The Charlotte Hornets’ young core is still a mystery

Miles Bridges

I’m starting to have major concerns about Miles Bridges‘ ability to be a player that can add value to a winning basketball team. The strides he has made offensively have completely been offset by his inability to guard anyone.

I watched Miles at Michigan St. and offensively he looks like the same prospect he was in his freshman season playing for Tom Izzo. He still looks limited in the half court and has not developed a solid handle to take defenders to the basket, his paltry 1.7 free throw attempts per game in over thirty minutes of action speak to this.

The growth simply isn’t there and it seems he has regressed much worse on the defensive end. Miles is dead last in the NBA +/- among all starters, a whopping 76 points worse than Cleveland’s Colin Sexton.

Miles simply doesn’t close out on shooters with any authority and gets caught ball watching way too much, often times leaving his man altogether for a wide open 3 or an easy layup. I get that he’s only 21 years old, but if someone likes him for his athleticism, then I think it would be very wise for Charlotte to explore moving him.

While this young core of the Hornets looks promising for now there are still plenty of things to be concerned with. Coach James Borrego has done a very good job of getting this team to play hard every night and he can only hope for the continued development from this group of prospects.