Charlotte Hornets: Miles Bridges eyes Most Improved honors
Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges tells ESPN that winning the Most Improved Player of the Year Award is one of his goals for the 2019-20 season.
With Kemba Walker in Boston and Jeremy Lamb in Indiana, along with other key players from the 2018-19 season playing elsewhere, opportunity knocks for many Charlotte Hornets players during the 2019-20 season.
Miles Bridges, the second-year pro out of Michigan State, is one player that will see an expanded role this season. With the amount of minutes and touches headed his way, there’s a chance he could be in the running for the Most Improved Player of the Year Award.
Bridges knows this, too. Yesterday afternoon, he told the great Eric Woodyard of ESPN that winning Most Improved Player of the Year Award is a goal of his going into the regular season.
Hornets' Miles Bridges is looking to have a breakout season and is using Raptors’ Pascal Siakam as motivation to become the NBA's Most Improved. "Yeah, that's one of my goals," Bridges told ESPN. "... I feel like if he could do it, I could do it, too."https://t.co/yBhJf2bZ5M
— Eric Woodyard (@E_Woodyard) October 22, 2019
Bridges is using Pascal Siakam‘s 2018-19 breakout season as motivation as he and the Hornets enter the regular season. Siakam was the easy choice for Most Improved Player last season, and if Bridges can have a season similar to his, he could also be an easy choice.
Now, that’s not going to be an easy task, considering Siakam was a fringe All-Star and played a huge role in Toronto’s championship run. It is good to see Bridges taking things from other players games and using it on his own game.
The Charlotte Hornets figure to have two strong candidates for that award in both Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier. While neither player would be my first choice to win, they will both certainly be in the running throughout the season as they step into full-time starting roles for the first time in their careers.
As a rookie last season, Bridges averaged 7.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 21.2 minutes. Those minutes will definitely be in the 30+ range, and it’s easy to see him averaging somewhere between 12-16 points. Plus, he brings a very good defensive presence on the perimeter.
Rozier is coming off a disappointing fourth season in Boston which saw him averaging 9.0 points, 3.9 rebound and 2.9 assists. He was playing behind All-Stars in Isaiah Thomas and Kyrie Irving during his stint in Boston, but will now run the show in Charlotte. It wouldn’t surprise me if he can double his scoring average from a year ago.
Bridges and the rest of the Charlotte Hornets roster have high expectations going into the 2019-20 season. Most experts and fans around the league, including myself, have sort of written them off, but confidence is key, right?
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A breakout season could be in the cards for Miles Bridges. Can he turn that into some hardware over next summer? Charlotte Hornets certainly hope so.