Miles Bridges said he wanted to stay in Charlotte, the team that drafted him and stuck with him through his domestic violence conviction and time away from the team. However, the NBA is a business, and he was also looking for a big payday. There were rumors about the Magic, Clippers, and others.
Is $25 million a season is big enough? It may not be as much as he hoped, but the Hornets and Bridges agreed to a three-year, $75 million contract, a story broken by Shams Charania of The Athletic and quickly confirmed by multiple others.
Bridges surprised people and bet on himself last summer, taking the one-year qualifying offer at $7.9 million, making him a free agent this summer. Bridges impressed scoring 21 points a game last season in Charlotte, bringing physicality to the wing spot and developing a 3-point shot (34.9% last season). He hoped that would provide leverage to get him offers outside of Charlotte.
Bridges’ problem was finding the right team to pay him. There were rumors about cap space teams like Detroit and Orlando kicking the tires, and Bridges’ camp had talked about the Clippers (a team that has taken on players with issues in their past, such as Josh Primo and Kevin Porter Jr.). Of course, if the Clippers were going to spend a lot of money on a wing they just would have kept Paul George.
Ultimately, that brought Bridges and his agent Rich Paul back to Charlotte.
Charlotte’s starting five of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Bridges, Grant Williams and Mark Williams could push the team into the postseason in the East. That group and bench players like Reggie Jackson give rookie coach Charles Lee something to work with as the Hornets work to turn the franchise around and make the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
