New Orleans Pelicans: Darius Miller Has Stress Fracture in Foot

Derick E. Hingle – USA Today Sports Images

The New Orleans Pelicans have a much improved backcourt heading into the 2013-2014 NBA season. The additions of Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans obviously play a large part in that, but the addition of Anthony Morrow and the further development of their young players are also a major factor in their improvement for this year.

Darius Miller was one of those young players that was figuring to contribute off of the bench for the Pelicans this season, likely competing for reserve minutes with Al-Farouq Aminu. However, the reserve minutes to start the season in New Orleans will belong to Aminu alone.

On Monday the Pelicans announced that Miller has a stress fracture in his foot which he had surgery to repair, per a press release on NBA.com. The press release said that he will return to New Orleans tomorrow to begin his rehab program, but will be out of action for two-to-three months, meaning he will miss all of training camp and part of the start of the season.

Miller appeared in 52 games last season for the former Hornets and looked like he could potentially be a solid offensive threat off of the bench. He averaged only 2.3 points and 0.8 assists in 13.3 minutes per game and shot just 40.7 percent from the field, but he shot a solid 39.3 percent from three, which is something for New Orleans and him to hang their hats on.

Miller continued to look solid at the Las Vegas Summer League this year as he averaged 13.8 points and 1.4 assists in 29.8 minutes per game while shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three.

The second-round pick from 2012 seemingly had a chance to carve out some minutes for this Pelicans team, but those plans have obviously been put on hold. If his rehab goes smoothly, though, hopefully he can continue to grow and still find a role.

Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.