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00:00 is Brandon Miller, who has got his second Rocky of the Month honors for February after January.
00:07 And he's got even better this month. In the month of February, in 13 games, he's averaging 34 minutes
00:15 per game, which by the way is a big increase. 20.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.8 steals,
00:24 0.8 blocks, shooting 37% from three on just under eight attempts per game, 45% from the field,
00:32 88% from the free throw line. This is where your rookie is supposed to hit the rocky wall,
00:42 right? This is after the all-star break, playing heavy minutes, half the team has changed,
00:48 everybody is injured again, and he seems to just be taking it to another level again. I mean,
00:55 this is some... it's getting like missed in the wider NBA world, but this is some pretty
01:00 impressive stuff from Brandon Miller. It is like honestly pretty remarkable how good that he's been
01:06 in the last couple months. The only rookie in Hornets franchise history to score back-to-back
01:12 30-point games, he did that February 4th and 5th in a back-to-back against the Pacers and the Lakers.
01:18 Like, he's not bum-slaying, he's not out there dropping 40 against the Pistons. He's got LeBron
01:23 James, Anthony Davis, the Indiana Pacers, all good players in front of him. That is when he steps up
01:30 and that is when he has his best games, which I don't know even beyond the efficiency. Like you
01:35 said, 37% from three, 44% from the field. I think he takes like five or six threes in that time too.
01:41 He's increased his three-point attempt volume pretty noticeably over the last couple months
01:47 as well. Maintain the efficiency, get into the line and hitting them as well. Like that is almost
01:52 secondary to just like the way that he carries himself on the court still. And we were saying
01:57 that I think our first podcast really that we talked about him and how well he had performed
02:01 in the beginning of the season as a rookie, we were like, this guy just doesn't seem like a
02:05 rookie out there. He's not like carrying himself like the average 21-year-old. He attacks every
02:10 single possession on both ends of the court and he's still doing that. And like you said, hasn't
02:16 really hit a wall at all. Like he's had a couple of games where he hasn't been as good as normal,
02:20 but that's just kind of how the NBA works playing 82 games. He's rarely down for more than two or
02:25 three games at a time. And then he typically comes back in a pretty big way. So it's so impressive
02:31 what he's done this season. And I do agree with you. That's probably going a little bit under the
02:35 radar on a national scale. - Yeah. And in the month of February,
02:40 usage is at 25%. Before February for the rest of the season, it was at 20.8%. So we're talking
02:47 about he's being asked to do even more, like we say with completely new teammates. Although I
02:52 would say that I think some of these teammates probably do compliment him better in this roster
02:55 as a whole better. And there's been some real offensive slogs that we've seen, obviously the
03:00 Golden State game. There was another game, I can't remember who they're playing now, the Bucks game
03:06 where they obviously struggled to score. But he's now playing, that usage is in the, for wing
03:15 players, I think it was like in the 85th percentile. So he's now really carrying himself like a go-to
03:21 scorer. Steve Clifford still seems to like Brandon Miller off the catch. And I understand that. And
03:27 I think that's why seeing this version of Brandon Miller paired with Lamella Ball, if we get to able
03:33 to see that, that's going to be exciting to see either at some point in the season or next season,
03:38 whatever it is. But this is a different Brandon Miller than Lamella Ball got to play with. And
03:43 that we've said before, like this is where this franchise is going really, as good as those two
03:48 players are. That's the key thing here. So he's being asked to do more. He's delivering a good
03:53 level. I just can't say enough great things about Brandon Miller. And I also think there's like
04:02 a lot to be said for how much his role has changed. Like you look at the last two games,
04:07 like the second half of that Sixers game and the Raptors game, Seth Curry and Cody Martin were both
04:12 out. Two guys that one of them had basically been playing point guard in Cody Martin when Lamella
04:17 was out. And Seth Curry was brought in to kind of be like a shooter and secondary playmaker and add
04:22 guard depth for the rest of the year. He had the ball in his hands a lot in that game. And he's not
04:27 necessarily expecting that on a regular basis to be the guy that is like initiating offense. Like
04:33 in the end of the game, when the Hornets were making the run to come back against the Raptors,
04:37 he was kind of handling the ball a little bit. And like, he's had to do that so many different
04:41 times in the year. We've seen him flash like some pick and roll ball handling and passing it. And
04:46 then he's just going to shift back into scoring mode for, you know, a half or a quarter or a full
04:50 game whenever he needs to. It remarkable season from him so far. He had one move against the
04:57 Raptors and we'll get into the game a little bit more detail where he saw Grant Williams was free,
05:01 but he knew if he passed Grant Williams the ball, the defense could kind of rotate and adjust to
05:06 him. So he kind of looked off Grant Williams, took a dribble, attacked the middle and then
05:10 threw a no luck left hand shovel pass, which he's done that a few times. He actually did that at
05:14 Alabama, that exact left hand shovel pass one handed. And it was just one of those where he
05:20 completely manipulated the defense. He knew exactly how he wanted to get Grant Williams the ball.
05:27 He knew exactly how the defense would react to him. And those are the kind of like advanced reads
05:32 you see the very best wing jumbo playmakers going where they're conducting out there, right? You see
05:39 guys like Luka Doncic do that. You see guys like Paul George do that. And that was something that
05:44 he wasn't quite doing as early on in the season. There's definitely still room for growth, but
05:49 I mean, even like all the effort, like metrics, like his block percentage, his steal percentage,
05:54 his rebounding, it is all up for the month of February. Those things are hard. They take effort,
05:59 right? And he is answering the call. I think even last night in that Raptors game,
06:03 he had a career high 10 rebounds. Well, that's because the team needed him to rebound, right?
06:09 They were without Nick Richards. They were playing small most of the night. And I love that Brandon
06:13 Miller takes that responsibility on and goes, I got to help on the board tonight. And he goes
06:18 and grabs those 10 rebounds. That's just answering the call, giving your team what it needs,
06:25 obviously, Toronto still had some success in the offensive glass in that game,
06:29 but he just seems to be stepping up like every way that you would hope that he does.
06:34 So I just can't have enough good things to say. Another well-deserved rookie of the month.
06:38 I think Jaime Jorquez is probably the only real threat to like rookie of the month, maybe for
06:44 March as well. Now he's back healthy. But I think Brandon Miller could quite easily here
06:50 when the rest of the rookie of the month for the rest of the NBA season here for the Eastern
06:53 Conference as we go on. I saw you tweet earlier when the award was announced that he's going to
06:58 have to start clearing out some space on his shelf. I mean, if he wins March and I think they
07:03 give one for April as well, even though they only play like a couple of weeks in April, if he if he
07:07 wins for Eastern Conference rookie of the month, obviously the rookie of the year race is case
07:12 closed. Even if you were picking between two people, it's either Wemby or Chet. He doesn't
07:16 really have a chance at that, but he is going to be bar none all rookie first team, like probably
07:22 the third most votes or third most third place votes, maybe for rookie of the year. Like if those
07:28 two guys like just weren't in this class, Brandon Miller would be running away with rookie of the
07:33 year right now, which I mean, obviously he's not going to have the award, but in any other year,
07:39 he probably would. And there's at least something to be said for that. Well, I want to that's a
07:43 good, that's a good idea. Like what actually does rookie of the year look like? So here's a question
07:48 Lamella Ball won rookie of the year. Do you feel that Lamella's rookie season is better than the
07:56 season that Brandon Miller is putting together here? If I pull up the stats from Lamella's
08:01 rookie year here, they were 15 and a half points, six rebounds, six assists, 35% from three, 43%
08:12 from the field. Which, which of those seasons, trying to think back to 2021 to this season,
08:20 comparing which of those you think is better year? I'd probably have to give the edge to Lamella
08:25 just because I think his tendency to fill out the stat sheet a little bit more probably had more of
08:31 an impact on the team's success in that time. And that's more so due honestly to the other players
08:36 around him, because he was able to get those rebounds and push the ball up the floor and give
08:40 it to somebody that could reliably score in transition or was able to get those assists by
08:44 kicking out to better shooters than what he had for the first half of the year. But I mean, he
08:48 was still scoring almost just as, almost as much as Brandon Miller. The efficiency was only a little
08:52 bit worse and he was dishing out six assists and grabbing six rebounds a game to go with it. So I
08:58 would have to give the edge to Lamella, but Brandon Miller was, is clearly the better defender as a
09:03 rookie. If you, if you wanted to break it down into two sides of the court, he was easy, far and away
09:08 a better defensive player at that stage of his career. So at least he's got that.
09:13 If Brandon Miller has that month of February, which is essentially all like 25 and three,
09:19 if he does that for the next few months, I think I will give the prize to Brandon Miller. Like that
09:25 situation the Mellor ball was in was a much better position to come in, right? There was, you know,
09:32 that, that team was buzzing and he was obviously part of that, but it was a really spaced out team.
09:37 I think they led the NBA in like three point shooting that year and had a bunch of good
09:40 shooters. There was a ton of space. I think Brandon Miller has had the hardest situation
09:46 to come into and has probably played a little bit more, more steady. So yeah, super interesting to
09:52 see. Let's, let's go back. Scotty Barnes, his rookie year, he was 15 points. What's it? Seven
09:58 and a half rebounds, three and a half assists. Yeah. You look at the stats here. He's probably,
10:04 he's probably ahead of Brandon Miller, I would say, but he was, like you say, it's a really
10:08 worthwhile rookie of the year season, probably for most years, you can have the debate and he can
10:14 have the argument. Okay. We talked a little bit about that Toronto game. The Hornets last night
10:22 lost the Raptors in a close one. I think lost by five in the end. They were down by as many as 12,
10:28 I think in the fourth quarter brought all the way back to actually lead by a point. I know,
10:34 I know you tuned in for the game. What did you make of the Raptors game? Obviously another plethora
10:40 of injuries, Cody Martin out, Seth Curry out, Nick Richards out late, Brandon Miller played
10:45 after missing a game with, I think it was back Saunas for Brandon Miller.
10:48 But--