INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 Fun fact: There are 450 players in the NBA. 30 teams, 15 players per roster. But before you get to that point, there\u2019s thousands of Division I college players and even more when you go back to high school. The point being, these guys \u2013 the ones that grinded through each and every level to get to the professional level \u2013 are the one percent of the one percent.<\/p>\n
Even then, \u201cthere\u2019s levels to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Miller, who just signed a 4-year, $8.3 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers, is now on the first standard contract of his career. By all accounts, he\u2019s made it to the league. But even then, he\u2019s just become a small fish in a large, star-studded pond that is the NBA.<\/p>\n
Miller spent a lot of time in the NBA G League where he was really able to develop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the G League obviously you get the ball a lot more, things are run through you. For my position, to get off the two-way I wanted to play on the ball so I can show (the organization).\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Offense gets you there, but defense keeps you there,\u201d he told The Sporting Tribune in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cThe biggest thing though is just playing off the ball; I never had to do that since I joined the Clippers, even when I got that stint in the beginning of the season, our team makeup was different. Ultimately I think it helped me grow as a player. I think that\u2019s the biggest difference, in the G League you get the ball, but here with the (LA Clippers) it\u2019s more off ball (movement).\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s every hooper\u2019s dream to finally sign that first contract, really putting the pen to the paper. So when it happened for Miller, the reality set in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt great. It felt like a lot of my hard work paid off, and that’s the goal,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I knew I was going to come (into the league) on a two-way, so my first step before any other goal was to get myself off the two-way, and however that had to be done, had to be done. It took about a year and a half, but I\u2019m grateful. It was a slow grind for sure, but I\u2019m happy (as well).\u201d<\/p>\n
The work doesn\u2019t stop there. A lot of guys, especially those who sign huge contracts, take their foot off the pedal. Miller is already a proven scorer, both at the G League and the NBA level.<\/p>\n
For reference, his NBA averages for the 2024-25 season are 4.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1 assist per game on 43% from the field with just 12 minutes of action. His career high came on November 27, where he scored 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting against the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n
Switching to the G League, his numbers explode up to averages of 24.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. If those were NBA numbers, that\u2019s a borderline All-Star.<\/p>\n
Casual fans of the NBA may not pay attention to the G League. Social media will have people thinking the G League is for bad players, when in reality that\u2019s just not the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of great players in the G League. At the end of the day, it\u2019s a developmental league, and some guys play simply because rosters (on the NBA side) might not just have a spot for them at the time, you know what I mean?” Miller said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily a big skill difference \u2013 there is a skill difference for sure \u2013 but I think a lot of people from the outside looking in realize how competitive the G League really is.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also had the advantage a lot of guys don\u2019t usually get this early in their career \u2013 help from the stars and veterans around the NBA. For Miller, his \u201cvet\u201d is Norman Powell, who\u2019s been having a career year for the Clippers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNorm gives me a lot of insight. He had a similar path (to get to the NBA) but it\u2019s where he is now. It\u2019s his tenth year, and being able to bounce thoughts off of him and just pick up any knowledge that I can (has been really helpful).\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller knows he can do the things necessary to get to even higher peaks. The mentality is that he\u2019s already made it this far, so just keep pushing forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is just putting the work in. Come in early, stay late, putting up shots. Anything outside of the regular things I have to do on the daily,” he said. “Just staying ready too; the position I\u2019m in, I have 10 minutes (of playing time during an NBA game) I have to damn near be perfect. Watching films and just doing the things so when I get the opportunities, even if it\u2019s a little one, I can capitalize on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the NBA season winds down, this is the time of year where you typically see guys in Miller\u2019s shoes get more opportunities, and he wants to put the work in and take advantage of that. While short term goals are great, its better to think bigger, to which Miller said \u201cGetting consistent minutes, and that\u2019s done on my end, so just doing the things I need to do to (get there) and have a bigger opportunity,\u201d one thing is for sure:<\/p>\n
As the late, great Kobe Bryant famously said \u2013 \u201cThe job\u2019s not finished. What\u2019s there to be happy about?\u201d Miller can celebrate this hard work he\u2019s put in, but that pond he has just found himself in \u2013 \u00a0if he approaches it right and makes the right strides, can make himself a whole lot bigger, and the pond a whole lot smaller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 Fun fact: There are 450 players in the NBA. 30 teams, 15 players per roster.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,6483,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,67,24567,558,11715,15851,4536],"class_list":{"0":"post-120483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-jordan-miller","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-clippers","13":"tag-laclippers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesclippers","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-norm-powell","21":"tag-norman-powell","22":"tag-san-diego","23":"tag-san-diego-clippers","24":"tag-tst-los-angeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114737306988271999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}