New Phoenix Suns forward Miles Bridges caught everybody off guard at media day by claiming he wanted to form a defensive nightmare duo with Dillon Brooks. Imagine he succeeds, allowing him to spend some time playing as a small-ball center for this group. That could be quite the experiment.
Bridges at the five unlocks tons of fun lineup variations for Suns
The possibility of Bridges slowing down a monster such as Nikola Jokic is understandably hard to envision, but if he is serious about turning in the best season of his career to date on that end of the court, what about tangling with Bam Adebayo for eight minutes?
If Head Coach Jordan Ott could somehow get Bridges to a point where he could hold his own against certain centers, he could create lineups we have never seen before that could have opponents in fits. Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Koa Peat, and Dillon Brooks alongside Bridges, anybody?
Sure looks like the kind of group that could mask the defensive fragilities of Green, while Peat and Brooks pounding opposing forwards inside would give the team a serious advantage in the paint. Introduce Luke Kennard and the greenest light in the entire league for Peat, and suddenly, there is more space for Booker and Green to operate.
If that doesn't excite you, then having Jordan Goodwin alongside Booker and Green might be what you need. Goodwin excels next to anybody he plays with and is capable of guarding bigger forwards so that Green does not have to.
None of these lineups feature the man of the moment in Khaman Maluach or Oso Ighodaro, but that is the point of using Bridges in this way. He allows Coach Ott to lean into the smaller and more athletic guards and wings at his disposal, while even the forgotten Ryan Dunn could make sense in these groups.
Bridges taking defending seriously is already a win for Suns
Even if this outside-the-box use of Bridges never comes to pass, having him hold his own against other forwards would be massive. We know he can average over 20 points a night and create his own shot in the mid-range, but the Suns have a trio of other starters who can also do that and more.
They struggle when their top defenders go to the bench or can't get on the court at all because opponents will sag off them on the offensive end. Goodwin sometimes falls into this unwanted cohort, while Jamaree Bouyea and even Collin Gillespie certainly have.
Bridges can be a two-way menace and bring the best of both worlds, and trying him at center might just be the ace up the coaching staff's sleeve to confound the league.
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