Decades from now, the Hornets will hope their history reads something like this:
In his final act as team owner, Michael Jordan, the NBA’s greatest player, boldly selected Brandon Miller, who alongside LaMelo Ball led Charlotte to its first NBA championship.
What’s possible, though, is that the ’23 draft will be remembered like this:
In his final act as team owner, Michael Jordan, one of the worst talent evaluators in front office history, selected Brandon Miller over Scoot Henderson, a decision that set the franchise back for a generation.
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Inside Barclays Center on Thursday, the night was all about Victor Wembanyama. There were Wembanyama posters. Wembanyama jerseys. A teary-eyed Wembanyama interview. On Monday, Wembanyama was an international man of mystery. By Thursday, we had reached full Wembanyama saturation. He’s on the subway. He’s at Yankee Stadium. He’s revealing his height to a group of elementary school kids one minute (7'3", per Wembanyama) and sharing a (pre-taped) meal with Robin Roberts the next.
It was fun. Informative, even. But we knew Wembanyama was ticketed for San Antonio. There hasn’t been this kind of consensus for a top pick since LeBron James. More than 12,000 fans packed into the AT&T Center to watch the draft on the JumboTron. Within minutes, the Spurs blasted out a press release revealing Wembanyama’s jersey number.
He’ll wear No. 1, in case you’re interested.
The real draft began minutes later, when Charlotte went on the clock. For weeks reporting had the Hornets deciding between Miller and Henderson. Miller, a lanky Paul George-type with an NBA-ready three-point shot. Henderson, a Russell Westbrook-like athlete with some Chris Paul-like craftiness. Days before the draft, Mitch Kupchak, the Hornets GM, revealed that Jordan, who recently agreed to sell his majority stake in the franchise, would make the final call.
At No. 2, Charlotte drafted Miller.
At No. 3, Portland scooped up Henderson.
“It wasn’t the easiest of decisions,” said Hornets GM Mitch Kupchak. “But Brandon was our favorite all along.”
John Minchillo/AP
I don’t claim to have the deepest Rolodex of college scouts. But the ones I do talk to really liked Scoot. He averaged 16.5 points in his one season with the G-League Ignite, the in-between super team the NBA assembled for prospects who want to bypass college. Last October, scouts drooled watching Wembanyama score 37 points in an exhibition game in Las Vegas. Those same decision makers marveled while Henderson racked up 28 points and nine assists in the same game.
“Franchise player,” texted one NBA talent evaluator.
“Scoot and Wembanyama are the two guys I’d say can’t miss,” said another.
This isn’t to slight Miller. Far from it. He’s really good. Miller averaged 18.8 points in his lone year at Alabama. He pulled down 8.8 rebounds per game. He connected on 38.4% of his threes. He effortlessly makes plays off dribble handoffs and looks like a pro in pick-and-pops. If Miller was on the board at No. 3, Portland would have eagerly snapped him up.
“We think he is the player that is the best player,” Kupchak said. “[Miller and Scoot] are both excellent players. And they both will probably go on to have long NBA careers. But [Miller] is the one that we feel would have the best NBA career as a Hornet.”
But do they? Do the Hornets believe Miller is the best player—or the best player to play alongside Ball? Three years ago Charlotte invested the third pick in the draft in Ball. They were immediately rewarded. Ball was the Rookie of the Year in his first season, an All-Star his second and averaged a career-high 23.3 points in an injury-shortened third. He’s 21 and has not sniffed his ceiling.
There’s a certain logic to drafting a player based on need. There’s also franchise-crippling danger. In 2008, the Bucks, set at center, drafted Joe Alexander over Brook Lopez and Roy Hibbert. Chauncey Billups, among others, has suggested that among the reasons the Pistons took Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony in ’03 was because Detroit already had Tayshaun Prince. More recently Golden State, with its Hall of Fame backcourt locked in, took James Wiseman over Ball.
Whoops.
Did need supersede talent in Charlotte? Did it influence it? Only the Hornets know. What we know is the Buzz put the decision in the hands of Jordan, the soon-to-be-ex-owner who will reportedly pocket a cool $2 billion profit from his sale of the franchise.
As a player, Jordan is nearly peerless. As a businessman, he is. As an executive charged with building a championship-caliber team, Jordan has been a disaster.
Seriously: awful. His brief stewardship of the Wizards was highlighted by the decision to draft Kwame Brown. His control of basketball operations in Charlotte, which began in 2006, yielded just three trips to the playoffs. Jordan’s lottery picks during that time include Adam Morrison and D.J. Augustin … Cody Zeller and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist … Frank Kaminsky and Malik Monk.
And here he is, with one foot out the door, choosing the player that will shape the future of the franchise. Jordan likely envisions Ball and Miller developing into an elite duo, zipping past teams in the open floor, tearing them apart in two-man games in the halfcourt. It could happen. At Alabama, Miller showed the talent. In the days before the draft, he showed some moxie. He called Jordan "just a regular guy” in an interview with NBA Radio. He recounted how Jordan airballed a free throw at his workout and declared George, not Jordan, to be the basketball G.O.A.T.
“For me, I can bring just a winner,” Miller told reporters on Thursday. “I'm willing to make all the winning plays as far as on or off the court. So, just, yeah, a winner.”
We’ll see. Miller and Henderson are now inextricably linked, like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant or Luka Doncic and Trae Young. Jordan’s executive legacy is now intertwined with them. If Miller is the real deal, if he complements Ball well, if Charlotte ends its seven-year playoff drought next season and competes for titles in the future, Jordan will be vindicated. If Miller is underwhelming and Henderson becomes a star, his failure will be complete.
Jordan’s run as an NBA owner will end in the next few months.
His legacy in Charlotte, good or bad, will last a lot longer.
