Brooklyn Nets guard Mikal Bridges has been incredible for the Nets ever since he came to Brooklyn in the Kevin Durant trade. His role with the Nets as the primary scoring option is different than any role he has had, probably in his basketball career, if you listen to him talk about it.
Bridges has consistently said that he doesn’t view himself as a high-volume scorer and that even now, when he is scoring 30 points, it’s because he is trying to help his team win the game in the best way he can. The former Villanova Wildcat has done that and then some as he has fulfilled his role as the primary scorer for the Nets as much as anyone could have expected.
In 56 games with the Phoenix Suns this season, Bridges averaged 17.2 points per game on 46.3% shooting from the field and 38.7% from three-point land. In 27 games as a Net, he is averaging 26.1 points on 47.5% field-goal shooting and 37.6% from behind the three-point line. Bridges hopped on New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum’s show to discuss various things about his career, including the adjustment to being the primary scorer:
“What I always tell people is I got traded at the right time. That literally everybody was out in Phoenix when C (Chris Paul) was out for a while, book (Devin Booker) was out. Cam Johnson, Cam Payne. We didn’t have Jae Crowder so like we a lot of people out and it was just like, I had to step up, you know? Now, that was the biggest thing for my coaches. Everybody was like I had to be that guy to step up and in the beginning, it was tough. I had a lot of tough games then like being like the number one option also trying to do everything defensively as well.”
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