With the Bulls holding two first-round picks this year, one almost certainly in the top eight and another likely in the middle of the first, there are plenty of prospects they’ll evaluating between now and draft day.
We took a look at Michigan State center Jaren Jackson Jr. in part 1 of our prospect profile series, now we’ll turn our focus to Villanova shooting guard/small forward Mikal Bridges.
Height: 6’7
Weight: 210 lbs
Wingspan: 7’1
Age: 21 (22 in August)
2017-18 Stats: 17.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 41.8 3P%, 63.9 TS%, 23.0 USG%, 98.3 DRTg
Bridges has had an atypical career path for a lottery prospect. He’s gone from redshirt, to super-sub on Villanova’s 2016 national championship team, to All-American Josh Hart’s sidekick, to centerpiece of the #3 ranked team in the country
Like Jackson, Bridges could potentially fill an immediate position of need. If this current Bulls core is ever going to develop into a serious contender, they will need to add another starting wing as good or better than Zach Lavine.
So the question for the Bulls is, can Bridges be that guy? Does he check all of the boxes?
Defense
At only 6’5, Lavine is strictly a shooting guard, so the Bulls will be looking for a small forward to put next to him. 6’7 is a tad short for the position, but Bridges’ 7’1 wingspan should make up for that. His tape shows that, thanks to his length, he has the potential to be a premier defender at the next level.
Adding a defender like Bridges could go a long way towards masking Lavine’s defensive inefficiencies. The Bulls rank in the bottom five in the NBA in almost every major defensive category, targeting players such as Bridges makes a lot of sense for them.
Athleticism
Yes
Offense
As Bridges’ role has expanded each season, so has his production. He averaged 6.4 points on just 4.1 FGA as a redshirt freshman, then 9.8 points on 6.5 FGA as a starter last season, and now averages 17.2 points on 11.8 FGA. His usage rate has gone from just 14.5 percent as a freshman to 23 percent this season.
The biggest reason for his improvement has been the development of his 3-point shot. He shot 29.9 percent from deep as a freshman, and now he shoots it at a 42 percent clip in almost 6 attempts per game. Needless to say, that type of 3-point efficiency would be of great value for whoever drafts him.
However, despite the on-paper improvements, there is reason to give pause when projecting him at the NBA level as a scorer.
Xavier is the best team Villanova has faced all season, and Bridges’ 25 point performance on the road in a hostile environment was impressive. However, in the clip above, you’ll notice that there is just one instance of him creating his own shot off the dribble. The more tape I watch, the more I notice he’s not much of a creator.
Is using a top 8 pick on a wing that hasn’t shown much evidence he can create his own shot a good investment?
Fit
While there have been outliers (Luol Deng, Derrick Rose, Lauri Markkanen), the Bulls tend to favor older prospects that have shown year-by-year improvement at the college level. Bridges fits that mold to a tee, therefore I expect there to be plenty of interest in him from the Bulls camp.
Having said that, I’d be a little let down if he ended up being the Bulls first pick.
Bridges has a lot of NBA caliber qualities, but he seems to resemble more of a strict 3-and-D type wing, a la Danny Green or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Those are both fine players, undeniably starter-caliber guys. But the Bulls should be looking for a wing to play Batman so Lavine can be Robin, not the other way around.
Maybe the year-by-year improvement we’ve seen him make at the college level continues in the pros, with ballhandling being his next big improvement. Maybe he’ll be able to put 20 lbs of muscle on his frame without losing a step athletically. If he does those things maybe he could be a star. But those are big ifs.
If he’s still available when the Bulls make their second first-round pick, then he’d be a great fit. He could start alongside Lavine right away and then either move to the bench or be traded for a solid return once (well, if) the Bulls eventually add a top-tier small forward.
Final Verdict
There isn’t enough upside in Bridges’ all-around offensive game to justify drafting him in the top eight, especially if any of the top center prospects are still on the board. Unless the Bulls second pick lands at 13, which appears to be the earliest spot that the NO pick could end up at, it’s hard to see Bridges falling to them. Even hoping he falls to 13 feels like a stretch at this point, considering Luka Doncic is the only SG/SF prospect unanimously ranked ahead of him.
Bridges may end up accomplishing a lot in the NBA. I just don’t expect those accomplishments to happen in Chicago.
