“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.