No. 2 draft pick Brandon Miller struggles again in Hornets’ summer league loss to Warriors
The sparse crowd inside Golden 1 Center gave Charlotte Hornets rookie Brandon Miller a sarcastic ovation with five and a half minutes left in Wednesday’s summer league game when he scored his first points on an and-1 push shot.
It was guard Lester Quinones who stole the spotlight, leading the Golden State Warriors to a 98-83 victory over the Hornets on Day 2 of the California Classic.
Miller, the No. 2 pick in the draft, looked exasperated while Charlotte was getting blown out by Golden State. To that point, Miller had seven fouls and no made field goals. His struggles to score in consecutive games in Sacramento raised eyebrows given he was expected to be one of the best players on the floor as the first player drafted behind No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama.
Miller made a 3 inside the final two minutes, giving him eight points along with seven assists and four rebounds. He finished with eight fouls (summer league allows for 10 before disqualification). Miller had six points and six fouls through three quarters in his summer league debut Monday against the San Antonio Spurs. Most of his 18 points came in fourth-quarter garbage time.
The Warriors beat the Hornets on Wednesday behind 21 points from Quinones, including five 3-pointers. Forward Gui Santos added 18 points while Golden State was plus-32 in his 27 minutes. Brandin Podziemski, the 19th overall pick in June’s NBA draft from Santa Clara, scored 17 points with four rebounds and five steals.
Quinones was a two-way player for Golden State last season, spending most of the year with G-League Santa Cruz. He scored 26 points and also hit five 3s in Monday’s loss to the Sacramento Kings. He went 18 of 32 from the floor in two California Classic games as he vies for a spot on the Warriors’ regular-season roster.
Miller, meanwhile, will have eyeballs on him when summer league shifts to the bigger stage in Las Vegas, where fans will measure him directly with No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, the guard who landed with the Portland Trail Blazers. Many observers considered Henderson the better prospect, but the Hornets took Miller while continuing to build around point guard LeMelo Ball.
Miller’s stat line through two summer league games: 24 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists, nine turnovers, 13 fouls. He made seven of his 15 shot attempts (47%) and went 4 of 9 from 3-point range.
This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 5:46 PM.
