Mikal Bridges drew league-wide praise for his elite scoring efficiency during a 30-game stretch following his trade to the Brooklyn Nets last season. Despite a slow start to the 2023-24 season, Bridges is surpassing those scoring numbers a quarter of the way through the year and making a strong case for his first All-Star appearance.
Mikal Bridges is putting up great stats
Over his last 11 games, Bridges is averaging 26 points on 53/52/87 shooting splits. His 53.1 percent field goal percentage during that span ranks fifth among 34 players averaging 17 or more shots per game.
For the season, Bridges is averaging 23.2 points on 49.3 percent shooting from the field and 37.8 percent from three. He's also shown noticeable improvement as a playmaker, averaging a career-high 4.0 assists compared to 2.7 with Brooklyn last season, despite posting a lower usage rate.
The 27-year-old has propelled the Nets to a 12-9 record despite a slew of injuries and a difficult schedule. His elite offensive efficiency recently drew praise from head coach Jacque Vaughn.
“I think that’s when you really take your game to another level, when your shot selection and the process in which you’re getting to your spots is elevated,” Vaughn said. “There isn’t wasted motion, there isn’t wasted energy. I think he understands when we’re in the bonus, when is the opportunity for him to drive, when he has a matchup that he can just get to his spot and shoot over, when he can post-up and get to the middle of the paint and score over somebody.
“So the recognition of what’s going on in the game, I think, is at a high level and growing for Mikal, and with that comes the efficiency.”
In 30 games with the Nets in 2022-23, Bridges averaged 27.7 points on 47/38/89 shooting splits. Despite this, he still felt his scoring efficiency left something to be desired amid his increased offensive workload.
“I've always been an efficient person my whole life. Coming over here last year, I think I was getting a little inefficient,” Bridges said Saturday. “Being in a new role, I was scoring a lot with having more on my shoulders, but my efficiency was dropping a little bit. Obviously, I was happy with my scoring going up, but I still didn't like how much I was missing at times.”
Bridges is attacking the rim at a much higher rate this season compared to his mid-range-dominant approach in 2022-23. Last year, he attempted 48 percent of his shots from the mid-range and 20 percent at the rim, per CleaningTheGlass. This year, he's attempting 38 percent of his shots from the mid-range and 31 percent at the rim.
Bridges' elite shotmaking has been most glaring down the stretch of games. The former lottery pick leads the NBA with 21 clutch field goals (final five minutes of games within five points). He's shooting 55.3 percent on 38 clutch attempts, the NBA's second-best percentage among nine players to attempt 29 or more this season, per NBA.com stats.
- LeBron James: 65.5% (19/29 FG)
- Mikal Bridges: 55.3% (21/38 FG)
- Stephen Curry: 50.0% (20/40 FG)
- Damian Lillard: 47.1% (16/34 FG)
- Dennis Schroder: 41.4% (12/29 FG)
- Trae Young: 41.2% (14/34 FG)
- Kawhi Leonard: 37.9% (11/29 FG)
- Dejounte Murray: 37.5% (12/32 FG)
- Kevin Durant: 36.6% (15/41 FG)
“I think he’s accepted the idea of being the dude who’s gonna take the shot; there’s a mentality around that,” Vaughn said of Bridges' closing ability. “You give him a lot of credit for supposedly being a guy that wouldn't be in that position to take that shot three years ago to a guy that is leading the league in clutch points this season.”
Bridges entered the season with All-Star expectations following his breakout with the Nets late last year. The Villanova product will have a strong case to earn his first-ever selection if he can sustain his offensive efficiency in the coming months.
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