If Hornets are playing like wimps, can this rookie add toughness, urgency to rotation?

Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego used the word “physicality” so frequently Thursday, you must assume he has some wimps on his roster.

Rookie forward Miles Bridges is no wimp. He has both the body and the attitude of a bruiser. Bridges playing all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter Wednesday in Chicago, and the praise he received from Borrego Thursday, suggest an expanded role for Bridges is on the agenda.

“He was the bright spot. He brought a spirit to the game, he’s trying to do the right thing. He talks, he communicates,” Borrego said of Bridges, the 12th overall pick in the June draft.

“He looks more like a veteran sometimes than guys who have been in this league for many, many years.”

That last statement - that Bridges already conducts himself like a veteran - should have your attention, Hornets fans. I don’t know whether Bridges, who is 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, will start this season, nor do I think it matters greatly whether he does. The measure will be more how much he plays and when he plays.

Bridges can be either a burly small forward or a small-ball power forward. I tend to think he’ll end up playing a lot of power forward over the next few seasons in an NBA trending to smaller, quicker lineups. His explosiveness is obvious - more on his dunking later - and his defense is advancing faster than the Hornets could have reasonably expected when they acquired him after two seasons at Michigan State.

He came in cold in the fourth quarter Wednesday, compensating for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist being in foul trouble. His numbers didn’t jump off the box score - five points, two rebounds and a block - and he’s still looking for the right shots within the offensive sets.

But Bridges didn’t screw up mentally on defense, which is a key test of whether a rookie belongs on the floor when a game is decided.

“He’s in the right spot a lot of times defensively. He’s got urgency. He gets back on defense and he talks. He really knows his coverages.. I left there feeling really good about the kid we have.,” Borrego said.

Then the coach dropped the hammer.

“I like what I see from him,” Borrego said. “That should send a message to everybody.”

That message being Borrego is frustrated with the lackadaisical defense he saw of late, which started in the blowout loss in Toronto and continued in a close fall to a Bulls team that wasn’t going to be very good this season, and is now limited by injuries to starters Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn

“We really regressed in those two games.,” Borrego said.

“The plays that stand out to me are the effort: The lack of physicality, the lack of competitiveness, not going after loose balls. We lost six of seven 50-50 balls last night. It all converted into points for them. They had 50 points in the paint.”

As in, there were rotation guys who played like wimps and change could be in the offing.

Showmanship

If a bigger role for Bridges is coming, it will be entertaining. Immediately in the preseason, he showed off a knack for percussive dunks. He and Dwayne Bacon were the last two players in the practice gym Thursday, matched in an impromptu dunk contest. Bridges ended the session with a one-hand tomahawk.

Bridges has been dunking since the seventh grade, when he threw down in a middle-school game. With the NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte in February, would he welcome an invitation to the dunk contest?

“I’d do it!” Bridges said. “I’m not really a dunk-contest dunker. I’m more an in-game dunker, but I’d do it.”

What is the difference between a “contest” dunker and an “in-game” dunker?

“Dunk-contest dunkers bring out all the props and stuff,” Bridges said. “In-game dunkers, they can do the same dunks in the games.”

Translation: There is style and then there is substance, and Bridges clearly sides with the latter.

Margin for error

Obviously, Bridges played in big games with Michigan State, but he’s learning - as all rookies do - that the margin for error is so small in the NBA that each mental and physical failure is multiplied. Such as all those “50-50 balls” the Hornets gave up to a more aggressive, physical Bulls team Wednesday.

“Every possession counts (as far as) turnovers, missed free throws and offensive rebounds,” Bridges said of what a handful of NBA games have demonstrated.

And what can he add?

“Teams are not feeling us, so we have to be more physical,’ Bridges said. “I want to bring defense and rebounding to this team.”

He’s built for that. Borrego has noticed.

We’ll see how much that shakes up this rotation.

This story was originally published October 25, 2018 at 5:04 PM with the headline "If Hornets are playing like wimps, can this rookie add toughness, urgency to rotation?."