New Orleans Pelicans: Fourth Term Report Cards
By Seth Nefsky
Darius Miller: D
This term, Darius Miller has been a less effective version of himself. His three-point shooting has been a fine, but not incredible 36.6%, and his defense has been absolutely, completely terrible. So much in fact, that the Pels defense improves by 14.8 points per 100 possessions with him off of the floor, with the next worst qualifying player on the team only being 6.3 points per 100 worse than when on. Miller has not been a good defensive player in the NBA since 2014, but this is a new low for him.
A large part of Miller’s defensive decline is through the addition of Nikola Mirotic, as Miller is seeing less minutes as a stretch four, and more as a three, often leaving him athletically outmatched.
Miller has also been a negative offensive player this term, despite being a very positive offensive player before this term. His shooting is obviously the main reason for this decrease, as without a 40% three-point shot, he doesn’t bring much to the table. He barely passes, and does a lot of standing and waiting for the ball.
Miller needs to shoot the ball at a high clip if he wants to get significant minutes in the playoffs