Mikal Bridges’ inaugural season as a member of the New York Knicks was disappointing in a lot of different ways. Bridges had a few bright spots highlighted by his Christmas Day explosion and the pair of game-winning defensive plays he made against the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs. But the overwhelming majority of the season was defined by inconsistent shooting and, at best, erratic defense.
When the Knicks made a coaching change last summer and the 2025-26 campaign rolled around, fans knew that one of the major keys to the Knicks’ season would be finding a way to get Bridges right. And it didn’t take long for the former Villanova Wildcat to show that last year was an aberration.
Bridges started off the season extremely hot from deep and was a significantly better and more consistent defender. Fans were just about ready to get excited and board the hype train that was supposed to depart last season. But given how badly last year went, the Knicks fanbase, rightfully so, were hesitant to fully buy into the hot start.
Now that we’re 19 games in, Bridges has proven that the new—or should I say old—Bridges is here to stay.
Through almost a quarter of the season, Bridges is averaging 16.1PPG, 4.5RPG, 4.4APG, 2.1SPG, and 1.3BPG. The points may be down from the last few seasons, but if the season ended today, that would be tied for the most rebounds per game he has averaged in his career, and it would be the most assists, steals, and blocks per game he has averaged over a season by a pretty significant margin. But a player’s single-season individual stats can be difficult to judge, and at worst, they can be misleading.
Let’s take a look at just how well Bridges has fared on the defensive end compared to his colleagues.
Heading into Tuesday night, Bridges is tied for the league lead in total STOCKS (steals plus blocks), and only trails Victor Wembanyama (12 games played) and Keegan Murray (six games played) in STOCKS per game.
Bridges is also third in the league in games with multiple steals, and is the only player in the NBA to average at least two steals and one block per game this season.
While this has been an amazing turnaround to witness, what is the cause of the sudden improvement? Well, like most major changes, there are multiple factors. One, the most obvious and simple, is the classic “he’s just playing better,”. And there is truth to that. Bridges has made shots he missed last season and has had better and more consistent efforts on defense. But new head coach Mike Brown deserves a lot of credit, too.
Despite many believing that Brown’s biggest impact would be unlocking Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, the most glaring success of his short Knicks tenure has to be the way he has Bridges playing. We saw it to start the season when Bridges was deployed as a ballhandler and an initiator much more than he was under Tom Thibodeau last season. And now, we’ve seen changes take effect in how he has been used as a defender as well.
As many have pointed out, the time Bridges has spent on opposing point guards has gone down. That means he’s tasked with being the primary point-of-attack defender, much less, while increasing the amount of time he is playing the weakside, and help-defense.
Bridges can act as a free safety, allowing him to roam and wreak havoc with his length and anticipation. That, along with the uptick in his effort and engagement on that end of the floor, has him averaging career-highs in deflections, steals, and blocks per game.
As you can see above, Bridges has had the largest year-over-year leap in defensive playmaking. I claimed earlier that the old Bridges is back, you can make a good argument that this is a new and improved Bridges.
Knicks fans wanted the Phoenix Suns Bridges, and we very well could be getting the best basketball of his career. And the good news for the Knicks and their fans is that while some of his shooting numbers may eventually take a small dip, his passing and defensive impact should be safe from any major drop-offs.
A lot of the great things Bridges is doing on a nightly basis are sustainable and replicable even against good teams, and most promisingly, in playoff settings.