Mikal Bridges
Mikal Bridges is in a very interesting position as a rookie.
First off, he appears to be in the perfect situation. Sure, playing for his hometown Philadelphia 76ers who is about to be a perennial playoff participant would have been great. However coming to Phoenix he will have more time to hone his game and develop without nearly as much pressure to succeed right away.
He too is currently third on the depth chart for small forwards, and considering that Devin Booker can also play the three, Bridges could actually be the fourth.
That said, he is going to be an asset right away because no other young Suns player has either won an NCAA National Championship (which he has done twice) nor played in even three of four possible collegiate seasons.
He is going to be a very mature rookie, something that is going to suit the team well.
Unfortunately I believe that Bridges is going to start out slow, ala 2017-18 Josh Jackson, and other than a game here or there, he will not have a string of double-digit scoring games where he made an impact on victories.
That said, I believe that like Jackson he will turn it around in the second half of the season and will be an impact player, hopefully for a team making at least a slight playoff push.
My bold prediction though is in regards to his shooting: while he will not take probably even half of the number of 3’s that either Devin Booker or Troy Daniels are bound to take, Bridges is going to average over 40% from beyond the arc on at least 200 attempts, something that Davon Reed was unable to even sniff last season, and something that no rookie has ever done in franchise history.