New Orleans Pelicans Player of the Week: Darius Miller

Each week, I will choose one player to highlight as the New Orleans Pelicans Player of the Week. We’d love to hear your feedback, in the comments or on Twitter.

This week, I’ll be highlighting the hot shooting of Darius Miller, which may make him the X-factor the Pelicans sorely need.

When the New Orleans Pelicans re-signed Darius Miller in the off-season it barely made a blip of coverage. If anything, the signing was met with initial disappointment among the fan base who sought out a bigger name on the wing. Now, 5 years after drafting him, Miller is starting to exhibit some of the skills that the Pelicans saw in him originally.

The key lately has been Darius Miller firing away with an unwavering confidence. It looked early on as if Miller was going to be a non-factor this year. He shot awful in the month of October and lost his spot in the rotation. For all the talk about his off-season improvement, it sure did not translate right away. Even the renewed confidence in his shot took time to carry over.

Darius Miller was breaking rhythm on his open shots early in the year. It looked as if the move to Europe did little to change Darius Miller trajectory as a fringe NBA player. He was removed from the rotation early on and played sporadically throughout the end of October and the beginning of November.

It was against the Bulls on November 4th when the first sign of Darius Miller’s growth became noticeable. The team was coming off of a back to back and had tired legs, but Darius provided 11 crucial points in 27 minutes to spark the team’s victory.

Darius Miller responded to the lack of minutes and early struggles by being a pro. He stayed ready and is now knocking down threes with supreme confidence. In the month of November, Darius has made 17 threes on 56.7 percent shooting. Now, of course, that number will drop but if he can hover around 37-39 percent the Pelicans would have found themselves a steal.

Miller’s stellar shooting numbers have been one of the more overlooked aspects of the Pelicans recent winning surge. The big two will rightfully grab the headlines but Miller has been a spark-plug for the team. His performance against the Hawks singlehandedly rescued the team from an embarrassing home defeat. Now, the big question is, will Miller be able to keep up this hot shooting?

The Pelicans surely hope so. The Atlanta Hawks laid down a pretty good blueprint on how to defend the New Orleans Pelicans twin towers. They immediately flashed multiple defenders towards Anthony Davis whenever he touched the ball. The Hawks were willing to live with shots from outside. The result was an ugly win and a career-high from Darius Miller.

He was shooting warm-up jumpers for most of his threes but the more he knocks them down, the more teams will have no choice but to respect his shot. Once that happens it will make teams more hesitant to double AD, who is passing brilliantly out of double teams this year.

Next: Was Boogie’s benching more about performance than strategy?

Darius Miller is quickly solidifying himself as the Pelicans most reliable perimeter threat and a guy they need on the floor in big moments. His road to redemption had a rocky start, but now he’s looking like a potential diamond in the rough. The New Orleans Pelicans are counting on it.