As the franchise's new face, Brandon Miller is fully aware of his responsibilities.
The Charlotte Hornets’ fourth-year swingman made sure to handle them Monday night in a variety of ways, doing it on and off the court.
Miller purchased 500 tickets for breast cancer survivors to attend the Hornets’ matchup with the Washington Wizards — “I was really going to do more, a lot more than that,” he said — and then went out and put on a show. By tossing in a career-best 39 points, hitting the game-clinching bucket and leaving his imprints all over Charlotte’s 110-103 victory at Spectrum Center, Miller couldn’t have scripted it any better.
In flashing his two-way ability to propel Charlotte (3-1) to a third win in four games despite missing Coby White, Kon Knueppel and Grant Williams with injuries, Miller stuffed the stat sheet to an impressive tune. He was also a force defensively, collecting a pair of steals and two blocked shots. One of those was of the chase-down variety, running full court and swatting just enough of Bub Carrington’s layup prior to it reaching the glass.
“Just the motivation side,” Miller said of what drives him to be an all-around player for the Hornets. “My teammates motivate me a lot. It just builds my confidence to go out there and make every winning play that I can.
“So whatever winning play it is, I’m going to do my best to make it.”
Brian Westerholt-Imagn Images
Miller’s signature is fully dry on the hefty five-year, $209 million rookie-scale contract extension he signed on Oct. 21, not long before the deadline. With LaMelo Ball now in Minnesota and Miles Bridges in Phoenix, Miller steps into the seat as the Hornets’ longest-tenured player.
The bull’s-eye is squarely on him and he’s not shying from it. In fact, he’s receiving assurances from his teammates. Whether it’s Knueppel, White, Naz Reid, Grayson Allen or anyone else.
“They’re like, ‘You are that guy, we believe in you,’” Hornets coach Charles Lee said. “‘So when we put the ball in your hand, go make a play. For yourself, for your teammates.’ Not only is Brandon prepared for it, but his teammates want to see him in those moments and they encourage him in those moments, which is really helping as well.”
Count Moussa Diabate among them.
“We all trust him with the ball,” Diabate said. “That’s the whole reason why he got paid. At the end of the day, there’s no second thoughts for who’s getting the ball. Whether he makes it or misses it, we’ll be right with him. For our entire team, our entire organization, we trust him with the ball. No matter it is.”
Miller doesn’t take that for granted, either. Not one bit.
“It makes you smile every day, just to see other NBA guys put all their trust in me,” said Miller, who reached 500 made career 3-pointers in the second-fewest games in NBA history. “But at the same time I have to trust those guys. I have to go to war for those guys every night, too, and vice versa. They are going to go to work for me.
“So just being ready when the time comes, the preparation that we put in being ready and staying ready. It goes a long way in our season and games like this.”
Similar to why Miller makes it a mission to mingle with patrons, team employees and whoever else may cross his path following his pre-game shooting routine for home games. He always stops and chats with a few people before heading back into the locker room, often signing several autographs and posing for selfies.
“It started my rookie year,” Miller said. “Whether it’s ball girl, ball boy, fans. Security here, whoever the case may be, just trying to build a bond just in case. They’re always going to try to go to war for me while I’m on the court playing, so I think it’s kind of a must for me to know who is all going to war for me and who I want to go to war with.”
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