On Friday night, Brandon Miller left the Charlotte Hornets’ game against the Boston Celtics with right groin soreness. Charlotte went on to lose the game 119-80. It was perhaps the Hornets’ worst performance of the season – a season full of pretty rough performances. Miller going down might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back this year. The thing that turns bad into an unsavable disaster.
Obviously, there’s plenty of time left in the season. Just last year, the Hornets engineered a miraculous second-half-of-the-season comeback to catapult themselves into the Play-In Tournament. But this year was supposed to be different. A better start could have put them in playoff positioning. That doesn’t seem like it will be the case anymore.
Miller going down will turn the Hornets’ offensive creation from bad to worse. He hasn’t had a good shooting year, but with both him and Kon Knueppel sidelined, Charlotte’s creation is being left in the dust.
Brandon Miller injury makes the bad get worse for the Hornets
The injuries were as bad as they’ve been all year on Friday night. Not only did Miller leave the game, but Knueppel wasn’t active. Dennis Schroder, Moussa Diabate, and Grant Williams were all out, too.
Coby White and Naz Reid were left as the sole creators for a Hornets offense that was already floundering against a stifling Boston defense even before Miller left the game.
Now, who knows how long Miller is going to be out. Who knows how long Knueppel will be sidelined. If they come back quickly enough, perhaps the Hornets could salvage the season.
But Miller’s injury, combined with the 119-80 loss to the Celtics, feels like a line drawn in the sand. This was always going to be a relatively tough year, but this is downright ugly.
When the Hornets traded LaMelo Ball, they were basically committing to taking one step back so they could take two steps forward at some point in the future.
But if these early returns hold true, this is going to be one ridiculous step back. And that’s a tough pill to swallow for fans who got a small taste of success last season.
The Miller injury could be the final straw. The final thing that ends up completely derailing Charlotte’s season before it even begins. A 3-7 start and the worst offense in the NBA is not what the Hornets needed.
It feels like they could already be playing for Ping-Pong balls, as harsh as that may sound this early on.
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