Cleveland Cavaliers: Is Coach Blatt Using Mike Miller Enough?
By Bryce Olin
The Cleveland Cavaliers need more 3-point shooting, and they have a great shooter, Mike Miller, on the bench, but why isn’t David Blatt playing him more?
The most liked guy in the NBA, according to Grantland’s Jonathan Abrams, Mike Miller, has yet to make a real impact on the court for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and it’s raising eyebrows all over the league.
This season, Miller has only appeared in 12 games for the Cavaliers and has been largely disappointing in almost all of those games.
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After the season he had last year with the Memphis Grizzlies, Miller has taken a major step back. Obviously, he’s getting older and has struggled with some lingering issues in recent years, but Miller has to be the most disappointing free agent signing of the season, even more so than Lance Stephenson.
Last season with the Grizz, Miller averaged 7.1 points in 20.8 minutes per game. Those numbers aren’t blowing anyone away, but his 3-point percentage was 46 percent last season. If anything, Miller should be able to still make shots, and that’s exactly what the Cavaliers need from him.
Cleveland is 13th in the league in 3-point percentage (36 percent), but they’re only making 7.8 3-pointers per game, which ranks 21st in the league.
So, why isn’t Miller playing more than 12 minutes per game?
For one thing, the Cavaliers need help on defense more than offense. That’s why Joe Harris and Shawn Marion are playing much more than Miller. Cleveland ranks 17th in the league in opponent’s points per game, and the Cavs are giving 99.9 PPG. Offensively, the Cavs are the tenth-best team in the league in points per game. Obviously, Blatt is trying to strengthen his weaknesses by playing better defensive players than Miller.
That makes sense, at least from a statistical point of view.
Against the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 2, Miller made 2-of-4 3-point attempts and finished the game with 6 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and the Cavs outscored the Bucks by 12 points while Miller was on the court. Miller also hit a huge 3 to put the Cavs up by six with under three minutes to play. The Cavs only won the game by 3 points. I think it’s safe to say Miller was the difference in the game.
Based on his play in the Milwaukee game, Miller should be getting more playing time because he’s the only player on the Cavs outside of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love who can put fear into the life of defenses.
By putting Miller in the corner to wait for a corner 3 opportunity, defenses have to honor Miller and put a guy on him. If they didn’t, James would just throw it to him, and Miller would make a wide-open 3. It’s that simple.
Plus, if Miller is making plays and contributing in other areas, like he did with Memphis last season, Blatt has to play Miller, and I think he will the rest of the season.
I have to wonder if Blatt neglected to play Miller early in the season because he knows they’ll need Miller in the playoffs to spread the floor and they can’t risk Miller getting injured. Regardless, I think we’ll see Miller a lot more now after he proved he’s still got it.