Mitch Kupchak Stopped Himself From Saying Something About Brandon Miller’s Age

The Charlotte Hornets selected Brandon Miller with the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday night. After the draft, Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak was asked questions about Miller during a press conference. At one point, he started to say something, then stopped himself and refused to finish his answer. It was … odd.

What follows is Kupchak answering a question about what made him comfortable with Miller. He veers into saying the Alabama product was just a freshman and he was young. Then for some reason Kupchak stopped himself and didn’t end up answering the question, basically saying he thought better of it.

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That’s just a weird response and I’m not sure why he wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about how a player was pretty young. I mean, Miller is young, he just finished his freshman year. And it’s not like Kupchak isn’t used to answering questions about players. He’s a veteran general manager and used to run the Lakers. He’s as experienced at talking to reporters as anyone in the NBA.

Hornets fans — and their mascot — didn’t seem super thrilled with the team taking Miller. There’s no doubt he’s an outstanding basketball player and dominated while at Alabama this season. He finished his lone collegiate season averaging 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game while shooting 38.4 percent from 3-point range, while being named SEC Player of the Year. At 6-foot-9 he has great size and appears to be a prototypical modern NBA wing player.

Hopefully his general manager gets better at speaking about him.