NBA Draft 2018 News: Why the Villanova Wildcats' Mikal Bridges Is a Complex Wing Prospect
Bridges is widely seen as a player who can be a '3-and-D' wing in the NBA
The Villanova Wildcats' Mikal Bridges has officially announced that he will be entering the 2018 NBA draft, and many teams around the league are glad to know that his name will be on the draft board.
At first glance, Bridges seems to be one of the players with the highest floors in the upcoming draft.
As Bridges himself pointed out while speaking recently to ESPN, he's a player with a winning background, and he projects to be the type of player who can provide spacing with his shooting and good defense thanks to his sound fundamentals, tenacity and physical dimensions.
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Bridges also believes that he can fit into the positionless brand of basketball that is currently being played in the NBA.
Sure enough, Bridges has performed in such a way that indicates that he can be an effective "3-and-D" wing at the next level.
Per Sports Reference, Bridges shot better than 43 percent from three-point range during this past college season, and if that wasn't impressive enough, he managed to hit that mark while taking an average of six three-pointers per contest.
It's easy to imagine Bridges fitting into any team by spotting up for threes on offense and then guarding opposing wings and guards on the other end of the floor.
In that role, Bridges can definitely shine, but the question is whether he will be given plenty of opportunities to just continually spot up.
If opposing defenses find that Bridges is only a threat when he's spotting up, then he will be easier to stop on offense.
To counter that, Bridges will need to put the ball on the floor and make plays, and it's unclear how well he can manage to do those things currently.
The Ringer's draft guide notes that Bridges still struggles with hitting jumpers off the dribble and he can also stand to add a few more ball-handling moves.
While it may be tempting for a team that drafts Bridges to just designate him as a starter or rotation guy who focuses only on playing defense and hitting spot-up threes, he needs to be able to do other things, or else he may struggle to hang around in the NBA.
Even elite spot-up shooters in the league today need to possess some form of off-the-dribble dynamism in order for them to pose a real threat to defenders, and that's something Bridges should look to add as well.
All of this is to say that Bridges still has plenty of room to grow as a player, and the team that will draft him should invest some time and resources into trying to diversify his game.
Bridges is a hard worker and that bodes well for him continuing to be successful in the league. Soon enough, he and the team that will draft him will need to work together in order to make sure that he can become the best player he can be in the best basketball league in the world.
More news about the upcoming NBA draft should be made available in the near future.
