Miles Bridges staying with Hornets through trade deadline

The writing had been on the wall anyway, as it didn’t seem like the Hornets were getting any deals they liked. But it’s now official, as Bridges and his agent, Rich Paul, have confirmed that even if the team finds a deal, Bridges would use his rights to veto any deal and stay in Charlotte, as reported by Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

While it would have been nice to swing Bridges for a first-round pick, or young players, this may be a good thing for both sides in the long run. By staying in Charlotte, the Hornets will retain the Bird Rights to Bridges and be able to re-sign him to an extension this offseason. 

Bridges has set a new career-high in points in back-to-back games, and given the roster glut, has a real chance to improve his stock even more down the stretch this season. The teams that are interested in him right now, are limited in what they can offer.

So Bridges will be in Charlotte long-term?

This offseason, there should be more suitors for Bridges, and ones that will be able to build a better package to send back to the Hornets. So despite the news that Bridges won’t be traded, there is still a great chance he could be involved in a sign-and-trade this summer, or a marquee name to watch this time next year at the 2025 trade deadline.

One of my wishes for the Hornets at the deadline involved not making deals just for the sake of making deals. We may never know what - if any - deals were actually on the table, but there’s a chance that Bridges saved the team from themselves here. 

If the Hornets were planning to eventually take the Suns' offer of salary filler and second-round picks, that would have fit the bill of “deals for the sake of deals”. Even with all the issues that come along with Bridges, he’s playing great ball lately, and his value should be considerably higher than that. 

Hopefully, now the Hornets can sign Miles to a reasonable extension that allows them to move him down the road for better draft capital, and more players - as the salary matching will likely be a higher number. If they can get one or two first-round picks and a good young player, that would be a huge coup compared to what was rumored at this deadline.

It may not be the fireworks we wanted at the deadline, but hopefully, this will pay off in the not-too-distant future. And in the meantime, we get to keep watching Bridges but up 40 burgers for the rest of the season on a team that’s going nowhere. Just think, with every good performance he has, the future price tag for other teams should just keep going up.