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00:00 Miles Bridges. We spoke about Miles, I think, in early January was our last time we spoke about Miles in a little bit more extended lines.
00:08 And I think at that time, his level played a little bit after his hot start, his hot return.
00:14 His defense was going to a particularly bad spell.
00:18 But again, if you look at the averages over the season, he's pretty much in line with the way he was the season before.
00:27 He basically missed a whole season plus 10 games.
00:31 Remarkably similar, actually. Scarily so, considering how much time and how long he's been away to be that similar.
00:39 I think, look, there have been some signs of life, I think, since that early January stretch, especially on the defensive end.
00:46 And one thing that I do like, and this is often, you know, you're not going to see this in stats,
00:50 but you can just, reading between the lines of how teammates and coaches talk about,
00:54 Miles takes responsibility for his mistakes.
00:57 He said a couple of times to the media, like, "I wasn't good enough tonight. I made too many turnovers.
01:01 I wasn't good enough tonight. My off-ball defense was not what it needs to be."
01:06 So, yeah, he makes some terrible mistakes, but at least he takes some ownership for that.
01:11 And that's not always something you hear from a lot of NBA players and other Hornets players.
01:15 And Steve Clifford's gone out of his way several times to congratulate, not congratulate,
01:20 but just to positively talk about Miles Bridges' impact, like being around the team.
01:25 Just like a guy, you know, a great teammate is the term that he uses.
01:29 And again, I don't know, I think Terry Sear is a great teammate.
01:33 I think Lamella Ball is a good teammate. I think he's fun to be around, keeps a light-hearted, positive energy.
01:39 I don't know how many of those other guys would be described as great teammates.
01:44 You know, his three-point shot remains streaky. He's in an upward swing at the minute.
01:49 I think the last eight games, he's at 43%, 6.6 attempts per game.
01:53 And, Chase, I've noticed Miles Bridges with the shot clock on his back, I swear, is like a 90% three-point shooter.
02:01 He always seems to find the ball, like at the end, close out halves with the shot clock running down,
02:07 like someone's fumbled it into his hands. He's hit some remarkable late-clock threes this year.
02:13 Yeah, I mean, one of the first games that he was back, like one of the Hornets,
02:17 probably the Hornets' best win of the season when they beat Boston, was that end-of-shot clock,
02:22 like 30-foot heave off the catch that went straight down.
02:26 He has definitely been a little bit inconsistent from three, but overall, I agree with you,
02:32 that the general play has picked up quite a bit. I believe he posted something on Instagram,
02:37 being like, "My bad, Charlotte, I haven't been good enough. I'll be better lately."
02:42 And then he put up like two 25-point games immediately after posting that or something.
02:47 He's definitely been a lot better over the last couple months.
02:50 And I was a very vocal critic of him right away.
02:53 So, I mean, obviously, he has picked it up a significant degree over the last probably couple weeks,
02:59 I would say, since we made that last podcast episode.
03:03 Something very notable about his three-point shot, while it is inconsistent,
03:07 I think a lot of that is off the dribble threes. He's a 41.1% shooter off the catch this year
03:13 on 3.7 three-point attempts per game, catch and shoot three-point attempts per game,
03:18 which is a very respectable number. That's pretty much what you want out of a player
03:22 that's filling the role that he has, which is kind of just like a really stout scorer.
03:25 He always shoots a set shot. It is almost like a set shot.
03:29 And that makes sense, you know, that anything off the dribble always does look a little tougher for Myles.
03:35 And that's what we really didn't like, I think, was there was a lot of mid-range shots coming in December
03:40 and early January. There was a lot of mid-range, and we know that's just not a strength.
03:46 Yeah, and even then, over the last couple weeks, I think he, over the first couple weeks of his return,
03:56 I should say, he didn't really look quite as explosive. But over the last couple weeks now,
04:00 since he's kind of picked up his play a little bit, I think that's come to come back.
04:05 And maybe it was just lack of conditioning or just not being used to the pace of the game
04:10 that he had been playing at for, you know, being out for a year.
04:12 But now it seems like he's settled in a little bit. He hasn't had nearly as many or really any of the
04:17 highlight reel dunks or alley-oops that he used to have, but he definitely looks more explosive,
04:22 like a little more bouncy and just generally like equally as athletic, or not equally,
04:27 but closer to as athletic as what he was a couple years ago when that was like a very real concern
04:32 when he came back, was he just looked like very sluggish and a lot more ground-bound than he used to be.
04:37 Yeah, and we criticize a lot of players on this team. Not criticize, but we moan about the missing games,
04:44 okay, injuries. Myles Bridges is remarkably available, and that's something I don't think people talk about enough.
04:50 He's never played less than 66 games in a season, and that was basically due to COVID.
04:55 He did have a shoulder injury that year, but he also picked up COVID and missed like, I think, two weeks, basically.
05:00 And when you talk about things to take into account, that is like one of the first things you talk about,
05:06 is Myles Bridges is always available, apart from off-court issues, but health-wise, he is always available,
05:13 and that's something that should be made aware of. Interesting fact, you think that he's a beast of a downhill driver, right?
05:22 Getting to the rim, and he has almost identical numbers, both in terms of frequency and finishing percentages,
05:29 as Gordon Haywood driving to the rim, which, if you'd have told people that, people would have thought
05:35 that Myles Bridges is a much better finisher, and he gets there more because of his athleticism.
05:39 So I just thought that was really interesting. One thing he does need to do is to try and focus on passing more off those drives.
05:47 I think Haywood passes at 40% of his drives. Myles Bridges is only down 29%, and that's quite low for the team.
05:55 So I think he's a little bit head down on those drives, and that's something that needs to take into account a little bit more.
06:01 The last thing I want to make before we move on, I'm going to disrespect MC Hammer.
06:07 The free agent sweepstakes, things are changing here for Myles Bridges. Pascal Siakam off the board, basically.
06:15 Ogi Ananobi, basically off the board. He is becoming the premier power forward free agent this offseason,
06:22 and I think his level of play recently, if he can keep this up, teams like Detroit, who are lingering in space
06:29 and are probably panicking, I think Myles Bridges is maybe playing himself into being one of the premier free agents this summer,
06:37 just with other names going off the board. So that's one last point I wanted to make.