Jason Tatum is the guy that comes to mind in terms of his build. Do folks here think that his game is reminiscent of Tatum?
I know in recent years it’s become “uncool” to compare draft players to star players, but what players past and present does everyone see in miller’s range of outcomes?
For me the concern w Miller is his brain. No idea, but concerned. I’m not worried about him guarding SG’s or playing the 2, because he mostly won’t. If he comes he plays behind Brdges, PJ and Hayward.
I wish he shot his jumpers from overhead like Tatum or Durant, but he doesn’t. That negates some of his height and length advantage.
Otherwise he’s a fine player. Maybe an all-star in 5 years. Maybe not.
I’m not worried about Scoots brain, I’m cheering for it. I’m not worried about his 3 pt. shooting, it’ll be fine given some time. His form is good.
Except for Clifford I’d expect him to start right away, but maybe it’ll take a few weeks. It’s possible he’s behind Terry for longer, but that would be a mistake in my opinion.
That’s where I am. Just waiting for further news out of Hornets Land, but not expecting anything for a while.
I know people want to talk about scoot’s shooting, but one one seems to mention the year to year G League improvement from 21 to 32% from 3. Or that the first year going from high school three point line to the NBA three point line is a big transition. Still a small sample size.
Is this the worst thing to pair him with Lamelo who loves shooting a ton of threes? Melo jacked up a TON of threes last year. Could be due to injuries and the team sucking. But still.
I agree with everyone on this topic. Y’all are amazing!
But also, it’s interesting how we all get so nitpicky about every aspect of a player to the point we convince ourselves it’s a drastic weakness.
And I get it, theres so much time to the draft, we’re bored, and only have 2 realistic prospects to break down and talk about (potentially 4, Whitmore and Amen are at least worth a due diligence look)
I feel like Scoot’s weakness in shooting has been addressed, along with his height, so I won’t really rehash.
For Miller, his athleticism isn’t in the explosive top tier, but he’s actually still really athletic, he’s one of the better athletes in the draft and will be in the upper quartile in the league. His first step, not super quick, but it’s not slow. Not even average either. It’s in the good range, and watching his film, he’s actually a got a much more sophisticated ball handling game than I ever realized.
Plus, getting space and driving lanes is more about getting guys off balance than blowing past anyone. Kemba was quicker than EVERYBODY, but his straight line blow bys were easy to guard, you could time him and challenge him at the rim, funnel him into bad spots, etc. Burst alone did not mean as much.
Once he learned change of pace, when to zoom and when to pause, slow step, change direction, thats when he took off for those 2-3 seasons. (And once he became a shooting threat, which Miller already is, Kemba was near unstoppable for those couple seasons while healthy)
Plus with Miller’s length, I actually think he’a more likely to be a lethal scorer in the NBA. He’s less Marvin Williams, or Cam Johnson. I see Middleton comps a lot, which would be incredible, but he’s definitely more athletic than Kris. I actually really like the Brandon Ingram comps a lot. Paul George and Tatum are the full potential dream of course, but we’ll have to see if he fills in those question marks first.
And regarding his defense, Miller is a weak rookie without the super quickness of lightning quick guards. But I think “guarding multiple positions” probably refers more to switchability during the games vs. straight up guarding 2’s or 4’s. Switching out on 2’s you can youse length to bottle in the quick guys, bait them into driving into trouble. Those long arms will still challenge shots. With the 4’s, theres no more brutal down low post ups, they like to sit out on the perimeter waiting for 3’s too.
So again, I think Miller will be alright on switches. The key is building strength and doing agility exercises, and just learning defensive principles could unlock a ton of defensive potential if he has the hunger.
There might be a world where they draft Miller and that causes the Hornets to bail on resigning PJ. Maybe Hayward becomes a 6th man. I think they sign Bridges because of his connection to LaMelo, but who knows?
I kind of doubt it though. I think they bring everybody back and bring along Miller slowly, as Clifford prefers.
If it’s Scoot, maybeeee they make a trade for Terry but again, I doubt it. It’s M*tch Kupchak. Then Clifford turns Henderson into next years DSJ.
Just giving y’all something to read! lol
Charlotte open to trading the 2nd pick to the Spurs
I don’t think they’re saying theres a direct line to trading #2 to the Spurs.
The Spurs want another lottery pick to match a point guard with Vic. The Hornets would consider trading down from 2. But the Spurs don’t directly have enough to trade to us for the #2.
For us to trade down, most likely it would either be #3 plus a future high pick or high level young prospect, or for 2 higher lottery picks + a future prospect/1st rounder.
Spurs don’t have those, but they may have enough assets to trade up to somewhere in the top 10, just probably not top 4 or 5.
Trading down would just contradict everything Mitch has said since landing this pick. He’s adamant we our better than the fourth worst team in the league. And when our team is healthy he’s clearly right in that assessment.
Every one in the building from MJ, Mitch, and Clifford on down to the players should be striving to at least be back in the play in next season. We already have 5 picks in this draft and I doubt we use more than 3 of them. So trading down for more assets just really does not make any sense for me unless they think they can land a bonafide star.
I don’t care if they take Amen at #2, decide on who you think the best player in this draft is at Wemby and just take them. Don’t get cute.
QC they have 28 draft picks between now and and 2029 , With at least6 high first the next two years . If we was selling i could see a move like this. Read the artical i posted it explains it better.
I agree, Brandon Miller is a great prospect. If you put him in LaMelo’s draft class he’s likely considered a better prospect than LaMelo and possibly even Anthony Edwards
Do you mind posting Scoots missed games stats? I was looking for them but could not get a comprehensive picture.
There is a thread on this in another section.
Come again?
Mono takes years to recover from even in healthy individuals. Nasty stuff
Oh I know that. That is why I have big concerns on that alone.
While I don’t think there’s much to separate Scoot and Miller in pure talent terms, 1a and 1b respectively for me, it’s elsewhere that Miller is loosing ground. Off court issue, health issue … at some point it becomes too much, hence Miller interviewed with a dozen teams. That’s a lot for someone who was a nailed on top 3 pick not that long ago.
Team Scoot for Fran.
Brandon miller finished at/around the rim at 39% within the context of half court sets. He also had a slightly negative AST/TO ratio (2.1/2.2). And as an NBA rookie, he’s not going to be amazing at creating his own shot consistently, and stats indicate he may not be a great finisher at the rim as is. And rookies aren’t known as the greatest defenders, and it doesn’t appear that Brandon is a great defender by all accounts.
Which leaves his shooting. I’d expect to see Brandon miller take a lot of threes this year, especially because he’s still physically under developed. So what is he bringing when his shot isn’t falling?
Would you trade Lamelo ball and two future first round picks to Portland for #3 pick to select Brandon miller? And keep pick 2? Pair miller and scoot?
No LaMelo is worth the #3 straight up. I would even say, Portland needs to throw in something of value
