put his stamp on a first-round playoff series vs. Portland, as the New Orleans reserve who’s often made the biggest impact this season.
“They gave me a great opportunity here, and I’m just glad I was able to take advantage of it,” Miller said following the playoff trip-clinching win in Los Angeles. “(But) the season is not over. We all feel like we have more to do. Hopefully it can continue on the same path.”
In his second NBA stint, the 28-year-old proved to be a perfect fit with New Orleans, a team that needed to surround Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins with as much outside shooting as possible. Miller credited the All-Star duo for helping him find open looks all season. Also adept at drawing free throws on perimeter shots, Miller sank at least three three-pointers in 27 different games during the regular season (the Pelicans went 17-10 in those games).
Miller is now excited to add another chapter to what’s been a tremendous success story, making his NBA playoff debut Saturday in Portland.
“It’s great,” Miller said of the postseason opportunity for he and the Pelicans. “Especially having never been in this situation before, so it’s a really big deal to me. I think it’s a big deal to everybody on the team.”