Can Chicago Bulls find their own Donovan Mitchell in 2018 NBA Draft?

Miles Bridges

I had been considering Lonnie Walker has a surprise pick here as the Miami guard has been climbing draft boards of late. His potential as a 3-and-D player could come in very useful to an NBA team early in his career.

But Bridges has the greater upside because of his size, crazy athleticism and developing ability to score from anywhere on the court.

Everyone knows the 6-foot-6, 226-pound forward can hammer home a dunk with the best of them. In particular, he’s really dangerous in transition and semi-transition cutting to the rim for alley-oops.

But you may not have realized that Bridges shot almost 38% from 3-point range in his college career. That’s pretty good for a forward, especially a guy who has a power forward-type frame in a (relatively) shorter body.

Also, Bridges can penetrate, pull up from mid-range and break someone down with a dribble before rising up for jumpers too. That, and he can finish with either hand in the paint, whether off a post-up or contorting in the air past defenders.

And if that weren’t enough, he proved a force on the boards, earning second-chance points with regularity with his hustle.

If he adjusts to the small forward position, slotting similarly to the way Porter Jr. would have (assuming he’s gone by this point), his athletic ability, combined with more work on his jumper, could transform him quickly into a 10-13 points-per-game guy as a rookie. That would put him on a similar level to Markannen and Jayson Tatum. Not bad company.

Bridges will need to adjust to playing at the 3, which could be a challenge for him against other athletic wings. But he has the explosiveness to create serious problems for teams matchup-wise and has shown the ability to go off for big scoring games.

Next: 3 power forward options for Bulls to consider

He might not be Porter Jr. as a prospect, but there’s still plenty of upside to explore with him. And if the Bulls wanted to make things interesting next year in terms of competing for a back-end playoff spot, Bridges’ energy and versatility as a scorer could make all the difference.