Miles Bridges making late push for NBA’s Most Improved Player Award

Miles Bridges was one of the most exciting players to ever step foot in East Lansing and suit up for the green and white. He was an elite dunker with a vast skill-set and he barely scratched the surface in his two seasons with Michigan State.

When he was selected in the lottery by the Charlotte Hornets, it seemed like a good fit. He had a veteran point guard and a roster with holes that could yield plenty of playing time.

In his rookie year, he was relatively quiet. He was a strong dunker but averaged just 7.5 points and 4.0 rebounds while shooting around 46 percent from the floor and 33 percent from deep. He was just adjusting to the league, averaging around 21 minutes per game.

In year two, he got plenty better, averaging 13.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and shot 42 percent from the floor and 33 percent from deep in 30 minutes per game.

But it hasn’t taken until April of his third season to truly break out.

In fact, the third-year small forward is in the midst of the best string of games in his career. Not only is he putting defenders on posters just about every game, but he’s also showing that he does, in fact, have game (looking at you, Dan Dakich) with plays like this:

People like Dakich are eating some crow right about now.

Miles Bridges making late push for Most Improved Player

OK, let’s just face it, Julius Randle is probably going to take home the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award this season, but it’s not as much of a runaway as it once was. Randle went from 19.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists while shooting about 28 percent from 3-point range to 24 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 6.0 assists while shooting 42 percent from deep.

So Randle has probably sewn it up, but after the past month, Miles has made a push.

If it weren’t for a few quiet months in-between the first month of the season and April, we would be talking about Bridges as the runaway favorite for the award. If the award was based on the finish to the regular season or improvement over the course of the year and not compared to previous seasons, Bridges would be up there as a favorite as well.

Over the past three months leading up until April, Bridges was averaging 9.4 points and shooting under 40 percent from 3-point range but he more than doubled his production this month. He’s averaging 19 points per game while shooting 47 percent from 3-point range.

If Bridges can carry over this hot stream into the final weeks of the season and next year, we could be talking about him leading the charge for NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2021-22.