Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller is looking “very impressive” after missing 55 games in the 2024-25 NBA season because of a wrist injury.
Jeff Peterson met with reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina, to discuss the Hornets’ 2025 draft. But the press conference by the NBA team’s president of basketball operations provided an opportunity for an update on Miller’s recovery.
“He looks very impressive right now,” Peterson said. “He’s in the gym. He’s working out. I’m just excited for him because it really, really hurt him to be out last season and not be out there with his teammates, his brothers, so I’m excited for him because he’s put the work in to get to this point.”
Acquired by Charlotte from Alabama with the second pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Miller averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in the 2023-24 season as he made the All-Rookie team and finished third in the balloting for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
But Miller sustained a torn scapholunate ligament on Jan. 15, and surgery to repair the wrist injury sidelined him for the remainder of his second season. Miller averaged 21.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.1 steals in 27 games in the 2024-25 season.
With its first selection in the 2025 draft on Thursday night, Charlotte seemed to signal that Miller and point guard LaMelo Ball would be the cornerstones as the Hornets try to rise from a 19-63 showing in 2024-25. Charlotte bypassed Rutgers forward Ace Bailey and Texas guard Tre Johnson to use the No. 4 selection on Duke’s Kon Knueppel, projected as a shooting guard in the NBA.
Knueppel averaged 14.4 points per game for Duke last season, when he made 40.6 percent of his 3-point shots and sank 91.4 percent of his free throws.
“With the shooting, and he’s more than just a shooter, he’s a versatile player,” Peterson said. “But, of course, the shooting, that helps, I think, with spacing. When you got LaMelo and Brandon out there, just the gravity that he’ll provide on the floor.”
Charlotte got another first-round selection by trading center Mark Williams to the Phoenix Suns for the No. 29 choice on Wednesday night and a first-round pick in the 2029 draft. The Hornets took a similar player to Knueppel by choosing Liam McNeeley, who averaged 14.5 points and made 86.6 percent of his free throws for Connecticut last season.
In the second round on Thursday night, Charlotte picked 6-foot-5 Duke guard Sion James at No. 33 and 7-foot-0 Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner at No. 34.
“We always want competitors,” Peterson said. “We do value positional size, we value shooting, IQ. Again, those are the core tenants we try to look for, of course relative to position.”
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.