Today is the one-month anniversary of the NBA commerce deadline that put the league in a blender. While the Phoenix Suns appear content material with their half of the commerce that netted them Kevin Durant, the Brooklyn Nets have quietly been winners in their very own method. In addition to the first-round picks Phoenix surrendered, giving up Mikal Bridges was the price of doing enterprise.
A yr in the past, Bridges was the NBA’s runner-up within the Defensive Player of the Year voting to Celtics guard Marcus Smart. His perimeter containment of each opponent’s high perimeter participant was instrumental in Phoenix acquiring a top-3 defensive score.
However, he was pigeonholed as a 3-and-D swingman. Every yr a participant will get pushed out of city to make method for a much bigger NBA constellation and both continues carving out a task for themselves as a distinct segment participant, will get uncovered with extra accountability below their belt, or runs with their franchise participant audition and by no means appears again. Before the 2022 commerce deadline, Tyrese Haliburton responded to being traded to Indiana by transmuting himself from a task participant in Sacramento to an All-Star playmaker. A decade in the past, James Harden exploded from Sixth Man of the Year to avant-garde offensive generator. Mikal Bridges has made a leap that’s someplace between these two and drastically altered his profession trajectory within the meantime.
Bridges coming into his personal
This season, Bridges has assumed an analogous mantle because the commerce deadline piece who’s confirmed themselves probably the most in new environment. Since he first suited up for Brooklyn on Feb. 11, Bridges has change into the Nets’ diamond within the tough averaging 26.5 factors on 53 p.c taking pictures from the sector, 3.3 assists, and 5.3 boards.
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With the arrogance in Bridges swelling at hyper-speed, the Nets have moved on from the Kyrie and Durant saga with few regrets. In retrospect, they’d have been higher off shedding each earlier this summer time and getting into the Wembanyama race their two stars had been preoccupied with sending resumes out. However, Bridges is a first-class comfort prize.
Becoming the fulcrum of the Nets’ offense has enabled him to stretch past his employee bee duties, enjoying lockdown protection, draining nook threes off of kick-outs, or sometimes slashing down the baseline when his defender overcommitted. In Brooklyn, he’s change into the elite two-way participant we noticed glimpses of when he was the captain of his upside as the point of interest of Jay Wright’s National Championship Villanova squads.
In Brooklyn, his utilization charge has elevated from the 19.7 charge career-high he amassed over 56 video games in Phoenix to 26, which he amassed during the last month in Brooklyn. That utilization charge would rank among the many league’s high 10 if it had been extrapolated over the course of a whole season. Bridges has additionally squeezed into the profile of an elite three-dimensional scorer by attending to the road twice as typically since he was jettisoned to Brooklyn and by averaging 50/40/90 in a Nets uniform. He’s even proven the capability to take all-universe defenders like Giannis off the dribble.
Not solely has Bridges saved up his proficiency behind the arc, however he’s ramped up his exercise on mid-range makes an attempt whereas sustaining the effectivity of a top-10 mid-range scorer. Bridges has elevated each his quantity and accuracy on pull-up jumpers, whilst Jacque Vaughn has questioned the shot choice.
“What we do want is for him to continue to get to the rim and shoot threes for us,” Vaughn mentioned after Brooklyn’s win over Houston on Tuesday. “I’m learning more about him, what shots he likes to get to. If they’re going in we love them, but we do wanna have a profile of really getting to the rim and shooting threes and putting pressure on the defense that way also.”
But don’t count on him to chop that out of his sport anytime quickly. As lengthy as he’s a risk from exterior, the midrange sport will probably be a invaluable device in his arsenal when defenders play drop coverages to remove his strengths.
In the long term, Bridges’ emergence has made it doable for Brooklyn to hit the bottom operating on their rebuild. Because they possess a bevy of first-round picks that belong to the Jazz, Suns, 76ers, and Mavericks and play in a big market that may at the very least seize the ear of potential free brokers, the inducement to intestine the roster isn’t as robust as it will be in Oklahoma City. The Nets clearly received’t be in rivalry till a stronger cavalry arrives, however Bridges has made them a crew value watching on the peripherals.
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