The 2023 NBA Draft certainly had its surprising and somewhat head-scratching moments. An example would be Cam Whitmore who was projected to go top 5 fell to the 20th pick and was taken by the Houston Rockets, but the biggest of them all was the Charlotte Hornets selecting Brandon Miller with the second overall pick when Scoot Henderson was still on the board. This was questioned by many in the NBA community.
From the moment the thought of the 2023 Draft rolled around 2 names were at the peak of notoriety. Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson. The former was the consensus number-one overall pick for quite a while due to his size and unicorn skillset, but Henderson was a highly touted prospect of his own.
Given a hall-of-fame ceiling, he was expected to go number 2 until the Charlotte Hornets received the pick. Due to the Hornets technically already having their point guard of the future in LaMelo Ball, it was decided that they would select a wing with the pick and eventually took Brandon Miller.
Brandon Miller had 7 fouls and 6 turnovers in his first game
The NBA 2023 Summer League in Las Vegas has just kicked off and one of the first matchups was the ‘California Classic’ that is the San Antonio Spurs vs the Charlotte Hornets. The Spurs were able to pull off a convincing victory behind the return of Julian Champagnie who scored 30 points and Dominick Barlow who contributed 24 of his.
Number one overall pick, Victor Wembanyama decided not to check in for the game, as a joint decision between him and the front office as they believe there’s no need to expose Victor to potential injury before the regular season, and to avoid a situation like the one that faced Chet Holgrem and the Oklahoma City Thunder last season.
Here’s the concern w/ Brandon Miller — no vertical pop and minimal strength. Finishing at NBA level will be a challenge pic.twitter.com/RidwjWx9AA
— Draft Dummies (@DraftDummies) July 4, 2023
All the eyes were then, of course, set upon Brandon Miller who impressed in his debut scoring-wise but brought upon some doubts about his game sense and mindset. Miller came across and committed 7 personal fouls. The only reason he wasn’t ejected from the game was due to the Summer League has a 10-foul limit for ejection contrasting to the NBA’s 6-foul limit.
I’ve personally always said, I’m leery of kids who have polished shots coming out of college that means they probably can’t get to the rim qhen they want. He’s really not all that athletic. Devo Davis had him in he’ll last year. I knew then he wasn’t it 6 inch height…
— Brandon D. Washington (@ghostzapperfan) July 4, 2023
Miller also gave up 6 turnovers in a careless fashion which shows that he needs to be much more careful while handling the rock and that he has to progress mentally to be able to handle the pressure of professional play. There are also some concerns about his finishing at the rim and overall athleticism, with a fan summing it up as “He’s not all that athletic” although his scouting report might show otherwise.
However, he scored 18 points, which led the team, and grab 5 rebounds which show good hustle and awareness. Miller was also an above-average playmaker, dishing out some fancy passes to make up 3 assists.