Subscribe
Follow Us
Lots of NBA athletes use their offseason time to go on vacation or simply spend time with family. Others prefer to use their down time to prepare for the next season. For Charlotte Hornets rookie Miles Bridges, this offseason was a steady grind, which resulted in a loss of 20 pounds.
Rick Bonnell revealed Bridges' weight loss in a recent Q&A piece for the Charlotte Observer.
Q. Is Bridges this season’s draft sleeper?
A. If you mean, “Will Bridges’ rookie season look like Donovan Mitchell’s?” I doubt it because that’s an awfully high bar. However, I was impressed with Bridges’ summer league. Specifically, how much his weight loss (roughly 20 pounds since last season with Michigan State) tightened up his body and his ability to handle the ball and create scoring advantages.
I suspect (coach) Borrego will experiment some in the preseason with using Bridges as a small-ball power forward. Small forward should be Bridges’ primary NBA position, but he presents other possibilities with his skill set.
Coming out of Huntington Prep High School in West Virginia, Miles Bridges, now 20 years of age, was ranked as the No. 10 prospect in his class by Rivals.com. He had offers from several prestigious universities, including Kentucky, Kansas, and Oregon. Ultimately, the 6-7 swingman decided to commit to Michigan State, where he played under head coach Tom Izzo.
Bridges was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers with the twelfth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. He was later traded to the Hornets.
“He's one of the highest character players in the draft, very athletic, plays hard, and he's very versatile,” Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak told ESPN in June.” “There is not much to not like about Miles Bridges.”
In 62 appearances with the Spartans, Bridges racked up averages of 17.0 points on 47.0 percent shooting from the field (37.5 percent from beyond the arc), 7.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.1 blocks in 31.6 minutes per outing.
