Hot Takes on Hornets’ Brandon Miller vs. Spurs with Victor Wembanyama Out

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There are probably going to be better days in Brandon Miller’s NBA career.

The rookie’s Charlotte Hornets were destroyed 98-77 in Monday’s NBA Summer League matchup against the San Antonio Spurs in Sacramento. San Antonio didn’t even have No. 1 overall pick and new franchise cornerstone Victor Wembanyama, but it still had no problem with the No. 2 pick and the rest of the Hornets.

Miller finished with 18 points, five rebounds, three assists, six turnovers and seven fouls while shooting 5-of-11 from the field in his Summer League debut. Players foul out with 10 fouls instead of six in the Summer League, but it might have been better for the Alabama product’s day to come to an earlier end.

His final numbers looked better than they were for much of the game, as he finally started to find his shooting stroke in garbage time when the outcome was already decided.

Twitter didn’t exactly hold back when it came to evaluating his performance:

To say this is not exactly how fans expected to see Miller’s first game against NBA competition unfold would be quite the understatement.

After all, he was a consensus All-American and the SEC Tournament MVP in his one season at Alabama and led the Crimson Tide to SEC regular-season and tournament titles. Charlotte decided to take him instead of Scoot Henderson with the No. 2 overall pick and surely envisioned him as a better positional fit alongside LaMelo Ball.

He didn’t look the part Monday until far too late.

Miller had difficulty staying in front of offensive players without fouling and continued to turn the ball over. Perhaps the most concerning reality is he will be facing better players when the regular season starts.

San Antonio’s best players in Monday’s win were Julian Champagnie (28 points, eight rebounds and four steals) and Dominick Barlow (24 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks).

At least there is plenty of time to turn things around for Miller before the games actually count.

He was a star at Alabama, can hit from three-point range and attack the basket as a dribbler and slasher. Once he becomes more accustomed to the NBA game, the skill level will surely start to shine through.

Things might even improve by Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.