https://youtu.be/joI15HElfeM
Miles Bridges suffered a severe decrease in his dunk rate from his rookie year to his second year. He went from 16% of his attempts being dunks to just 7% of his attempts being dunks. While I am fully in favor of players adding new weapons to their offensive arsenal and generally expanding their game, I am fully NOT in favor of players dunking it less often even as their athleticism continues to develop. That’s like slapping god across the face for giving you a beautiful gift.
Luckily, Bridges’ dunk rate has rebounded this season, and he’s back to having about 16% of his shot attempts be dunks. The natural order of things is being restored. I feel like part of the reason this happened is because Bridges was asked to take on more responsibilities in the offense last season, and this season, he’s gone back to just being a hustle guy off the bench, which is probably the role he’s best suited to at this time. Gordon Hayward can do all the “traditional” stuff that forwards do, and Bridges can come in, dunk it a few times, making a couple three-pointers, and not worry about getting out of his comfort zone.
I wish my comfort zone included being able to dunk basketballs, but it doesn’t. My comfort zone is shooting midrange jumpers, but, more prominently, my comfort zone is sequestering myself indoors while goofing off on my computer and eating chicken wings with blue cheese dipping sauce. Life is unfair sometimes.