Mikal Bridges watched and learned from the stars he played alongside.
That’s why he’s starting to develop into one himself.
Chris Paul is a future Hall of Famer, Devin Booker an All-NBA Olympic champ.
Until last month, Bridges had spent his entire career in Phoenix, soaking up knowledge from both.
Now he’s in Brooklyn putting those lessons to use, exceeding even the Nets’ wildest expectations and thrusting himself into the picture for NBA Most Improved Player.
“He’s a winner. At the end of the day that’s how I describe him,” Jacque Vaughn said. “He really cares about winning, which is a great attribute. So he’s trying to do whatever it takes on both ends of the floor to help us win. You’ve just seen his game grow.
“The free-throw attempts, that’s the ability to attack the rim. His 3-point shooting, how many 3s he’s shooting for us. The early attack in transition — whether it’s to a pull-up or to create for someone else — the opportunity he’s taken advantage of. We’ve put a lot on his plate and I look forward to seeing him grow as a player.”
Bridges hasn’t just survived that bigger workload, but thrived with it.
When the Suns had initially refused to include Bridges in a deal for Kevin Durant this summer, he was coming off a season in which he averaged a career-high 14.2 points.
He has almost doubled that with the Nets.
Bridges averaged 17.2 points this season in Phoenix, but has risen to a new level in Brooklyn.
Since he arrived as the centerpiece of the Durant deal, he is pouring in 26.8 points on white-hot 49.6/41.2/91.0 percent shooting splits.
And like Durant, Paul and Booker, he has thrived in the midrange and feasted at the free-throw line.
“He just knows how to play the game,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said.
And Bridges, 26, clearly learned it from some of the league’s best.
“Just trying to get to the line, just trying to be aggressive. That’s just a big thing. Coming from Phoenix, watching a lot of and being right there with a lot of Book and CP3 and how they draw fouls, I’ve learned a lot,” said Bridges, who is just starting a four-year, $90 million deal.
“I’ve learned a lot from guarding the top guys and me getting silly fouls just because they’re so smart and they just give me an angle and let me foul them. So just learning. But yeah, it’s an emphasis to try to be aggressive. Good things happen when you get in the paint or go to the line; just opens the game up.”
Bridges has proven that accurate, averaging 34.3 points on 51.7/44.0/96.8 percent shooting in his last three games, making 30 of 31 from the free-throw line.
And Bridges will come into Wednesday’s game against the Rockets fresh off a 44-point outing, one shy of his career-high.
“Yeah, he gets one pull-up on the left and gets going and you can see him,” Cam Johnson said of his longtime Suns pal. “He has a look that he’s going to keep getting them up and he’s been hitting them. So give credit to him.”
The NBA community has given Bridges credit, now third-favorite in the Most Improved Race behind Lauri Markkanen and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And Bridges was hampered by both his late start, and Brooklyn’s 7-13 mark.
“Just highly competitive; really cares about doing what’s best for the group, whether that’s defending, whether that’s scoring,” Vaughn said. “He takes it hard when we lose, which is a good thing. He’s grown to be a leader on our team. He’s learning how to facilitate during the course of a game. He’s learning how to have the No. 1 defender on him at the beginning of the game. And he’s learning to do it on the other end guarding the No. 1 guy, which is different.
“Maybe Chris Paul or Devin Booker had the basketball in their hands at the end of the game … so these guys are going through processes you can’t repeat unless you’re in them. So I love that about the group that we’re learning from it and we’ll be stronger and better from it.”
