It's early for the 2023 NBA Summer League, but that hasn't stopped folks from overreacting to Brandon Miller's poor start for the Charlotte Hornets.
NBA Summer League season is officially upon us, and that means the season of knee-jerk overreactions is finally here, especially for teams that had lottery picks in the 2023 NBA draft.
Is your favorite team's new rookie playing well? He's the next Michael Jordan and destined to lead your franchise to the promised land.
Are they playing poorly? Pack it in, get ready for another season of tanking, and maybe fire the front office and hope an entirely new crew gets next season's lottery pick right.
Brandon Miller has gotten off to a very rough start for the Charlotte Hornets and many are seemingly already to write off the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Should the Hornets be worried about Brandon Miller?
Honestly, the answer to this question is pretty easy: No.
This doesn't mean Miller hasn't been playing poorly, he has, and someone on the Hornets staff should be letting him know this level of play isn't acceptable. But the truth is, it's only been two games — an absurdly small sample size — and in an environment that can best be described as basketball chaos.
NBA Summer League — particularly Salt Lake City summer league — is not NBA basketball. In general terms, each team features a handful of players that have guaranteed roster spots: this season's draft picks, last season's draft picks, a two-way guy, etc.
They're trying to show their improvement or that they're ready for minutes right away, but for the most part they know they'll be cashing NBA checks for at least the upcoming season.
The rest of the roster is filled out by players who are quite literally fighting for their life. They know that their roster spot here isn't guaranteed, often far from it, but that if they go on a hot streak they could get a roster spot with another NBA team, a good G League deal, or even a solid overseas deal.
If they don't play well? Might be time to break out Duolingo and see if you can learn Latvian.
This dynamic does not lend itself to productive basketball, or even a realistic playstyle that translates to the NBA.
You'll see players taking bad shots, like A LOT of bad shots, early in the shot clock, with no remorse. You'll see players trying to throw passes that they have no business throwing. Chasing defensive counting stats instead of following a scheme. And other things that simply aren't good basketball.
Meanwhile, those players who know they have their spot and thus their future, secured, are supposed to try to steer their team away from the worst of the worst as much as they can.
Some players meet that challenge well, and some get consumed by the chaos.
Brandon Miller, so far, is falling into the latter category
In his second Summer League game against the Warriors, he had more fouls (8) than points (6).
Through two games, he has committed 15 fouls and 10 turnovers. While these figures are jarring, they are not any reason to deem the former Alabama wing a bust.
Miller has had good moments, and shown his shotmaking ability particularly from beyond the arc on a few occasions and had flashes of good playmaking.
It's also worth remembering that the responsibilities Miller is handling now — a heavy dosage of self-creation and setting up teammates — will not be his responsibilities on next season's Hornets team. They just agreed to pay LaMelo Ball more than $200 million to do that.
In fact, Miller might not even start for the Hornets. Depending on what position the Hornets deem best for him, he could be competing for minutes with Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward, Miles Bridges, and Cody Martin — all proven NBA players.
Miller is 20 years old, loaded with talent, and hasn't figured out the best way to use it at this level yet, and that's okay. Most 20 years old haven't, most of them aren't Luka Doncic and ready to dominate an NBA game right away.
Miller has plenty of time to grow, and figure out how he can best impact the game and potentially form an exciting young trio with Ball, Bridges, or any of the other young talent in Charlotte. Perhaps, we should all just let him do that instead of overreacting to two games in early July.
And if we do that, maybe we can just enjoy his primetime matchup with Victor Wembanyama tonight and put the knee-jerk overreactions off to the side.
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