The Charlotte Hornets are headed for a ninth-straight appearance in the lottery with the league’s fifth-worst record halfway through January, and now things get even worse as the team announced on Friday that 2023 No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller has sustained a torn ligament in his right wrist.
Miller, who suffered the injury during Charlotte’s 117-112 win in Utah on Wednesday, has been ruled out indefinitely with additional updates on his status provided as appropriate.
“One of those bittersweet things where you’re happy for the victory, but unfortunate news on Brandon,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said after the game in Utah. “We’ll continue to evaluate where he is and do as much testing as we can. … [He’s] out indefinitely and we all just have to band together and help him get through his rehab.”
This is bummer news for Miller, who is averaging 21 points per game this season (up from 17 as a rookie) to go with 4.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists. All of Miller’s counting stats are up from his rookie campaign, in fact, as are his usage and minutes.
But his efficiency, which already wasn’t great last year, is down. Having replaced a large chunk of the midrange diet he relied on so heavily as a rookie with four more 3-point attempts per game (from 6.7 to 10.9), he’s shot just 40% from the field through 27 games. His 32.2 effective field-goal percentage ranks in just the 32nd percentile among all forwards, per Cleaning the Glass.
Miller clearly has a ton of upside. He can be a lights-out shooter, from all levels, off both self-creation and catches, but he has been streaky to start his career. He’s a high-flying finishing athlete with optimal two-way size for his position. There’s no question he and LaMelo Ball are fun to watch.
But so far, nothing even close to consistent winning has accompanied the play of Ball or Miller, as intriguing a tandem as they are on paper. Only one team, the lowly Wizards, actually has fewer wins than Charlotte’s 10.
Perhaps Miller is able to make it back at some point this season, but that’s not a guarantee and it may not even be advisable for a Hornets team that is on a clear path to the lottery, where they would retain their 2025 first-round pick (it’s owed to the Spurs if it falls outside the top 14).
As of right now, the Hornets have the fifth-worst record in the league. They might as well take this as an opportunity to, shall we say, put less than their best foot forward in an effort to increase their chances of ending up with a bottom-three record — which would carry with it the maximum 14% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick. If they were to get, for example, Cooper Flagg along with Miller and Ball, now we might be talking about something real in Charlotte.
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