Mikal Bridges is one of the premier perimeter defenders in the game. He is a multi-positional wing defender, and many have lauded him as one of the best young two-way wings in the game.
This season, Mikal Bridges has received some consideration for the DPOY award. However, guards and wings haven’t won in recent memory, with the award going to big men. When speaking to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Mikal Bridges claimed that the “amount of times a big has won over a guard is crazy” and added that “guarding one through four is tough”.
“I would never discredit anybody, and obviously bigs have been winning that award for a while and they do a hell of a job, but the amount of times a big has won over a guard is just crazy. I think people take it for granted how tough it is to guard the top perimeter players in this league and not be able to really touch them because they’re going to get the foul call.”
“I feel like as a defender on the perimeter, you just get disrespected. I’m not even talking about me personally, but I don’t understand how guards in general don’t win it. These guards are shooting off ball screens, they get isos with the offense spaced out and a lot of shooters on the court. You’ve got to guard these matchups one-on-one, and I think we just get taken for granted.”
“I’m telling you, again, I’ll never discredit none of the bigs, but they don’t have the matchups we have to face. There are not as many talented bigs in the league as there are talented wing players and guards. Guarding one through four is tough. If you want to do the math, look up how many skilled players are one through four, and then how many skilled players are at the five. Obviously, you have a lot of talented fives, but out of all 30 teams, not every big on the team is very skilled. That’s just how I look at it.”
There is no question that Mikal Bridges has a case for the DPOY award. He’s a player whose stats don’t show his true value, and some even thought that he should have been an All-Star this season.
The Phoenix Suns have had a really good defense this season, and a large part of that is due to Bridges’ prowess on that end. Hopefully, his elite defense will continue into the postseason.
