Miles Bridges thinks his team is being majorly slept-on this season.
ESPN released their win predictions this week for the 2023-24 campaign. They gave every NBA team’s projected win total based on statistical models.
The Charlotte Hornets checked in at a projected total of 38 wins. That puts them outside of the anticipated top-10 (the play-in tournament zone) in the Eastern Conference.
The Hornets forward Bridges reacted to ESPN’s prediction in a tweet on Saturday by simply posting a flood of laughing-face emojis.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/Th5TYbUDTj
— Miles Bridges (@MilesBridges) October 7, 2023
Bridges can laugh all he wants, but there is nothing to suggest that Charlotte has gotten any closer to the playoff picture. They went 27-55 last season and did not really make any big offseason additions other than No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller (whom people are skeptical of) and guards Edmond Sumner and Frank Ntilikina. Meanwhile, franchise player LaMelo Ball continues to have efficiency and injury concerns, head coach Steve Clifford is still not inspiring very much confidence in his second stint in charge of the team, and the Hornets are even missing a key rotation player indefinitely as he tends to personal issues.
Of course, Bridges probably thinks that he will make all the difference for Charlotte. He missed the entire 2022-23 campaign following an arrest for felony domestic violence. But after Bridges pled no contest to the charges, the Hornets re-signed him to a one-year deal.
Bridges still has a ten-game suspension to serve at the start of the 2023-24 campaign (after the NBA suspended him for 30 games under the league’s domestic violence policy but credited him with 20 games served for the season he missed). But for a player who averaged 20.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game during his last full season in the league, Bridges obviously has not lost his confidence any.
