Charles Lee Sends Strong Message About Brandon Miller After 2-of-15 Night

Brandon Miller missed his first eight shots Wednesday night and finished 2-of-15 from the field in the Charlotte Hornets’ 114-104 loss to the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center.

He went 1-of-10 from 3-point range. Half of his 10 points came at the free-throw line, where he was 5-of-5.

Miller added 4 rebounds and 1 assist in 26:25. He finished minus-16 with 3 turnovers.

His first field goal was a 9-foot floater with 7:14 left in the third quarter that tied the game at 61. He made the free throw that followed.

Miller picked up his third foul with 8:43 left in the second quarter and went to the bench. He got his fourth at 5:48 of the third and his fifth at 8:08 of the fourth.

With the game tied at 80 and 9.4 seconds left in the third quarter, his pass went out of bounds. His lone 3-pointer came with 3:00 to play and cut Brooklyn’s lead to 109-100. He missed his last two attempts, from 31 and 26 feet.

Five losses into the skid, Hornets coach Charles Lee said Miller’s night fit how the entire roster has responded.

“That’s part of the game,” Lee said. “That’s part of who Brandon is as well. So not surprised that he wasn’t going to let his offensive struggles dictate how he was going to respond and act and his actions and competitiveness defensively. That doesn’t surprise me. That’s how the whole group is. Now we’ve just got to find a way to kind of just keep going, keep building, because there’s a ton of really good moments in there.”

Nine games in, Miller has 27 made 3-pointers on 101 attempts and is shooting 70-of-195 overall while averaging 22.0 points.

The season started in this same building on Oct. 21, with 18 points on 7-of-21 shooting in a Charlotte win. Two nights after that, against the Atlanta Hawks at Spectrum Center, he scored 6 on 2-of-14.

His best night came Oct. 26 against Washington, when he scored 39 on 15-of-28 shooting. That broke the career high of 38 he put up against the Detroit Pistons on Nov. 21, 2024.

The win over the Wizards was the Hornets’ last. Detroit has seen him twice in the five losses since, holding him to 17 points on 7-of-18 at Spectrum Center on Monday after he scored 31 with 12 rebounds against the Pistons on Oct. 28.

He shot 38.3% from deep across 65 games last season, averaging 20.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while playing through a shoulder injury.

Only Victor Wembanyama went ahead of him in the 2023 draft. Miller was third in Rookie of the Year voting that season and made the All-Rookie First Team.

Charlotte announced Miller's rookie-scale extension on Oct. 19 without numbers, as is team policy. However, the contract is worth $209 million over five seasons.

No Hornets contract has been bigger, and this one runs through 2031-32. LaMelo Ball’s five-year, $203 million deal from three years ago held the mark before it.

Charlotte has not been to the playoffs since 2015-16. For Miller, the Hornets already know who they are and what it takes to get back.

“Our goal is the playoffs,” Miller said at an Oct. 22 ceremony for the extension at Spectrum Center, according to The Associated Press. “We want to be known as a playoff team. And we want to win as many games as we can. We know what our identity is. We know what it takes to get there.”

Ball went to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the offseason, and Naz Reid came back in the deal. Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, and Dennis Schröder also arrived over the summer.

“I think that adding the new pieces that we have, players that have been where we want to go, to me I think that give us an advantage in the long run,” Miller explained.

Reid had 28 points against Brooklyn on Wednesday.

Charlotte had Coby White for a second game since his return from a left calf strain, and he went 2-of-9 in 18:06. Kon Knueppel’s season debut, after he was probable on Tuesday’s report, lasted 5:51 before left leg soreness ended it.

The Boston Celtics come to Spectrum Center on Friday for a 7 p.m. ET tip-off.