Swarm and Sting
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Charlotte Hornets: Was Miles Bridges the right pick?

By Noah Driver

CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 14: Michigan State Spartans guard Miles Bridges (22) dribbles the ball during the State Farm Classic Champions Classic game between the Duke Blue Devils and the Michigan State Spartans on November 14, 2017, at the United Center in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 14: Michigan State Spartans guard Miles Bridges (22) dribbles the ball during the State Farm Classic Champions Classic game between the Duke Blue Devils and the Michigan State Spartans on November 14, 2017, at the United Center in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NV – JULY 11: Miles Bridges #0 of the Charlotte Hornets handles the ball against the Golden State Warriors during the 2018 Las Vegas Summer League on July 11, 2018 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV – JULY 11: Miles Bridges #0 of the Charlotte Hornets handles the ball against the Golden State Warriors during the 2018 Las Vegas Summer League on July 11, 2018 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Miles Bridges

Finally! The man of the hour. By now, you’ve probably fallen in love with Bridges. He tried to do a driving spin-to-self-alley-oop off the backboard in a summer league game against NBA-caliber athletes.

Here are some more highlights if you didn’t catch them yet:

Plus he tweets out stuff like this, which is fantastic:

Chill out, guys (OK, I’m actually talking to myself here, but can you blame me?)

Let’s get to the real basketball stuff: can he be an elite player in the NBA and how likely is that to happen?

A weird angle to look at Bridges and a useful place to start in my opinion (this was a great point made by The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks back during Bridges’s freshman year at Michigan State): there just aren’t many guys like him in the NBA. He averaged 5+ 3-point attempts per game and 8+ rebounds per game as a freshman. Only a few players had that stat line in the NBA in 2017-18: Kevin Love, Demarcus Cousins, LeBron James, and Aaron Gordon.

Think about that for a second. There’s probably around 30 guys per year who average 8 rebounds per game, right? And there are plenty of guys who put up at least 5 3’s per game. So shouldn’t there be more overlap than that? It feels like it to me.

Well, Bridges doesn’t play like any of those guys, so let’s drop the rebound total to 7 per game and see who shows up: Al-Farouq Aminu, Lauri Markkanen, Blake Griffin, and…Lonzo Ball? What is happening!

As you can see, there is a chance that there is nobody really like Miles in the NBA today. Well, almost nobody…

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