The Phoenix Suns traded for Miles Bridges this offseason. He is an upgrade at the power forward position primarily because he can be a 20 point per game scorer and take some of the pressure off Devin Booker in this department.
Bridges comfortable taking the ball and creating his own offense
Bridges and Kevin Durant don't exactly have a lot in common as players, but since Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets a year ago, the Suns have not had anyone at the four who can routinely put up big numbers.
Bridges will be achieving this in a different way than one of the greatest ever to do it, but Booker won't care because it is going to make his life easier anyway. The former Charlotte Hornet has averaged over 20 per game in three of the last four seasons and is one of the better scoring forwards in the league today.
He remains a below-average 3-point shooter (career 33.8 percent), but that can actually be viewed as a positive here. The Suns and Booker, in particular, have had success in the mid-range in the past, and Bridges is the latest weapon in and around the paint who can hurt opponents.
The 28-year-old does need to take more of an interest in rebounding, or else the Suns risk being overrun on the defensive end. Coach Jordan Ott won't stand for a dip in the top-10 defense he created last season. But to have a pair of forwards in Bridges and Dillon Brooks (who scored a career-high 20.2 points last time out) is massive for Booker.
Suns will take time to figure out their offense
This group will be good on the offensive end, but it will not happen immediately. Booker will begin the season with the highest usage rate on the team, and Jalen Green may initially sit in second. Unless there is a second basketball out there, this is a problem that will take some time to fix.
The Suns struggled through a turn-based offense in the past when Durant and Bradley Beal were in town, and it may be that the trio of Booker, Bridges, and Brooks all defer to one another.
Certainly, we've seen Booker do this both in The Valley and on the national team. Once those kinks have been ironed out, the sky is the limit offensively for this group.
Sprinkle in some 3-point shooting from Luke Kennard and Collin Gillespie, and the Suns are going to be dangerous. Bridges scoring from 15 feet inward is going to become an important part of that machine.
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