Hornets rookie drawing comparisons with Durant, George

Highlights

• Charlotte Hornets’ number two draft pick Brandon Miller has so far impressed as a potential future superstar.
• The team is sitting in a lottery position, largely due to LaMelo Ball’s long-standing injury.
• Miller’s impressive skill-set has seen him compared to Kevin Durant and Paul George.

While the Charlotte Hornets are all but certainly heading towards yet another lottery pick in next year’s NBA Draft, one of the main positives that they can take away from the 2023-24 campaign is knowing that they may have drafted a future superstar in Brandon Miller.

The 21-year-old rookie has matched, and possibly even surpassed, the expectations placed on him as the number three overall pick, with league insider Mark Medina comparing his game to that of two of the NBA’s biggest stars in Kevin Durant and Paul George.

Heading back to the lottery

15-42 record, 27th in NBA

Only a few months ago, the Hornets’ name was one which was being dangled around in conversations as a team that could reach the Play-In tournament, despite being in a competitive Eastern Conference landscape, largely as a result of the impressive play of franchise point-guard, LaMelo Ball.

However, after he sustained an ankle injury which has seen him compete in only 22 of a possible 57 contests so far, Charlotte’s fortunes have been flipped on their head, and it now looks all but certain that they will end up as a draft lottery team once again.

Seemingly unwilling to accept their fate, the trade deadline saw them offload Gordon Hayward to the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the 33-year-old veteran now joining a legitimate title contender for the remainder of the season, with the Hornets receiving Tre Mann and Davis Bertans in return.

But, the Hornets decided to be active at the deadline once again, swinging a deal with the Dallas Mavericks to nab sharpshooter Seth Curry, and defensive reinforcements in the form of Grant Williams, sending PJ Washington the other way.

It later emerged that the Mavericks desperately sought to move on from the power forward after only seven months, amid reports that he had ‘rubbed people the wrong way’ in Dallas, and since his arrival in Charlotte, Williams has embarked on a revenge tour, coming off the bench to average 15.0 points and 4.5 rebounds on a 46.9 percent shooting clip.

With Ball’s long-term absence, and the other drama surrounding the roster, one performer who has perhaps gone under the radar somewhat is rookie, Brandon Miller, who in the realms of rookie seasons is arguably having one of the best in recent memory, so much so that Tony Jones of The Athletic believes that the Hornets should be looking to build their future around Miller over Ball.

“I think [Brandon Miller] is the best player on the roster despite [LaMelo Ball’s] counting stats being superior to Miller’s…When I watch Miller play, I see a younger version of LA Clippers forward Paul George. As controversial as this will sound, I would trade Ball and build around Miller.” – Tony Jones

Source: The Athletic

The Hornets currently sit 13th in the East, with a 15-42 losing record, and are 10 games back of making the Play-In tournament, a feat which now looks to be too far to overcome.

Miller has ‘lived up to the bill’

Medina has been very impressed by Miller so far during this campaign, going on to recall various conversations he has held with NBA consultants and executives, whereby they have likened the Hornets rookie’s game and skill-set on both sides of the ball to that of both Kevin Durant and Paul George, who boast 23 All-Star nods between them.

“Brandon Miller has lived up to his billing. I remember talking to Ryan Blake, who’s been a longtime NBA consultant, he likened Miller to a smaller version of Kevin Durant.

Talking to some other executives before the draft, they found some similarities to Brandon Miller and Paul George, these two-way players that are really good elite scorers that are fundamentally sound, but also take a lot of pride in defending multiple positions, and that is what Brandon Miller has done.”

Hornets have picked out a future star

16.5 PPG – Third-leading scorer among rookies this season

Having cemented a starting spot in the Hornets’ line-up, Miller has also established himself as one of the team’s leading scorers, averaging 16.5 points per contest, third-most among the 2023 rookie class, at a 43.9 percent shooting clip, while also converting from distance at 37.8 percent accuracy. He also grabs 4.0 rebounds and dishes out 2.4 assists per night in 31.7 minutes of game time.

When comparing his season so far to the rookie seasons of Durant and George, from a production standpoint, his numbers are on-par with Durant, but surpassing George’s offensive output with relative ease.

During the 2007-08 season, Durant notched 20.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists, though, he did have a higher usage rate of 28.3 percent and played more minutes than Miller, averaging 34.6 minutes per contest.

On the other hand, George, who was selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2010 draft, only amassed 20.7 minutes in his 61-game rookie campaign, in which he posted 7.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and just over an assist per game.

With the Hornets having a relatively young and inexperienced team, as well as having to deal with injuries to their star player, Miller has had to take on an additional chunk of the offensive workload for the team, as exemplified by his 23.5 usage rate, the 5th most among rookie forwards.

While Charlotte’s streak of missing the playoffs continues, having not reached the post-season since 2016, and yet to win a playoff series since 2002, Miller’s addition to the roster may have presented them with a little glimmer of hope that they are on the right track to achieving that goal in the future, especially if he materializes to become a player that resembles some of the NBA’s most elite.

All statistics courtesy of Statmuse, ESPN, NBA.com and Basketball Reference.