Stalker of legends: How the Suns’ Mikal Bridges has become a modern-day stopper (2024)

It was halftime of the third game of the season. The cramped visiting locker room inside the Moda Center housed a bit of a stunned Phoenix squad, already down 20.

After losing their opener against Denver, the Suns seemed to get their swagger back in Staples Center the way they handled the Lakers two days later — even with the Lakers’ new star, Russell Westbrook. But the next night, in Portland, the momentum was dying. Damian Lillard was carving up the Phoenix defense, with his penetration even more than his shooting. He had seven assists in the first half by attacking the paint out of the pick-and-roll and finding open shooters. The Blazers had the Suns on skates with good ball movement and made 10 first-half 3s.

In an effort to be part of the solution, veteran wing Jae Crowder went to the frontman of the defense. Coming back would begin with containing Lillard. And that was the primary job of one man: Mikal Bridges. So Crowder pulled up next to the fourth-year forward, planting his purple Kobe Bryant signature sneakers alongside Bridges’ gold Kevin Durant signature Nikes. Crowder wanted to talk coverages, find out what Bridges needed by way of support to solve this Lillard pick-and-roll dilemma. What Crowder got was another glimpse into the authenticity of his young buck.

“He told me, ‘I’m tired,’ and I’ve never heard him say that,” Crowder said. “He was like, ‘Bruh, I’m just tired. I’m fighting through screens. I’m just getting hit and I’m tired.’ And I’m like, ‘Daaaaaamn.’”

Crowder was impressed. He understood clearly what he was witnessing.

First and foremost, this was a young player being transparent. This was a live window into the relationship of Crowder and Bridges and an example of why Bridges is beloved by his OGs. No pretentiousness. No facades. Just a 25-year-old mature enough to set his ego aside and be vulnerable. The Suns reached the 2021 NBA Finals in part because of the chemistry moments like this suggests. Honesty, accountability, understanding — hallmark traits of a Suns squad that has grown into a special group.

But also, Crowder saw this as a sign of how hard Bridges was going. This youngster has an endless motor, one that had been going non-stop since Suns head coach Monty Williams challenged him to go harder when he arrived in Phoenix. Since then, it’s like Bridges drinks lithium-ion smoothies every morning. He has not missed a game in his career. Including playoffs, he’s appeared in 280 consecutive games. He replaced Dario Šarić in the Suns’ starting lineup on Jan. 28, 2020, and hasn’t relinquished the spot since. His minutes have gone up every year under Williams, and he’s currently at 34.1 per game.

So when Bridges says he’s tired, it means something to Crowder. In his 10th season and on his seventh team, Crowder knows all about the brink and pushing to it. The second-round pick out of Marquette made his home in the NBA by grinding. Bridges’ confession reminded him why he loved his mentee on the wing.

In honor of that, Crowder did his part. He told Bridges to keep fighting. He told Bridges would work on conditioning, get it where it needs to be. They would be fine in a few weeks. But in the meantime, just keep fighting through it.

“He was trying to give me everything he’s got,” Crowder said. “I know he was emptying the tank.”

That feels like a long time ago. Bridges did keep fighting. He did get his conditioning on point as he and the Suns found their legs despite their season starting exactly three months after the previous one ended in Game 6 of the 2021 NBA Finals. And now he is even better.

The Suns own the best record in the NBA. They have the second-highest-rated defense in the league, allowing an average of 102.8 points every 100 possessions. And the spear of their defense is Bridges.

He’s scheduled to be back on the main stage again on Christmas Day, chasing around Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, one of the most difficult covers basketball has ever known. And there’s no place Bridges would rather be than tangling with the elite.

In an era of pace and space, Bridges operates as a contrarian. In a league dominated by ballhandlers who can drop 30 points in a blink, Bridges has made it his business to try to stop them. Like a bouncer, he positions himself in front of VIPGs.

“He’s a smart man,” Curry said of Bridges. “He knows how to get paid in this league. Smart man.”

If a stopper were crafted by the gods of defense, specifically for this modern era, he’d be strikingly similar to Bridges. He’s slightly bigger, heavier and longer than Philadelphia’s Matisse Thybulle, another of the league’s premier young defenders.

Bridges is 6-foot-6, an ideal NBA height, tall enough to be an impediment to every perimeter position but not so tall as to lose any fluidity of movement. He’s listed at 209 pounds, which is a good size. He’s gotten stronger from his wiry start and could use more strength for some of the bigger wings and stronger guards he has to face. But he has enough mass to be physical with smaller guards and yet still light on his feet. A big component of Bridges’ defense is his agility. He is quick enough to move with guards, nimble enough to matriculate around screens and stay in front. He has a 7-foot wingspan, which for ballhandlers trying to get away from him is like a scythe hanging over their heads.

The height plus agility plus wingspan plus motor equals a defensive anomaly. His teammates and coaches marvel at the space he consumes.

“He had a blocked shot in transition in the corner,” Williams said of a play against the Mavericks last month, featured in the video below (Bridges is No. 25, at the bottom of the frame when the clip begins). “But if you watch the play, he peeped it out on the left wing and sprinted to the right corner and blocked the shot, actually saved a wide-open corner 3. His ability to cover ground is a lot different than a lot of people in the league. He covers ground and he’s so doggone long.”

His physical attributes are one thing. But Bridges’ intellect and defensive instincts are just as valuable. The pedigree of playing three years at Villanova, a factory of NBA talent under coach Jay Wright, and winning two national championships is evident in the way he defends. He’s not an overly active ballhawk. Those types tend to be easier to get by if the ballhandler keeps his cool. Bridges applies pressure, but it’s patient and methodical. His body language on defense says, “I’ma be here all night.” He rides alongside dribblers, slinks around screens and hovers over guards. When it seems like he’s beat, he has a knack for hustling ahead to a spot that puts him back in front. He can be like an inescapable horror-flick villain who pops up just when you think you got away.

Watching him this year reveals a smarter defender. One who’s been on the circuit a while and has learned some tendencies of the elite scorers.

“Just staying locked in, really not falling asleep,” Bridges said. “Being ready. Just knowing different guys and what their tendencies are and just staying locked in at all times.”

It’s hard to find good data on defense to really illustrate the impact of players like Bridges. His steal and block averages — 1.3 and 0.5 per game, respectively — won’t wow anyone. But his style of defense is more preventative medicine. His effectiveness can’t be understood without accounting for what he stops from happening. The times his presence makes a player give up the ball and not be able to get it back. The shots they turn down because they don’t feel quite comfortable with him so near. The way he funnels players into a wall named DeAndre Ayton. The way he grates on players and takes their legs or their focus late in games. The way he can hop from guarding a ball-dominant guard to an off-ball wing to a bigger forward and back to the point guard.

“He’s pretty disciplined,” Curry said after the Warriors beat Phoenix at Chase Center earlier this month. “He’s obviously got size and length. His wingspan’s crazy so he can clog up space when he’s either trailing the pick-and-roll or closing out, whatever the case is. One-on-one, it’s tough to stop anybody in this league. … But there’s always going to be help, and they’re a very disciplined five-man defense, too, knowing where help is coming from and all that type of stuff. … He’s gonna do his job. He’s gonna be relentless.”

Arguably Bridges’ greatest display this season was against Curry, just three days before the game in San Francisco.

In the hyped showdown between what is considered the best two teams in the league, Bridges was sensational against Curry in the desert. Curry had 12 points on 4-for-21 shooting, one of the worst offensive displays of his career and a rare showing for the MVP favorite. Bridges had a significant hand as he was on top of his game. Curry for sure missed some open looks, but he didn’t get many free from Bridges.

It was an occasion for national recognition for a player making his name among the league’s best defenders.

“I don’t care if ’Kal don’t play another game this season,” Suns point guard Chris Paul said, “he better be on that All-Defensive team this year. Every night. Every night, man. ’Kal does everything.”

There are some numbers to show Bridges’ impact.

Entering Thursday, Bridges, per NBA stats, had contested 347 field goals this season, third-most on Phoenix behind Ayton and Crowder. The players who took those shots, as a collective against all opponents, shoot 44.9 percent from the field. But in those 347 shots defended by Bridges, they shot 44.4 percent. That’s a 0.5 percent drop in field-goal percentage.

Just how much has Bridges grown this year? Last season opponents shot 49.2 percent when he defended them, which was a 2.4 percent increase over their usual collective average.

Those numbers, though, come with a caveat: Bridges is doing his work against the absolute best offensive players in the league. That’s the real party trick, the element that makes him special even among defenders. Bridges’ assignments are Curry, Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Ja Morant. Stopping them is not truly possible. Not in this era of the NBA.

But Bridges is becoming adept at making life tough for them.

Also, he is averaging 12.1 points per game on 51.2 percent shooting and 38.1 percent from 3. Last season: 13.5 points, 54.3 percent shooting, 42.5 percent from 3.

“I think Mikal just continues to grow on the fly,” Williams said. “When we got him, he was thrown in the mix right away. So you’re learning in the game for the most part, and that can be tough. But I think where he’s expanded his game is just in confidence and IQ and knowing situations better. I think he understands who he’s guarding because he got some of the best guys all the time. But now, I think he’s growing in situational play. I think Chris and Jae have really helped him with that because they’ve been in a lot of situations. And then, he’s expanded putting the ball down. His shooting has gotten better. But his ability to guard multiple positions and expend that kind of energy on defense and then go, you know, go 7-for-7 from the field on offense like that? That’s hard.”

Paul, in his 17th season, shakes his head as he speaks in a tone while running off the list of players. A throwback from a different era, he remembers vividly.

“So many years guarding,” Paul said. “You know what I mean. Guarding guarding. Chasing around Steph. Guarding James (Harden). Guarding Kyrie (Irving). Russ (Westbrook). All that.”

Paul is leaving out some names, for sure. Allen Iverson. Baron Davis. Steve Nash. Gilbert Arenas. Tony Parker. He’s cycled through a generation of killer guards.

The point is, he knows. He knows the mindset it takes. He knows the preparation and recovery required. He knows the selflessness it demands, the scarcity of the thanks.

“I get so excited about it because I know what that’s like,” Paul said. “So it’s a different type of approach coming into the game. It’s a lot of games where guys coming into game have to think about making their shots and getting to their spots. But when you have to think of how am I gonna make the game tough on this guy, it’s a whole different approach to the game. And he’s one of the best I’ve seen do it.”

Part of the life Bridges has chosen involves getting torched sometimes. That’s the nature of the beast when the nightly assignment is to stalk legends. Yet, he still wants it.

Curry followed up that 12-point performance three days later with 23 in a rematch against Bridges and Phoenix. He made 6 of 11 3-pointers this time. It wasn’t an explosive Curry performance, but enough damage for the Warriors to beat the Devin Booker-less Suns. And now Bridges has to do it again on Christmas Day. Curry gets a third crack at unlocking the gate to the Suns’ defense.

And Bridges could very well walk away getting victimized. He learned a few weeks into his rookie season how good these guys are and how sometimes good defense isn’t much of a deterrent.

“I remember (Paul George) when I was a rookie, when he was with OKC,” Bridges said. “That was tough.”

Phoenix played the Thunder twice in five days in November 2018. Westbrook was out both games. George totaled 64 points on 41 shots over the two games.

That’s why Paul gets excited, and emphatic, about Bridges. Paul knows well the risk of the job and the propensity to get burned. And in Bridges he sees a player who doesn’t flinch at the prospect.

“He’s cool with it,” Paul said. “It’s a lot of people who don’t like to play defense. A whole lot of people.”

In the 2021 NBA Finals, in Game 6, it was Jrue Holiday that Bridges was stalking. Holiday went 4-for-19 from the field. His four makes came when he got free of Bridges. But seven of the 15 misses were contested by Bridges, including a block and three shots where Holiday didn’t hit the rim. On several other occasions, Holiday used a screen to get around Bridges, but the continued pursuit of the Suns’ wing fed Holiday right to Ayton, who contested three misses including one block.

It was a stellar defensive performance by Bridges in the biggest game of his life. But it ended on the sourest of notes.

Twice, in the fourth quarter, Bridges got switched onto Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was having the game of his life. First, Antetokounmpo hit a turnaround over Bridges just below the foul line. Then he got a good seal in the paint with Bridges trying to front him, and the Bucks star turned and dunked it. Bridges, at a massive size disadvantage, found himself on the punctuation end of an all-time NBA Finals performance. The Suns ceded the championship to Milwaukee.

The calling of a defensive stopper is to put his nose in the business of greatness. This, too, is part of what he signed up for. The audacity that makes him willing to stand in front of legends is the very reason he’s becoming so good at it.

(Illustration: Wes McCabe / The Athletic; photos: Christian Petersen / Getty Images, Steph Chambers / Getty Images, Christian Petersen / Getty Images, Christian Petersen / Getty Images, Keith Birmingham / MediaNews Group / Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images, Michael Gonzales / NBAE via Getty Images)