Miles Bridges prefers to stay with Hornets past deadline: ‘I’d rather be here’

Miles Bridges has heard this song before. Every year. Every deadline. Same rumors. Same noise. Same routine.

And once again, he is tuning it out.

“Just focus on winning, focus on controlling what I can control,” Bridges told Roderick Boone of the Charlotte Observer. “If I get traded, if I don’t get traded… I would rather be here.”

Bridges knows the chatter is real. He also knows it is out of his hands.

“If I do get traded, I know (head of basketball operations) Jeff Peterson and those guys, they’ll talk to me first,” he said. “So I don’t try to worry about that. I just worry about the games.”

Interest around the NBA is not surprising. Bridges is productive. He is in his prime. He is on a reasonable contract. And teams like the Bucks, Warriors, and Suns have been linked as potential suitors.

Still, his preference is clear. He wants to stay in Charlotte alongside LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and the Hornets’ young core.

“Yeah, I for sure want to be a part of it,” Bridges said. “I feel like everybody else wants everybody to stay together.”

Miller echoed that sentiment, even while acknowledging the business side.

“That’s the goal, to have everybody stay here,” Miller said. “But unfortunately, it’s the game.”

For now, the Hornets are sticking together. Blocking out the noise. Playing through it.

“We hear it, we see it all,” Miller said. “Can’t really let that faze us. Just stay locked in with your brothers.”