2019 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far
Darius Miller: 2 years, $14.3 million (New Orleans Pelicans)
Free agent Darius Miller has agreed to a two-year, $14.25M deal to stay with New Orleans, league source tells ESPN. The second-year is non-guaranteed.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2019
There’s no question this is an overpay on the part of the New Orleans Pelicans. Even as they use the Early Bird exception to go over the cap to re-sign Darius Miller, there’s no way anyone else on the market would’ve offered him this much.
However, it appears to be an intentional overpay, one that sets the Pelicans up with a contract that’d make it easier for them to match salary in a future trade. Even David Griffin has no specific move in mind yet, this annual salary gives him the flexibility to throw Miller in to match contracts in future deals.
Miller is a useful 3-point shooter as well, averaging a career-high 8.2 points and 5.3 long range attempts per game last season while converting on 36.5 percent of them. The year before that, he made 41.1 percent of his 4.4 long range attempts per game. The Pelicans need 3-point shooting, so between that and future wiggle room on trade talks, this inflated deal isn’t a bad move at all.
Grade: B-