NBA Mock Draft: DeAndre Ayton joins the Hawks

This guy is bonkers. Villanova coach Jay Wright gives him the freedom to do just about anything he wants within the Wildcats’ defensive system, calling switches any and all the time, contesting shots from every opposing player and swallowing up entire sets.

And he executes. Villanova played Gonzaga in the Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 5, and Bridges could be found switching from Josh Perkins, the Bulldogs’ point guard all the way down to their forwards on any given possession. Thanks to his crazy length, Bridges can credibly defend four positions. He was just as effective getting low and forcing Perkins to pick up his dribble as bodying up bigs in the post.

If he can continue to get stronger while maintaining his freakish foot speed, he has elite defensive potential. He could defend four positions in the NBA as well, potentially allowing him to play a role similar to that of Shane Battier late in his career with the Miami Heat (h/t to former FanSided writer Cole Zwicker for that comparison).

That Gonzaga game also represented a best-case outcome for Bridges’ offense. Aside from his quick-trigger 3-pointer, which he is hitting at a 46 percent rate this year, his strength works as a tool for easy buckets as well. In the first half of that game, he drew a fouls on both Perkins and power forward Killian Tillie before finishing in the post around forward Rui Hachimura.

Bridges could seriously be the best all-around prospect in this draft, considering how far ahead of the top guys he is as a defender, and that he is not too far behind as an offensive player, making multiple threes in 10 of 14 game in his junior season.