The reporting that came out a little while ago that the Warriors were working out Jalen Bridges tomorrow has me so damn excited I can't even begin to explain. 😂 I've been working on this scouting report post on him for a bit so what better timing to finally post it. It's a much much longer post than most are willing to read these days, but for those interested, I promise it's a worthwhile read. I haven't been this excited about a genuinely attainable prospect in a while.

Bio and Measurements

• 6'9" 3&D wing out of Baylor that'll be a few days short of 23 yrs old on draft day. Has 5 yrs of college experience after redshirting his first year at West Virginia, where redshirt year included he spent 3 years, before transferring to Baylor where he played his junior and senior years.
• Height w/out shoes: 6'6.75" (6'9" is his listed height w/shoes on nearly all scouting reports, stat websites, etc.)
• Wingspan: 6'10"
• Standing reach: 8'9"
  • Avg standing reach for SF prospects at this year's combine was 8'8 1/4"

Scouting Reports

Consensus draft boards have him in the mid to late 50s, which means not only is he legitimately within our range, they may be able to work out a similar deal with his agent like they did with TJD's to guarantee him a 4 yr, dirt cheap contract to ensure he doesn't get picked by anyone else just above us.

The Ringer's scouting report

• Their elevator pitch for him: "Quintessential role player who enhances his teammates with 3-and-D skills and flashes higher upside."
• Their player comps: a shade of Royce O'Neale mixed with Mikal Bridges
• Badges given to him (aka his most prominent skills):
  • On-ball Defense
  • Catch-and-shoot Threat
  • Off-ball Mover
• His PLUSES section, which reads as a Warriors dream role player profile:
  • Dynamic shooter with clean mechanics who can run off screens or take 3s off the dribble.
  • Displays shot creation skills in some of his pull-up 3s, in-out dribbles on drives, and spin moves. Even if he never becomes a primary ball handler, he can at least thrive attacking closeouts and going coast-to-coast on the break.
  • High-IQ player without the ball. He relocates on the perimeter for 3s and looks for cutting opportunities at the rim. His intelligence applies to his passing as well, as he limits his mistakes.
  • Competitive defender with a long wingspan who can switch screens to defend multiple positions or fight through them and slide his feet to mirror opposing shot creators. He also disrupts passing lanes, especially when Baylor plays its zone defense, showcasing his ability to be an effective helper at the next level.
• His MINUSES section
  • Inconsistent 3-point shooter until his senior year, though his near-80 percent clip from the line in his collegiate career bodes well for his potential.
  • He's a low-usage player who hasn't proved he can be a lead creator.

No Ceilings NBA's scouting report, excerpts from which are below (although I really recommend going to the report and reading it in its entirety because it's phenomenally thorough and also includes game tape clips!):

Offense:

• "But in the NBA, good shooters don’t often get clean, easy looks. They have to work for them. Bridges is ready to do that, too. He’s more than comfortable launching from behind the NBA line when given space. He’s also a more dynamic shooter than he seems to get credit for being. Bridges does a great job of running the floor and filling the corner in transition, where he can hit the breaks and move seamlessly into his shot. He made 10 of his 24 transition triples this past season. While he didn’t get to run off screens much, he looked great when he did, knocking down 12 of his 23 attempts on those types of threes. His quickness helps him separate from defenders. He demonstrates positional understanding, tucking himself behind screens in a way that maximizes the distance between himself and the defender. Once he catches the ball, his fluidity is on full display. He gathers his feet and goes into his shooting motion in one single movement. Bridges isn’t just a guy who shot a good percentage on threes in college, he’s a guy who is capable of hitting the shots that NBA shooters need to hit."
• "He’s got an impressive off-the-dribble bag from behind the arc. Bridges has the “pump fake, sidestep, three” shot to avoid potent closeouts and still get himself a clean, efficient look. If defenders sag going under a ball screen, he has the confidence to pull up and the accuracy to convert. Even in a pure one-on-one matchup, he has enough of a handle paired with slick footwork which allows him to generate space from his defender. His vertical pop, strength, and balanced base allow his shots to actually get where they need to go, too. His combination of skill, will, and coordination make him a dangerous three-point shooter off the dribble and contributed to him hitting 14 of his 32 pull-up threes this past season."
• "Because of his gravity off the catch and pull-up prowess from long range, defenders have to either play tight on Bridges or close out at him with ferocity. When they do, he’s able to make them pay. Bridges has a quick first step and takes long strides to the basket. Add in his explosive one-footed leaping ability, and Bridges can finish above the rim in the halfcourt. Still, Bridges isn’t contact averse and has the touch to finish even when bumped mid-air. His 56.9% at the rim in the halfcourt is a rock-solid mark for someone who will predominantly play the three position."
• "Now, the icing on the cake—Bridges is a much better passer than his 8.2 AST% would indicate. At first, that number seems scary, but bear with me. Again, he was a lower-usage player. He's able to make a nice variety of passes. Bridges is comfortable putting it on the deck and he’s able to make the right pass. Even better, he reacts quickly and can legitimately read the defense, as evidence by some of these more “go-with-the-flow” style passes that couldn’t be pre-meditated. He won’t give Nikola Jokic a run for his money, but he has the skill to identify what a defense is doing and then capitalize on it. That’s a must when it comes to playing in a modern playoff series."

Defense:

• "On the ball, Bridges has the hips and foot speed to keep smaller opponents in front of him. He’s an agile lateral mover. He guards ball screens well, with the ability to get skinny and knife around a pick to contain the ball. When he does get beat, he always gives an extra effort and works to recover. He pops off the floor quickly to contest shots."
• "His best work comes off the ball, though. His speed allows him to cover large swaths of ground in a hurry. He knows where to be rotationally, and he does an excellent job of playing in gaps. He’s keenly aware of his surroundings and eager to make help plays at the rim, but he’s not overeager, either. He does a great job of using his length to get to balls in passing lanes, whether it’s for a steal or a disruptive deflection that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet."
• "He’s going to be able to cover multiple positions thanks to his length and quickness, but his ability to play within a team concept is what’s most important for him as an older prospect. He won’t be behind the curve mentally, and the fact that he’s often a step ahead of opposing offenses is encouraging. If nothing else, he won’t be in over his head."

Notable excerpts from other misc. scouting reports/articles:

• "What intrigues scouts the most is his willingness to get his teammates involved and make the right play." Source
• "Bridges is the consummate role player who excels as an off the ball do-everything wing who will be a 3&D player at the next level. He does all of the little things well and doesn't need the ball to be effective. He moves well without the ball and is a good cutter with solid finishing ability in the lane. On the defensive end Bridges can lock down 1-3 and even guard smaller 4's. He's a really good help defender who has great awareness and instincts." Source

Game Tape Breakdowns & Compilations

2024 NBA Draft Prospect | Jalen Bridges – really great, nuanced game tape breakdown of his game and skillset on both sides of the ball

23-24 Season Highlights – compilation of his offensive highlights this past season at Baylor

Links to Stat Profiles & Other Misc. Stat Notes

• College Bball Ref page
• Stat profile from Bart Torvik
• Averaged 37% from 3 on avg of 3.6 attempts over all 4 yrs but in his senior year he averaged 41.2% on 5.1 attempts
• Ranks 4th among the 2024 wing/forwards draft class in PPS on dribble jumpers, per Synergy, this past season at 1.04 PPS (45 attempts). Source
• At the NBA Combine earlier this month, Bridges shot 70% during the off-dribble college 3-point drill and 60% during the on-the-move college 3-point drill, which ranked sixth and fourth among small forwards, respectively. Throughout all 3-point scoring drills from NBA range, he ranked in the top 5 among forwards for each drill.

If he's that good and a dream Warriors role player as you claim, why is he projected so low? Wouldn't him being available at the 54th pick be a red flag?

The reason he's buried so deep on draft boards and projected to be taken near the end of the draft, if at all, in nearly all mocks is because he has two strikes against him that amount to the kiss of death for a prospect in today's youth, starry-eyed potential obsessed league. Ironically, this couldn't work out any better for us because the maxims of youth and 'someday' potential by which prospects are projected in today's league are the very things the Warriors don't want or need. Ergo, one man's trash is another man's treasure!

Strike no. 1: He's ancient in draft prospect years at soon-to-be 23 because he played 5 years in college. While conventional league wisdom views this as a massive red flag, 4+ year college players are not only the most suited for the Warriors system, but they're far and away Kerr's preference because he doesn't have to waste time teaching them basketball fundamentals. Win-win for everyone.

Strike no. 2: The only thing worse than an "old" prospect in the eyes of NBA front offices is one that was also a low usage player in college.

Why? Baumbach at No Ceilings explains in his above-linked scouting report on Bridges that this is because "teams would rather swing on a player they've seen be a star and trust them to simplify their game. Hoping a great complementary college player can become a great complementary NBA player is a tricky proposition. It's a reasonable philosophy, and it applies even more strictly to upperclassmen." Like Baumbach states, that's a completely reasonable philosophy, but it's one that tends to get applied to upperclassmen in a very blanket fashion given they already have the scarlet letter of being too old attached to them. It's this blanket adherence to this rule of thumb instead of looking at the nuance of each player's situation that has led to the extreme underrating of Bridges.

Okay, so why is this not a red flag for Bridges? While it's true that his usage rate – 17.5% in both seasons at Baylor – was lower than what NBA front offices prefer (again, when drafting for star potential players, in particular), there are two reasons this shouldn't be viewed as big of a cause for concern as it's historically treated:

• Baylor ran a very guard heavy system, which meant schematically he was going to have a lower than ideal (by NBA front office's standards) usage rate no matter what, i.e. his low usage rate wasn’t a product of necessity because he wasn't capable of higher usage, it was a matter of him adapting to what the system needed from him and playing within that role, which leads into the second point…
• While he was incredibly disciplined about playing within his role, he had no trouble at all going outside of it and rising to the occasion to take on a bigger role (i.e. higher usage rate) when asked and/or it was needed of him. His usage rate in Baylor's Conference and NCAA tourney games (aka games when the lights were brightest) this year prove just how true this is:
  • 23-24 Big 12 Conf. Tournament
    • In their semifinal loss to Iowa St., when Baylor's guards struggled to score, it was Bridges who stepped up and led the team in scoring, and subsequently USG% (27.2%), with 20 pts on decent efficiency – 44% overall (7/16) and 38% from 3 (3/8).
  • 23-24 NCAA Tournament
    • In their first round win over Colgate, with their top scoring guard again struggling to score, Bridges once again stepped up and led Baylor in scoring with 23 pts on incredible efficiency – 64% overall (9/14) and 63% from 3 (5/8) – and posted a USG% of 22.5%.

Where the conventional wisdom and the general thinking of most league front office's see a castoff because he's "too old" and too low usage to be THE guy on a team, the Warriors could get an NBA ready, experienced role player who doesn't have superstar ambitions and whose career's survival will be built on adapting to a team's needs and buying into that role wholeheartedly, which is exactly what the Warriors need at this juncture.