Unfortunate Jordan Miller Injury Creates a Sliver of Opportunity for New Clipper

Los Angeles Clippers fans received the first disappointing injury update of the season. On Wednesday, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that fourth-year swingman Jordan Miller suffered a rotator cuff tear in an offseason workout. The 26-year-old shooting guard will be re-evaluated in six months.

This is a devastating blow for Miller, who is coming off a breakout campaign. He became an important part of the Clippers' rotation last season, playing over 22 minutes per game and averaging 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists on a very efficient 62.8% True Shooting. Fortunately for him, he had already signed a three-year, $15 million extension thanks to this performance earlier in the summer.

The earliest Miller can return will be around the All-Star break. This means that he will miss more than half of the season. By the time he can play himself back into shape and carve out a role for himself, the season could be over.

As disappointing as this is for Miller, it also creates an opportunity for the Clippers further down the pecking order. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of Miller's absence will be Gradey Dick.

Gradey Dick Now Has a Path to Playing Time

The Clippers have an abundance of shooting guards and small forwards. Between Keaton Wagler, Kobe Sanders, Kris Dunn, Max Strus, Bradley Beal, and Brandon Ingram, that is an embarrassment of riches in LA. Before Jordan Miller suffered the unfortunate injury, there was simply no room for Dick in this rotation.

Now, a window of opportunity has opened up for the former Raptor.

Dick will still be lower on the depth chart compared to guys like Strus, Beal, and Sanders, but he can now get regular minutes whenever there is an injury or an absence. In fact, if Ty Lue is willing to play small, Dick could even get minutes at small forward.

To earn these minutes, however, Dick has to start hitting shots. He came into the league with shooting as his calling card, but that hasn't materialized in his three seasons in Toronto. His three-point percentage has steadily declined over the years, hitting rock bottom at 30.1% last season.

For a player who does little else on the floor, that is not an acceptable percentage. But Dick is still only 22 years old. He has good positional size, and he is not as underathletic or as defensively hopeless as other players of this mold.

Unless his shot starts falling, nothing else matters. At least now, there is a path to playing time for him, and he will get an opportunity to showcase what he can do. In the fourth and final year of his rookie-scale contract, this will be a make-or-break season for the former 13th-overall pick.

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