It’s a foregone conclusion that the San Antonio Spurs will select Victor Wembanyama with the first pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, but things get interesting immediately following with the No. 2 pick, belonging to the Charlotte Hornets. The last time the Hornets had a top-three pick, they selected point guard LaMelo Ball in 2020. Ball won Rookie of the Year honors in his first season and led Charlotte to its first winning season in six years during the 2021-22 season, when they posted a 43-39 record.
Typically there are two ways teams can go when drafting prospects: team need (does this player fill a current void on the roster?) or best available prospect. The Hornets have two options with the second pick in the draft. Alabama wing Brandon Miller fills a team need, while G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson is widely thought to be the best available prospect after Wembanyama.
Yahoo Sports makes the case for both players and how they could fit into the current team as the Hornets continue to rebuild.
Team need: Brandon Miller
Miller is a prolific 3-point shooter and has great size and length at 6-foot-9 to shoot over the defense. The Hornets shot only 33% from behind the arc this past season, the second-worst mark in the NBA. Ball dealt with injuries all season and averaged 23.3 points and 8.4 assists in only 36 games. He is one of the best passers in transition and Miller runs the floor extremely well for his size.
“He’s an animal and he’s definitely a person I could play next to,” Miller said of Ball. “He has more experience now the fact that he’s been in the league, and I’m pretty sure he’s a great guy outside of basketball.”
Defensively, Miller doesn’t have the greatest lateral quickness but he makes up for it with his length. Alabama rallied from a 17-point deficit against rival Auburn to clinch the SEC regular season title, and it was the defensive stops from Miller late in the second half that charged the comeback. Miller led all players with 3 blocks and added 8 rebounds. He struggled offensively, turning the ball over 6 times and going 1-for-6 from 3-point range. When his shot isn’t falling, he finds other ways to impact winning.
“I take pride in my defense,” Miller told Yahoo Sports. “Defensive stops turns into offense, sometimes fast breaks and I just love pushing the ball for easy buckets.”
Advertisement
Miller possesses a great combination of shooting mechanics, positional size and natural feel for the game and is someone who can slide in right away alongside Ball on the perimeter and give a much-needed boost to this struggling Hornets team. The Hornets finished 27-55 last season and haven’t made the playoffs since 2016.
Best available: Scoot Henderson
Henderson showed NBA scouts why he’s the best consolation prize to Wembanyama when he went head-to-head with the 7-4 Frenchman in a pair of games last October. Both players exceeded expectations and played at a high level. Henderson led the Ignite to a 122-115 win in the first game while netting 28 points and 9 assists in 31 minutes.
“I’ve been following him for 1-2 years, and out of all the prospects in our class, he’s my favorite player,” Wembanyama told reporters in October. “He’s the most reliable guard in our class, and he’s really a great player. If I was never born, I think he would deserve the first spot.”
On paper, it’s hard to see how Henderson and Ball could coexist in the backcourt, but Henderson has experience playing off the ball and having two young, elite playmakers on the court at the same time isn’t a terrible problem to have.
Advertisement
“I think I can coexist with anybody,” Henderson told Yahoo Sports at the NBA Draft Combine. “I think I can fit in anywhere and I can play either the 2 or the 1, it really doesn’t matter. I can play anywhere on the floor and still find ways to impact the game.”
Henderson sees the court extremely well and had a career-high 16 assists last November right before he was sidelined for five weeks with a facial fracture and concussion.
Henderson has been compared to a young Russell Westbrook with how explosive he is, or a prime Derrick Rose with his body control and strength around the rim. It’s hard to pass on any player with those projections, regardless of who is already on the team.