Jalen Bridges enters the 2024 NBA Draft as a prospect who has the potential to be a 3-and-D wing due to his shooting and defensive upside. Coupled with his high basketball IQ and competitiveness as a player, Bridges has the traits of what a good role player should be.
Jalen Bridges 2024 NBA Draft Profile
College Career
Bridges began his collegiate career at West Virginia, where he spent three years. He had a redshirt season his first year and played an inconsistent role his second. Afterward, Bridges gained a consistent role for West Virginia in his sophomore, playing and starting every game. Bridges transferred to Baylor for his junior year and he retained a starting role. In his senior year, Bridges played with other draft prospects like Ja’Kobe Walter, Yves Missi, etc. Each year, Bridges showed that he could continue to produce as his role increased. For instance, Bridges averaged 12.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game on the season. He shot 46.6% from the field, 41.2% from three, and 82.3% from the foul line. During his time in college, Bridges demonstrated his ability to work well as an off-ball floor spacer and have an impact defensively.
Over his collegiate career, Bridges obtain awards for his play in the Big 12 conference. In his freshman year, Bridges received a Big 12 All-Freshman first team selection for the 2020-2021 season. This year, Bridges was selected to be on the All-Big 12 third team for his efforts on the season.
Strengths
The biggest strength of Bridges as a player offensively is his ability to operate off the ball and effectively space the floor. To begin with, Bridges has shown that he can hit shots from deep and do so on a high number of attempts. Specifically, Bridges has shot a career-high 5.1 attempts from three, meaning he is not afraid to let them fly. Additionally, he knocks his threes down at a high rate as well, shooting 41.2%. Bridges also has a good-looking, consistent shooting form that he can fire off smoothly and quickly. It should also be known that Bridges can shoot the ball in various ways, such as spot-ups, pull-ups, etc. This season, Bridges proved he can be a good shooter from range, but he does contribute offensively in other ways. For instance, Bridges demonstrated that he is a good off-ball cutter who takes advantage of sleeping defenders.
Defensively, Bridges has displayed that he can effectively use his size and length to have an impact defensively on opponents. Standing at six-foot-seven with a six-foot-ten wingspan, Bridges can defend across multiple positions and to a switchable defender. He is laterally quick enough to guard smaller and shiftier players. He is also quick and smart enough to get around screens when chasing opponents. Due to his length, he has the ability to bother and guard smaller power forwards. Additionally, Bridges is an excellent off-ball defender who uses his length to disrupt plays or passing lanes. He has shown to successfully be a helper, which is an excellent trait to have at the next level. To round things out, one of the most important things that Bridges is as a defender is the fact that he competes on every possession and always plays with effort.
Weaknesses
One thing that is a weakness with Bridges is that he isn’t much of a creator, either for himself or for others, nor is he a great ball-handler. He isn’t a high-usage player and his playstyle isn’t conducive to high-usage play. That’s not to say that he is terrible at these skills, but they are not prominent in his skill set, which is a bit limiting. It is also important to note that he has been somewhat inconsistent in shooting the ball on a year-by-year basis. Bridges isn’t a great athlete and he doesn’t have a great first step. Lastly, Bridge is an older prospect at 23 years old and he may not improve that much further because of that.
NBA Comparison
Bridges and his playstyle are built to be the modern NBA role player that everyone wants. Due to that, numerous names come to mind. P.J. Washington, who played a major role for Dallas in the playoffs after the trade deadline, shares similarities with Bridges in that they are big forwards who can space the floor and defend multiple positions. Another player that comes to mind is Saddiq Bey, who also is a switchable forward who can extend his range out to the three-point line.
