He had a handful of these performances after the trade last season. It's too bad he can't find that assertiveness more consistently because he could easily average 27+ if he did.
He's still a good player. Just Bridges taking it up a notch!
Easy to forget two of the knocks on Cam coming into the draft: namely that he was an "old" rookie and had a bit of a ceiling, and that he had an injury history. Both of those factors may be why he hasn't really progressed as much as one would expect.
I was only willing to do it because even at his age, KD is better than Bridges imho. Just last game as an example, some of those blocks and defensive plays by KD, let alone the offense he provides, it was worth the trade to me.
Actually I think he's progressed nicely. Keep in mind, in addition to the two "knocks" against him that you mentioned, many people doubted he was even NBA caliber. To me, he's progressed to the point he's proven that he belongs in the league. He's a very nice role player when he's fully healthy but he's injury prone and I don't see that ever going away.
I think he can eventually beat the injury thing. You get a guy like him that can make big plays, even if he can't carry a team, he does have NBA value.
That would be great, he's one of the more likable NBA players today. But I suspect his team just needs to accept that about a quarter of the time he's going to be either sidelined or hampered by injury. As a comparison, during CamJ's NBA career, he's played in more than a hundred fewer games than Mikal Bridges has.
You mean 100 fewer than possible? LOL! Bridges is not a good comparison for anybody.
He's been fine... certainly better than I expected when we drafted him. But I was responding to Cheesebeef's quandary as to why he has seemed to have plateaued over the last couple seasons. Injuries have definitely played a role, and it also certainly seems possible that he may not progress beyond what he is right now due to meeting his ceiling. Not that he's bad at all, but just what he is, is all he will ever be. Time will tell, I guess.
True but still, playing in more than a hundred fewer than possible in a span of just 328 games is a real issue. And that doesn't count the time it takes him to get back up to speed after each of his recoveries. He wasn't as slow to get into rhythm as CamP was but he didn't usually hit the ground running either.
Maybe Mikal comes back down the road. Book seems to be maintaining a close friendship with his boys
There are several guys like that around the league, and most have been well documented here: Jerami Grant, Christian Wood, Kelly Oubre, Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma (lucky Wizards to have two), etc., etc.
Thomas didn't play much at the end of last season.
