Hornets’ Brandon Miller: “He’ll be as good as he wants to be”

As Brandon Miller prepares for his second NBA season, Charles Lee, his new coach of the Charlotte Hornets, wants the former Alabama player to “transform from a scouting report guy to a scouting report guy.”

After joining the Hornets as the second selection in the 2023 NBA Draft, Miller finished third in voting for the NBA Rookie of the Year award.

In his first season in the NBA, Miller averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 32.2 minutes in 74 games. He hit 37.3 percent of his three-point shots, and Miller’s 184 three-point baskets rank fourth in NBA history for a rookie.

Splitting the season in half, Miller averaged 14.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 0.6 steals in his first 37 games and 19.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals in his second 37 games.

“It’s important that we have expectations, but more importantly, Brandon has expectations for himself,” new Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson said Monday of Miller’s second season. “He’s very competitive. He knows he has a lot to improve. Currently he is a very good player, but he has a lot to improve. There are no limits with him, so I don’t necessarily want to put restrictions or restrictions on him. He will be as good as he wants to be.

“I think this summer was a very valuable experience for him, when he was able to take part in some games and Olympic training. He plays with these guys every night anyway, but playing with all of them in one place was quite a unique experience for him, and it fired him up even more. He is very excited.

– I’ll say it again: I don’t want to limit him. I can tell you this: he was in the gym all offseason and he was ready to take the next step.

This summer, Miller played on the elite USA Men’s Basketball team, anchoring the USA Men’s Basketball team as they prepared for the Paris Games, where he won a gold medal.

“It was fun playing against guys, the best players in the world, learning from them every day,” Miller said Monday. “You can’t ask for more. You know, I just come in, compete at a high level and try to get better every day.

Miller’s goal for this season is to dominate on both sides of the pitch.

“I think I’m working on being an elite two-way this year.”
– Miller said. “That’s what Charles is, and he kind of imposes it. I feel like I showed a little bit of two-wayness last year, but I think this year will be a great season for a two-way season.

Due to injuries and competition, only one Hornets player – Miller – played in at least 70 games.

The Hornets hope to retain a core of winger Miller, defenseman LaMelo Ball and forward Miles Bridges in the 2024-25 season. Ball, a 2022 NBA All-Star, led Charlotte with averages of 23.9 points and 8.0 assists per game, but only played in 22 contests.

“I’m super excited, man,” Miller said of Ball’s return. “You know, the best IQ in the game. I think he is the best quarterback. He will help us. He will lead. I think all we can ask of him is just leadership. He knows that everyone will follow his lead. We’ll be there with him. Everyone looks at him as a brother away from home. But without him it would definitely be different, as we saw last year. But it’s a new year. I see him doing great things this year, maybe an All-Star for him.”

Charlotte also has center Mark Williams returning after playing in 19 games last season, rebounding leader Nick Richards, returning in-season trade acquisition Grant Williams and Tre Mann for training camp and July newcomer Josh Green joining the rotation.

“Just here I’m trying to build new bonds with new faces,” Miller said. “I think this training camp will be great for us. This will help us build even stronger bonds. And that will obviously help us later in the season to achieve our goals of the playoffs and the championship, so I think we’ll work on bonding this week.