Exclusive: 5 Mikal Bridges Q’s and A’s with a shooting coach

Shooting with little space

Valley of the Suns: What does Mikal do to be able to shoot with such little space? Do you see this skill as being useful to his all around offensive development?

@BehnindCurve: He has a high and quick release, good size, no hesitancy, and he shoots with confidence. His form doesn’t change when shooting over the top of defenders with no room. And he has excellent touch and good balance on his shot.

Mikal is what some shooting coaches call a two-motion shooter. He often jumps high on his shot, pauses, then fires. Jumping high and maintaining a high release point (his 7’1 wingspan doesn’t hurt) makes it harder to disrupt a shot for a defender.

Pausing before release also presents a challenge to the shooter, as it makes it difficult to maintain good arc, but Bridges does. The trajectory on his shooting arm is very high and skyward, not forwards. He fully extends with arc. That’s the key.

To become better at the off the dribble game, I think he’d need to improve his balance and deceptiveness. Being able to get lower on a drive, or better sell a change of direction or a step back, would allow more room. This is maybe a lower body strength/balance thing.