Ian Miller

Leonard Hamilton gives Ian Miller a really small thumbs up.

Miller can score, and Lord does he try. He is a shooter, a good shooter, and a very very enthusiastic shooter. Despite being 6'3 and roughly 200lbs, he is not a point guard or a creator - he can get the ball over halfcourt for you, but he's not going to collapse and kick, hit a roll man, or do anything especially point guardy. He has the ball up top a lot, but it's in the hunt for a shot.

Miller was pressed into this point guard masquerade in his time at Florida State, an act to which he committed his best. Miller can make the simple passes and handle the ball up top safely enough, which sufficed. It had to. His handle in traffic is less secure, however, and while he can use his good speed to get to the basket off ball screen action, he struggled to finish there, and instead settled for jumpers and floaters. Miller can nevertheless create jumpshots for himself with his speed and agility, pulling up on a dime and shooting a step back, and can make tough, contested shots. He has a quick release and NBA range (and if he doesn't have the latter, he soon will do), and can hit shots falling in all directions. Frankly, though, he chucks a few. He cannot end team scoring droughts in any way other than by chucking a shot, because he cannot consistently create them. And defensively, while Miller's good size and speed are good for the point guard spot, he gets lazy defensively at times and is too easily hung up on screens to prevent the drive.

Players such as Jannero Pargo and Ian Clark have made the NBA with similar skill sets, but Miller has never really shown NBA talent. Bundesliga talent, yes.

[...] The offense hasn't been as bad as expected, however, and has improved during the season, in part due to the contributions of the freshman James, Ian Miller and Okaro White. Miller has missed some time with injury, yet when he's been healthy, he's been Florda State's best backcourt scorer, the best guard shooter, the best guard at creating in isolation. He is an athletic combo-guard, great transition player, and, predictably, a player with good defensive potential as well. Meanwhile, White is an athletic and versatile 6'8, vaunted initially for his defense (obviously) yet proving effective as a mid-range-and-in offensive player, too. He can score in the post, and is good enough of a ball handler to be effective at throwing himself wildly towards the rim, albeit with high turnover numbers as an inevitable by-product. The incoming class of White, Kreft, Miller and White have supplemented the defense, given then enough of a talent infusion to overcome the offensive flaws, and pushed the Seminoles back into the tournament.