Every day, we’ll take a closer look at another member of the 2026-27 Phoenix Suns, examining what they bring to the roster and what their role could mean for the season ahead as we count down to training camp and the preseason.
Miles Bridges
Power forward, 6’7”, 225 pounds, 28 years old, 8th season
The Phoenix Suns are a team with numerous decisions to make during the upcoming season and subsequent offseason. And when it comes to the decisions that could have a long-term financial impact, much of the focus will
be on two former lottery picks. One is entering his second season with the Suns, Jalen Green. The other? Newly acquired Miles Bridges, who comes to Phoenix with athleticism, ferocity, and plenty of off-court baggage.
Bridges has an opportunity in a new city and with a new organization to reset his path as an NBA player. He has an opportunity to showcase his basketball talents under the scrutinizing eyes of a fan base that has every reason to question the decision to bring him here.
There may not be another player on the Phoenix Suns facing more pressure this season than Miles Bridges. Every time he performs poorly, those who opposed his addition to the roster will beat that drum loudly. If he plays well, the Suns could become a viable threat in the Western Conference. If he struggles, his presence will remain a divisive talking point throughout the fan base.
Now that’s pressure.
Last Season
[Recap the previous season in roughly 3–5 paragraphs.]
Cover the important parts of the player’s previous year without turning this into a game log.
Include:
- Games played and starts
- Basic statistical production
- Role and minutes
- Injuries or availability
- Major stretches, developments, or setbacks
- How the season ended for them
Contract and Roster Context
[1Miles Bridges is entering the final year of his contract and is owed $22.9 million this season with the Phoenix Suns. Next summer, he will become an unrestricted free agent, although the Suns will hold his Bird rights.
What makes his contract situation interesting is that there are essentially two paths Phoenix can go down.
- If the Suns opt to extend Bridges within the first six months after acquiring him, the maximum they can offer starts at 120% of his current salary with 5% raises in each additional season, with no more than four total seasons, including the current year. So if Phoenix extends Bridges prior to January 14, 2027, the maximum offer would be three years and $86.3 million.
- If the Suns wait until after January 14, the equation changes. At that point, Phoenix could offer Bridges a standard veteran extension, which can begin at up to 140% of the final year of his current contract with 8% annual raises. That would allow the Suns to offer him as much as four years and $143.2 million.
Granted, the Suns have done a stellar job recently of getting what you could define as bargain deals, whether it was Collin Gillespie, Mark Williams, and Jordan Goodwin in free agency or the extension they reached with Dillon Brooks. So the maximum numbers don’t necessarily mean that’s what Bridges will ultimately command.
What He Brings
As I watch Bridges play, there’s one thing I know for sure. You’re going to notice him on the court. He isn’t somebody who consistently fades into the corner and lives there, holding his hands open and waiting for a ball that may never come. He inserts himself into possessions, whether that means bringing the ball up the floor, getting into the paint, or attacking when the ball finds his hands. And when he does get it, he can become electric in an instant.
His ability to throw down highlight reel dunks is what immediately catches your eye, but when you start examining the rest of his offensive game, you see a multifaceted player.
Yes, he’s joining a Suns team that doesn’t particularly shoot the three-ball well, and Bridges isn’t necessarily going to solve that problem. He’s a career 33.8% shooter from beyond the arc and shot 33.3% last season with Charlotte. But he also made 148 of them. So it’s not like he’s a complete zero from deep who defenses can completely ignore on the perimeter.
What stands out to me more is his ability to finish with either hand. Whether it’s dunks or floaters, once he enters the paint, it can be difficult to tell whether he’s right or left-handed. You remember he’s a lefty once he starts shooting the three-ball. That versatility around the basket is going to add another layer to the Suns’ offense that they simply didn’t have last season.
And he’s not too shabby defensively, either. As I noted in my five storylines to watch for the Suns this season, Bridges is a quality defender at the point of attack:
One of the more interesting things about Miles Bridges last season was that he spent much of his time in essentially the Dillon Brooks role, guarding the opposing team’s best offensive threat. Bridges ranked in the 88th percentile in matchup difficulty, which measures the quality of the offensive players a defender is asked to guard while factoring in their offensive impact and usage. He graded out as an A minus.
That gives Phoenix another highly switchable perimeter defender who can take on difficult assignments and fortify different aspects of the Suns’ defense. And within the starting five, that should be an absolute upgrade over Royce O’Neale, who was a liability in this area.
What Needs to Improve
As the shooting chart above showcases, Bridges isn’t much of a midrange player. For his career, he has shot 32.2% between eight and 16 feet from the basket, although only 7.5% of his total attempts have come from that area. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That’s the space Devin Booker owns, while Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks like to operate there as well. You don’t need too many chefs in the kitchen, and we saw that a couple of years ago when Bradley Beal (cough…cough…when healthy) and Kevin Durant occupied many of the same areas of the floor. Bridges is better served either behind the arc, getting downhill, or operating from the dunker spot.
For somebody who attacks the paint as frequently as he does, however, he doesn’t get to the free-throw line very often. For his career, 48.7% of his shots have come from inside eight feet, yet he averages only 2.7 free-throw attempts per game. Perhaps some of that is a product of playing for Charlotte, a team that ranked in the bottom third of the league in free-throw attempts last season. But if the Suns want to attack the basket more frequently this season, with Green serving as the tip of the spear in that effort, those attacks need to produce something. Either make the basket or get to the line.
Another area where Bridges has room for improvement is his overall shot quality. BBall Index graded him as a D last season, placing him in the 27th percentile. The metric captures the quality of a player’s shots by factoring in distance, openness, and other variables. You would think that in Charlotte, with LaMelo Ball helping set the table for him, Bridges’ shot quality would have graded better than a D.
Prediction
There will be an initial adjustment period as all of the starters get comfortable with their roles. Bridges is going to eat into a chunk of the offensive production that belonged to other players a season ago. But once that comfortability sets in, I believe he’s going to thrive in his inaugural season with the Suns.
When you have Devin Booker as a scoring threat, Jalen Green attacking and penetrating, and Bridges potentially operating from the dunker spot, it should open up different aspects of the Suns’ offense. And I believe Bridges will be one of the primary beneficiaries.
There’s one thing you notice whenever you watch him play. He has a motor. That might be the part of his game that meshes most naturally with this Suns team. The motor. The desire. The competitiveness. You’ll see it on both ends of the floor. The Suns established that tenacity last season, and now they’ll look to fine-tune it with the addition of Bridges.
Stat Prediction: 68 games, 17.8 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 2.9 APG, 48/35/76 splits
Final Word
The longer the summer has gone on, the more I’ve bought into the idea that Miles Bridges is going to be a productive player for Phoenix. Perhaps it’s the long wait. The overanalysis. The hopium that starts setting in after an entire summer spent contemplating what this new offense could look like. Perhaps there’s some bias generated by watching hours of highlights. They are highlights, after all. They’re not lowlights.
Yes, there is plenty to be said about what has occurred off the court. But on it, you generally knew what you were getting from him. There were inconsistencies with the three-point shot, but the attitude and effort were there. And ultimately, that’s what this Suns team is being built to be. Hard-nosed. Competitive. The kind of team you don’t want to see sitting there on your schedule.
Bridges fits that mold perfectly.
