Mikal Bridges – Phoenix Suns
One of the most underrated breakout players of the 2020-21 NBA season has been Mikal Bridges in Phoenix. The Suns have had arguably one of their greatest seasons ever this year and with Chris Paul and Devin Booker leading the way and getting all of the attention, the contributions Mikla Bridges has made to this team have oftentimes been overshadowed.
Not only did Mikal Bridges finish the regular season as the Suns 4th best scoring option, averaging 13.5 PPG and shooting 42.5% from three-point range, but he really made a name for himself this year by being a terrific and tough-minded perimeter defender.
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Given his length and lateral quickness, Mikal Bridges has emerged as a terrific two-way player and in the playoffs, he could quickly make an even bigger name for himself since his team plays the Lakers in the first-round.
All eyes will be on this series and with Mikal Bridges likely to end up guarding LeBron James a lot, he could immediately become a hero in Phoenix should he continue to put together some defensive clinics on the court.
He may not be the best pure scorer and be a guy who we can look at to potentially get 30 points per game in this series, but the impact Bridges can make defensively can be the difference in this series for the Suns. If he can guard LeBron James like Andrew Wiggins did for the Warriors in the recent 7-seed play-in game, the Phoenix will be just fine and everyone will be talking about Mikal Bridges moving forward.