Brandon Miller

For people who followed last year’s draft, while certainly not identical players, Brandon Miller fits the same overall archetype that Jabari Smith Jr. did last season.  SF/PF hybrids who are strong shooters, strong defenders, with basic handles and questionable ability to finish inside.

First and foremost, Miller’s greatest offensive threat is his ability to shoot, which opens up the rest of his game and creates gravity and spacing for his team.  While Miller wasn’t in the same constant motion as his peers like Gradey Dick or Jordan Hawkins, Miller moves with a sense of purpose without the ball and Coach Oats ran him off a number of screens and other actions to free him up for his jumper.  Either on the move or in rhythm, Miller is able to get his balance quickly and get off an accurate shot with a quick, high release.  Miller is similarly accurate off the dribble and has deep range, able to hit threes well beyond the NBA three point line.  This forces the defense to track Miller and play him closely / close our hard, which opens up driving lanes for Miller and opens space for the rest of his team.  Miller is also a team player, who when running different actions is willing to get physical and set screens, so if the defense cheats, then he has an extra weapon at his disposal to help the offense.  While Miller can shoot off the dribble, right now, he is best off of 1-3 dribbles to set up his shot, whether it is a side step, step back, or escape dribble to serve as a countermove to tight defense.  When Miller is required to do more advanced dribble creation, his handles are solid, but he tends to lean more on straight line drives.  He has some basic moves and can execute a decent crossover and hesitation, but he most often uses those to set up the threat of a pull up that forces a defender to play up o him or commit in order to open up a driving lane.  Otherwise, his handles are functional, but a bit loose, though he shows some promise changing pace and had a few nice drives on fellow prospect Anthony Black.

As Miller drives, he shows a lot of promise from the mid-range, but this is currently an underutilized part of his game.  In the midrange, his height and touch allow him to get up accurate shots with pull ups and turnarounds.  Once he gets inside, Miller’s impact drops significantly.  On the plus side, Miller is long and decently strong (with a frame that should add weight).  He’s also reasonably athletic and has just enough fluidity and hang time to create some angles to score.  However, while he is athletic in space, when there is a body in front of him, he struggles to apply that athleticism and looks significantly more human.  He also does need to add strength and any bump or legal contact tends disrupt his balance and leads to a real drop in accuracy (and Miller falling on the court).  He’s also not the most elusive or explosive athlete inside (especially in congestion) and can really struggle to score over length.  It doesn’t help that Miller doesn’t have great speed and doesn’t even seem to take long strides that get him to the hoop in 2-3 steps, so even when he gets a step on defenders, he gives them the opportunity to get back into the play.  One mitigating factor here is that Miller did play next to Charles Bediako, a talented but traditional big man who played inside and limited the space available.  I’d be interested in seeing Miller in a Pro-style 5 out offense with better spacing.  Otherwise, Miller’s other skills are all solid.  He’s a decent offensive rebounder and a good passer.  Miller’ has good vision and a good sense of the defense when he is being doubled.  He moves the ball well and flashed some live dribble passing ability.  He has the height to see over the defense and has good touch, though sometimes his accuracy could be better for leading cutters or putting the ball into the shooting pocket of his teammates.  And despite his negative assist to turnover rate (not bad for a SF/PF to being with), many of his turnovers were due to his ball handling and not poor or careless passing.

Defensively, Miller has great timing, length, and some quick leaping ability that makes him a great weakside helper and leads to a lot of blocks and contested shots (Miller loves spriting in transition and getting the chasedown block).  Miller is a versatile, multi-position defender who is switchable on the perimeter (a great asset when his man is the screener in the P&R), as he has the length, lateral speed, and recovery to handle all but the quickest or most advanced ball handlers.  This allowed Miller to hedge, blitz, or switch on screens depending upon the situation and scheme.   Miller is very quick at changing directions both vertically (i.e., when a player drives and he takes a step backwards and then the player counters with a step back) and horizontally (i.e., when a player uses a move like a crossover).  This means even if Miller closes out hard or bites ona fake, he is able to recover quickly and use his length and quick leaping ability to challenge shots or wall up and prevent a drive inside.  It also helps that Miller is a highly aware defensive player, he is able to get down into a stance, doesn’t bite on a ton of fakes and takes good angles to cut off ball handlers or get around screens (though he can sometimes get caught and will benefit adding strength to fight through more).  Miller’s awareness also applies to his rotations, as he shows good judgement about when to help and doesn’t get caught ball watching and losing his man.  While Miller is a very strong defender overall, if there were a couple of downsides to his defense, he is still more smooth than speedy or explosive and while he takes good angles, the lack of pure speed can make him late or force him to commit to contesting shots when rotating on the perimeter.  And while he makes the right decisions about tagging down and rotating inside to help, he simply doesn’t have the strength to even provide much congestion on plays where he can’t get a clean angle for a block.  There are any number of plays where he kind of got lost standing and watching under the hoop, while the big men battled and if he did jump to contest, he could be moved easily by a wing or big man with any momentum.  Even some guards found the most success driving into his chest and using a bump to create the space to get off a shot.

Note 1: Offensively, Miller does play with an almost slightly hunched over style.  Last year, I noted that Branham was very efficient and seemed to play taller than his listed height (and than other players the same height), which helped him get off some cleaner looks.  Miller at times seems like he is playing smaller and I do wonder if he will need to correct that in the NBA.

Note 2: Writing about Miller, I at least have to mention that Miller faced some scrutiny during the season when a gun that he provided to another person was used in a fatal shooting.  I don’t know Miller and I don’t know any details.  However, as of now, Miller has not been charged (and there has been no implication he will be) and he’s cooperating as a witness.  Obviously, this is the kind of situation where teams will want to do their homework, but beyond this incident, I have not heard or read anything suggesting Miller is anything but a great person and teammate.  So it doesn’t have any bearing on Miller’s rankings for me and as of now, it doesn’t appear to be impacting his draft stock.