Brandon Miller’s box scores have been impossible to miss through the first week of the season. The volume is huge, the points are piling up, and the shots? Well, those have been coming in bunches too.
Through five games, Miller is putting up 25.6 points per night while shooting 39% from the field and 27.3% from three. On Wednesday against Detroit, he fired up 26 shots to get to 31 points and added 12 rebounds in Charlotte’s 97-89 loss.
Two games earlier, he needed 29 attempts to score 34 against Miami. The numbers aren’t pretty, and there’s no reason to dress them up.
Still, it feels early to hit the alarm button.
The biggest reason is simple: Charlotte has spent the first five games without Coby White and Kon Knueppel, which has pushed far more of the offense onto Miller than the Hornets probably want once the roster is whole again. His usage rate is sitting at 34.8%, and he’s averaging 24.6 shots and more than 11 3-point attempts per game. That’s an enormous load for any scorer, especially when defenses know two key pieces are missing.
Miller’s first five games have already shown both extremes. He opened with a 2-for-14 effort and six points against Atlanta, then bounced back with 34 against Miami, a career-high 39 against Washington, and 31 against Detroit. That’s 104 points across three games after one of the roughest shooting nights of his career.
The Washington game was the best snapshot of what Miller can look like when the shot is there. He went 15-of-28 from the field and 5-of-10 from deep, but he also filled out the stat sheet with six rebounds, three steals and two blocks while helping Charlotte finish off the win. In the process, he also became the second-fastest player in NBA history to reach 500 career 3-pointers.
That’s the larger point here: this doesn’t look like a player who suddenly forgot how to shoot. It looks like a player carrying a much bigger burden than he’s likely to carry later.
White gives Charlotte another scorer and ballhandler. Knueppel adds a shooter defenses can’t simply ignore. Both were ruled out before the season opener, and neither has played yet, leaving the Hornets short on the kind of spacing that should make Miller’s life easier.
Without them, Miller has been dealing with more pressure, more attention and more possessions where he has to create something out of nothing. Sometimes that means a tough jumper late in the shot clock.
Sometimes it means forcing the issue because Charlotte doesn’t have many other options on the floor. Some of that is on Miller, no question, and his shot selection can absolutely improve.
But some of it comes with the role the Hornets have had to ask him to play.
Getting White and Knueppel back should change that picture. Miller should see less defensive attention, fewer possessions where he has to do everything himself and more chances to work with cleaner looks. The starting five Charlotte expects once both are healthy should look a lot different from what Miller has been dealing with so far.
For now, the better move is to wait and see.
Yes, 39% from the field and 27.3% from three are not good numbers. If they’re still sitting there a month from now, that’s a real issue. But five games into the season, with two important shooters still sidelined, there’s no need to treat this like a crisis.
Miller has already shown he can get it going when the shots fall. He scored 39 against Washington while shooting better than 53% from the field and 50% from three, and he’s coming off three straight 30-point games after that Atlanta clunker.
There’s still cleanup work to do. He needs to steer away from some of the tougher threes, attack the rim more often and resist the urge to force things every time the offense bogs down. But White and Knueppel coming back should help ease some of that pressure without asking Miller to reinvent himself.
If we get 20 or 25 games down the road, Charlotte is healthy, and Miller is still living around 39% from the field and 27% from deep, then the concern level changes. Right now, with the Hornets only five games in and two of their better shooters still out, there’s room to be patient.
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Hornets Finally Get A Promising Sign On Kon Knueppel
The Hornets have spent the first stretch of the season short-handed, with Kon Knueppel, Coby White and Grant Williams all unavailable through the opening five games. For a team trying to settle into its early-season rhythm, the absences have mattered on both ends of the floor, and any sign of relief has been worth monitoring closely.
Knueppels latest step is a notable one, as he was officially assigned to the Greensboro Swarm for practice, a move that often comes when a player is getting close to rejoining the NBA roster. Charlotte still does not have a fresh timeline for White or Williams, who remain out indefinitely, so the focus now shifts to how soon Knueppel can give the Hornets another available body and, potentially, another piece of the rotation. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets NBA Cup Hopes May Hinge On One Key Return
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One possible boost is starting to come into focus with Kon Knueppel. Charlotte recently sent the rookie to practice with its G League affiliate, a sign his return could be getting closer during group play, and that matters for a team hoping to add some stability and depth as the schedule tightens. In a short tournament where every game carries extra weight, getting even one more healthy contributor back could make a real difference for the Hornets. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Fans Are Ripping Charles Lee Over His Naz Reid Decision
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From there, the reaction online moved fast, with plenty of Charlotte fans ripping the move and trying to piece together what prompted it. Lee did not offer any additional explanation after the game, and Reid did not address it, leaving the decision to hang out there as another talking point for a team already under enough scrutiny. [Read more 🡒]