BrandHIM Miller: The Brandon Miller Thread

[JMAC3]

Everytime I look up this kid has 16/18 points.

He's doing this without plays being called for him. If we develop him right he should have no problem being a Paul George kind of player. He is way more advanced than PG was as a rookie.

This was something I said when he was in college... even when he played bad shooting he would still find a way to have a solid scoring output. He does it without forcing it too, like it seems natural for him to stay patient and let the offense find him.

[fatlever]

not to take away anything from Brandon, but not sure why it's noteworthy that he got hot in the 4th when we were down 20, after being ice cold when it counted. Just a weird thing to point out as a positive... He wasn't good last night when it mattered, just like the rest of the team. no biggie, it happens, especially as a rookie.

[JMAC3]

not to take away anything from Brandon, but not sure why it's noteworthy that he got hot in the 4th when we were down 20, after being ice cold when it counted. Just a weird thing to point out as a positive... He wasn't good last night when it mattered, just like the rest of the team. no biggie, it happens, especially as a rookie.

More so pointing out that as a rookie he has scored double figures 18/20 games.
As a guy who is 5th in fga per game and 5th in usage that is pretty impressive.

Chet is 3rd in usage on Thunder, Wemby is 1st for Spurs.

[KingCat]

not to take away anything from Brandon, but not sure why it's noteworthy that he got hot in the 4th when we were down 20, after being ice cold when it counted. Just a weird thing to point out as a positive... He wasn't good last night when it mattered, just like the rest of the team. no biggie, it happens, especially as a rookie.

Well let's be realy, this season is pretty much a wash. The primary goals at this point is making sure Lamelo gets healthy, we get good capital for shipping out our vets, and Miller gains more and more confidence out on the court.

Seeing him be able to keep his head up after an awful half and still get his numbers will be good for his continued confidence and development

[fatlever]

phrasing it as something like...
good to see Miller finish strong in the 4th after a rough shooting night. shows continued growth and confidence...

[SWedd523]

I know Miller is a rookie so I don't want to be too critical of him, but I'd prefer to see him hunt for his buckets more and be less of an in-the-flow-of-the-game scorer.

He's giving Hayward vibes, and I think Melo needs him to have more of a Rozier mentality.

He was a go getter in college so I have faith. It's something I'm going to watch for as he progresses.

[KingCat]

I know Miller is a rookie so I don't want to be too critical of him, but I'd prefer to see him hunt for his buckets more and be less of an in-the-flow-of-the-game scorer.

He's giving Hayward vibes, and I think Melo needs him to have more of a Rozier mentality.

He was a go getter in college so I have faith. It's something I'm going to watch for as he progresses.

I feel that. The current make up of this team doesn't really give him the opportunity to do that alot, especially with Hayward gunning in his contract year and PJ taking a shot every time he touches it.

Also he just isn't very good at self creation in the half court yet. I can't wait to see him get a summer to work on his handles and strength. That is gonna be the difference between him being a high level role player or allstar.

Honestly though him averaging 15 a game on solid efficiency as a 4th or 5th option is very damn good for a rookie

[JMAC3]

The guy is 6-9 and can play SG. There are like 4 guys in the NBA who are probably capable of that, shooting 40% from 3.

If he works on it, his game should round out nicely. He is still super skinny, he has a kids body. 2 summers of NBA weight room will be a huge difference maker.

Paul George averaged 7.8 ppg as a rookie, 12.1 as a sophomore. After two years in college.

Miller in his 3rd year could be disguistng.

[fatlever]

Potential is encouraging. Handles and strength and we are good to go!

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[NMBSurfin]

going in to the season I didn't have high hopes. But Brandon has been a pleasant surprise. I think next year we make noise, and we're set up for a long run. Melo gets healthy. Brandon and Mark develop. Gordon is gone and probably Terry, so we can be player in free agency, hopefully a vet to help all our young guys. I think we'll have 2 all stars with Miller and Melo, a good vet, Mark looking better and better at center, and get some good depth with our first next year. In two years, I think we'll have our best Hornets team since Lonzo and Grandmama

[JustBuzzin]

The guy is 6-9 and can play SG. There are like 4 guys in the NBA who are probably capable of that, shooting 40% from 3.

If he works on it, his game should round out nicely. He is still super skinny, he has a kids body. 2 summers of NBA weight room will be a huge difference maker.

Paul George averaged 7.8 ppg as a rookie, 12.1 as a sophomore. After two years in college.

Miller in his 3rd year could be disguistng.

Agree 100% with this post. He's ahead of schedule. He's already a 16-18ppg and he's doing it mostly with the flow of the offense. Once he develops his shot creating we looking at a 23-26ppg kind of scorer easily!

[KingCat]

Does Brandon read these forums? Lol just found it funny that he seemed to have attempted to self create in the halfcourt vs the Pels a lot more than usual.

Unsurprising that it came with mixed success but I was thrilled to see he appears to be adding a floater to his arsenal. Every guard and wing needs a good float game in this era since mid range shots are considered sacrilegious now a days.

[NCHeels2008]

not to take away anything from Brandon, but not sure why it's noteworthy that he got hot in the 4th when we were down 20, after being ice cold when it counted. Just a weird thing to point out as a positive... He wasn't good last night when it mattered, just like the rest of the team. no biggie, it happens, especially as a rookie.

Well let's be realy, this season is pretty much a wash. The primary goals at this point is making sure Lamelo gets healthy, we get good capital for shipping out our vets, and Miller gains more and more confidence out on the court.

Seeing him be able to keep his head up after an awful half and still get his numbers will be good for his continued confidence and development

Second straight season LaMelo's health tanks our season, part of the reason I wanted Scoot btw

[vorbis]

Miller has made big shots throughout the season tbh. 3's with the game tied, 3's to tie the game. I'm not worried about his performance dipping with pressure at all, which is quite a thing to say about a rookie. he gives me the vibes that he's going to be good even in the playoffs because his offensive game is already pretty versatile. now, when is he going to see a playoff game, on the other hand...

I've noticed him trying to drive to the basket more assertively in recent games. he's noticed bigs switching onto him in the pick and roll, and he's making them pay. very encouraging. everything is either on schedule or ahead of schedule for him. all-star in the making.

[fatlever]

not to take away anything from Brandon, but not sure why it's noteworthy that he got hot in the 4th when we were down 20, after being ice cold when it counted. Just a weird thing to point out as a positive... He wasn't good last night when it mattered, just like the rest of the team. no biggie, it happens, especially as a rookie.

Well let's be realy, this season is pretty much a wash. The primary goals at this point is making sure Lamelo gets healthy, we get good capital for shipping out our vets, and Miller gains more and more confidence out on the court.

Seeing him be able to keep his head up after an awful half and still get his numbers will be good for his continued confidence and development

Second straight season LaMelo's health tanks our season, part of the reason I wanted Scoot btw

I hear ya, but let's be real... our season was tanked long before Melo got hurt

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[HornetJail]

Well let's be realy, this season is pretty much a wash. The primary goals at this point is making sure Lamelo gets healthy, we get good capital for shipping out our vets, and Miller gains more and more confidence out on the court.

Seeing him be able to keep his head up after an awful half and still get his numbers will be good for his continued confidence and development

Second straight season LaMelo's health tanks our season, part of the reason I wanted Scoot btw

I hear ya, but let's be real... our season was tanked long before Melo got hurt

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

nailed it. I said somewhere (don't remember if it was here or reddit) that we were always going to need to stack wins in October and November, and we'd need to be somewhere on the order of 3-5 games OVER .500 during that cupcake schedule, just to survive what was always going to be a brutal December to early January. When LaMelo went down, we were 5-9 soon to be 5-10. Even if LaMelo plays every game, it's really hard to argue that we wouldn't be somewhere around 11-21 by the time our late Dec/early Jan west coast trip ends.

Given how injured we are as a team now on top of LaMelo, I truly believe that the Toronto or Indy game is the last chance we get to win a game until our home-and-home with Chicago on January 5th and 8th. And we aren't winning those either if we're so injured that we have to start Richards and McGowens.

the tl;dr is that we are screwed and we have been ever since we went 5-10 with a schedule that we really should've gone about 10-5 with.

[NCHeels2008]

Second straight season LaMelo's health tanks our season, part of the reason I wanted Scoot btw

I hear ya, but let's be real... our season was tanked long before Melo got hurt

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

nailed it. I said somewhere (don't remember if it was here or reddit) that we were always going to need to stack wins in October and November, and we'd need to be somewhere on the order of 3-5 games OVER .500 during that cupcake schedule, just to survive what was always going to be a brutal December to early January. When LaMelo went down, we were 5-9 soon to be 5-10. Even if LaMelo plays every game, it's really hard to argue that we wouldn't be somewhere around 11-21 by the time our late Dec/early Jan west coast trip ends.

Given how injured we are as a team now on top of LaMelo, I truly believe that the Toronto or Indy game is the last chance we get to win a game until our home-and-home with Chicago on January 5th and 8th. And we aren't winning those either if we're so injured that we have to start Richards and McGowens.

the tl;dr is that we are screwed and we have been ever since we went 5-10 with a schedule that we really should've gone about 10-5 with.

BTW didn't wanna totally relitigate the pick just part of the theory behind Miller was we didn't need any other playmakers/creators when we had Ball. I really think the team (since we are gonna suck again) could stand to invest in another creator/playmaker because Ball (like his brother) can create without dominating the ball.

[KingCat]

I hear ya, but let's be real... our season was tanked long before Melo got hurt

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

nailed it. I said somewhere (don't remember if it was here or reddit) that we were always going to need to stack wins in October and November, and we'd need to be somewhere on the order of 3-5 games OVER .500 during that cupcake schedule, just to survive what was always going to be a brutal December to early January. When LaMelo went down, we were 5-9 soon to be 5-10. Even if LaMelo plays every game, it's really hard to argue that we wouldn't be somewhere around 11-21 by the time our late Dec/early Jan west coast trip ends.

Given how injured we are as a team now on top of LaMelo, I truly believe that the Toronto or Indy game is the last chance we get to win a game until our home-and-home with Chicago on January 5th and 8th. And we aren't winning those either if we're so injured that we have to start Richards and McGowens.

the tl;dr is that we are screwed and we have been ever since we went 5-10 with a schedule that we really should've gone about 10-5 with.

BTW didn't wanna totally relitigate the pick just part of the theory behind Miller was we didn't need any other playmakers/creators when we had Ball. I really think the team (since we are gonna suck again) could stand to invest in another creator/playmaker because Ball (like his brother) can create without dominating the ball.

This is very true. A ton of folks had Miles as our secondary player maker, but I think his year absence made people forgot that he is just not a high IQ player. Draft wise I am extremely skeptical on guys like Topic and Proctor, but still wouldn't mind taking a chance on them just so we get some semblance of point guard play off the bench.

[yosemiteben]

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[Snidely FC]

Zach Lowe writes about Miller this week:

Brandon Miller would like your attention

It will be years before we really know whether the Charlotte Hornets were right to choose Miller over Henderson, but they should be happy with Miller's play so far. To almost zero acclaim, Miller is averaging 14.7 points on decent shooting -- 44% overall, 38.5% on 3s -- and hanging in across four positions on defense.

He has been a bit hit or miss in what is mostly a spot-up role, tentative on some on-ball chances. He has 48 free throw attempts in 26 games and blah assist-to-turnover numbers. Charlotte has scored only 0.85 points directly out of Miller's drives -- 260th among 299 players who have recorded at least 20 drives, per Second Spectrum data.

But it's hard to parse those numbers, given Charlotte's injuries and lack of top talent. Miller's shot looks good, and his pull-up 2 should become a nice late-clock fail-safe. He has also shown some ability to bully smaller guards when opponents hide weaker defenders on him:

You can see Miller feeling out the NBA game -- how fast he can go, when to slow down, how to avoid fouls. But there's something to be said for a young guy starting from a place of calm control and learning how to build his explosiveness atop that.

Miller is also good at bulldozing smaller defenders on cuts; he's savvy cutting backdoor when opponents load up on pick-and-rolls.