Vet came to Wizards expecting to contend
The joy on Mike Miller’s face couldn’t be suppressed when the Wizards opened training camp. Having come to Washington with Randy Foye via predraft trade with the lowly Timberwolves, Miller was on the verge of the playoffs again, where he’d been in five of his first six seasons.
And after three years of being exiled to the NBA’s Siberia, with losing teams in Memphis and Minnesota, the 3-point specialist no longer cared about scoring — he just wanted to be a winner.
“If you were in my shoes and got beat up the last three years, you forget all about that stuff,” said Miller on media day in September. “I just want a fun year. I want to enjoy myself. I want to come in here and know that every time we lace ’em up, there’s a pretty good chance we’re winning this game.”
Instead, the most seasoned player left among the remnants of trade-deadline moves has found himself as far away from the postseason as he’s ever been.
“To be honest with you, it’s been one of them years,” said Miller on Thursday, “I came in here expecting one thing. It’s become something completely different. At the same time, we’re competing, and that’s always fun to see. The last game was really the only game that was a struggle for us. If we continue to play that hard, we’ll be alright.”
Like most of his teammates, Miller’s role has changed since the trades, forcing him to step into the leadership void left behind by the team’s departures. But he’s also got to be more assertive on the floor. He’ll get a chance to bounce back from just three points, five rebounds and two assists against Milwaukee on Wednesday — well off from his season averages (10.2 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 3.7 apg) — when the Wizards (21-37) face the Bucks (31-29) again on Friday.
“More than anything else, he’s been positive in what he’s done,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. That’s how you have to approach it. What you have to do is you have to go out, whether it’s through leadership or just how you’re playing on the floor or whatever you’re doing, and have some type of impact on the team.”
