Charlotte Hornets: 5 reasons Miles Bridges was a good pick

4. Miles Bridges was pretty good in college

Among his peers in the Big Ten, Miles Bridges was one of the best of his conference, finishing in the top 10 in win shares, just slightly behind draft counterparts Zhaire Smith and Trae Young. A year after winning the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award, Bridges landed on the First Team of the All-Big Ten team and was a Second-Team All American.

He led Michigan State with 17.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and was one of just eight players in the conference to average at least 15 points and five rebounds per game. Miles Bridges was just one of nine players to average at least 16.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.5 blocks in all of the NCAA last year too.

Bridges ranked among the top 10 in points and rebounds per game within the Big Ten in both seasons of play. He also made big improvement in free throw shooting in his sophomore campaign. After shooting just 68.5 percent from the charity stripe in 2016-17, he increased his percentage to 85.3 in 2017-18, which ranked second in the conference.

Miles wasn’t necessarily a top player in many categories in the NCAA as a whole last year, but he was still a leader and big contributor to the Spartans’ success. Two years in college certainly didn’t hurt his draft stock and the Hornets could have a key contributor on their roster for years to come.