Brandon Miller Reveals What Hornets Expect From Him After $209 Million Deal

Brandon Miller scored 18 points Wednesday night as the Charlotte Hornets won their season opener 110-103 against the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn.

The game came two days after he agreed to a five-year, $209 million rookie-scale extension.

Miller shot 7-of-21 from the field and 3-of-14 from 3-point range. He played a team-high 35:39 and added 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block.

Miller went 1-of-2 at the free-throw line, committed 3 turnovers, and finished minus-4.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported the extension agreement Monday. A person familiar with the negotiations confirmed the terms to The Associated Press.

Charlotte took Miller out of Alabama with the second overall pick in the 2023 draft, one spot behind Victor Wembanyama. He turns 24 on Nov. 22.

He started all 65 games he played last season, averaged 20.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists, shot 38.3% from 3-point range, and made a career-high 204 3-pointers.

Charlotte went 41-24 in the games he played and 3-14 in the games he missed.

In 2024-25, a right wrist injury limited him to 27 games.

Miller had surgery on his left shoulder in May. The Hornets exercised the fourth-year option on his rookie contract last October.

During the preseason, a shin contusion kept him out of the Oct. 6 opener against Brooklyn, and he returned five days later to score 18 points in 23 minutes against Milwaukee.

The Hornets' last playoff appearance came in 2016. Miller wants the Hornets where their new veterans have already been.

"I'm always saying we're going to be a playoff team," Miller said. "That's just always where I stand with what this team is going to be. Our goal is, of course, the playoffs, and we're going to do everything that we can to get there."

Last season, the Hornets went 44-38. They beat the Miami Heat in the play-in tournament on April 14 and lost at Orlando on April 17, one win from the East's eighth seed.

Charlotte went 15-of-48 from 3-point range Wednesday. Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale, both acquired from Phoenix in July, combined for 7 of the makes.

With Kon Knueppel and Coby White out, Miller took 21 shots.

His role, as he sees it, covers both ends of the floor.

"I think the team asks me to, of course, be Brandon Miller," Miller explained. "Whether that's being a two-way, guarding everybody on the floor, or scoring the basketball, or just getting everybody in action or getting everybody involved. We do a great job of just playing with the pass, playing with each other."

"Sometimes I'm not really needed, but I'm still there to help out as much as I can and just make all the winning plays," Miller continued.

In the preseason, Miller said winning plays were building his confidence with the Hornets.

That perspective carries more weight now that Charlotte has committed to him long term.

Through three seasons, he averaged 19.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.0 assists and shot 37.3% from 3-point range.

He entered Wednesday with 492 career 3-pointers in 166 games, 160 of them starts.

Charlotte hosts the Atlanta Hawks in its home opener Friday.

Miller will earn $15,104,626 this season, the final year of his rookie-scale contract.