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Brad Miller has a talent for avoiding the spotlight.
During his senior season at Purdue, he averaged 17.2 points and 8.9 rebounds a night in one of the nation's toughest conferences, while his .632 shooting was the fifth-best mark in the nation.
Despite putting up huge numbers for a high-profile team, and NBA teams' constant desperation for size, Miller's name wasn't exactly on the tip of scouts' tongues when he left school. In fact, his stellar senior season earned him the privilege of being drafted by ... nobody. By comparison, Sam Jacobson played for a rival Big 10 squad, averaged 18.2 points and 5.2 rebounds with a shooting percentage that wasn't in the same area code as Miller's, and went in the first round.
Miller quickly showed the draft snub was a huge mistake, bulling his way into the Hornets' playing rotation as a rookie, but as a pro his anonymity has continued. Ask a friend to name the top centers in the NBA and see how long it is before the name "Brad Miller" comes up. In fact, he isn't even the best-known guy named Miller on the Pacers.
In truth, however, Miller is rapidly emerging as one of the top centers in the game, especially in light of the void that exists after Shaquille O'Neal among centers.
Miller showed his stuff after being traded from the Bulls in the second half of last season. In 28 games with the Pacers, he averaged 15.1 points and 7.9 rebounds a night while shooting a scalding 56 percent from the field.
Those numbers could get even higher this season. Despite his stellar play, Miller averaged just 31 minutes a night in Indiana because of his proclivity for foul trouble. He fouled out in his first game as a Pacer, and early foul difficulties held his minutes down in several other contests. A lot of his fouls are of the ticky-tacky variety; if he can rein in that tendency, he could average in the high teens this year.
Miller gets his points in a variety of ways. Although he doesn't have a single signature move, his game has few holes. He can post up smaller players for turnaround jumpers or drives, handles the ball well for a big man, hits almost 80 percent from the line and has a good mid-range jump shot.
Miller labored in obscurity with the hapless Bulls for most of the past two seasons, helping to keep his anonymity intact. That could all change in a hurry. Beyond Jermaine O'Neal, he may be the most important player on the Pacers this season -- even moreso than that other guy named Miller.
His ability to shoot a high percentage and allow O'Neal to play power forward was the key reason Indiana looked so formidable in its five-game series against the Nets last season, and why the Pacers can do much more this year. With his skills on display for a team that could win the Eastern Conference, Brad Miller may finally get his due.
-- By John Hollinger, CNNSI.com
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