When he first arrived in Brooklyn, Mikal Bridges was a revelation, a 27-year-old with NBA Finals experience and two NCAA titles who had finished second in Defensive Player of the Year balloting. He quickly accepted the role of alpha dog. In his third game vs. the Heat he scored 45 points, his first of three 40-point outings.
For that third of a season, he averaged 27 points and shot 48/38/89 and continued his string of consecutive games, having not missed the call since he was a junior in high school. The trade was not going to erase the memory of the Big Three failure but he proved a nice tonic for Brooklyn Nets fans and while he may not be the player who would lead Brooklyn to the Promised Land, he certainly should be able to attract one who would. (Hello, Donovan Mitchell.)
Then, last season, the promise faded and fast. He seemed unhappy with the head coach and apparently the organization. He seemed melancholy and the numbers dropped as the season wore on and he willingly tossed Cam Thomas the star role.
He may or may not have asked out, but the vibes he was sending said “I want out” and out meant the cross-river Knicks. His January appearance on his Villanova teammates podcast — the day after the Nets lost by 50 to the Celtics — included criticism of the Nets fanbase, a big no-no in the NBA. Meanwhile, those teammates, particularly Jalen Brunson, were peppering him, publicly and privately, about joining with him, Josh Hart and then-Knick Dante DeVincenzo at MSG. A reunion of the Wildcats would be the biggest thing for Villanova alums until a math major from the class of 1977 was named pope!
The deadline came and went and as Brian Lewis chronicles Monday, the Nets seemed like they were still thinking of Bridges as a core piece. There was a rumor that No. 3 pick that became Scoot Henderson could be had from Portland and the Rockets kept pestering the Nets about a trade that included getting their own picks back and maybe Jalen Green. On ESPN’s post-deadline show, Adrian Wojnarowski said the Nets had received an offer of five first rounders for Bridges. He didn’t name the team but ultimately we found out. Woj added that the Nets still wanted to build around Bridges.
At some point later, in the off-season, after the Nets started trading assets, like Royce O’Neale, and fired Jacque Vaughn in the first year of a reported four-year deal, Joe Tsai and Sean Marks decided it was time for a change. The Knicks reportedly renewed their bid for Bridges, facing their own pressure from Brunson et al. Although Tsai had been reluctant to tank in New York, the offer was too good to pass up.
And so, on June 25, the Nets shocked the basketball world by making two trades, one with the Knicks for Bridges and one with the Rockets that sent draft assets from the Suns trade to the Nets for their first round picks in 2025 and 2026. The trades, negotiated simultaneously and reported 12 minutes apart, were complementary and hedges against each other. You didn’t do one without the other.
We don’t know much about how things came together but deal was extraordinary. Leon Rose sent seven picks to the Nets: four firsts of their own, unprotected; a lightly protected (1-4) Bucks pick; a high second rounder that had once been the Nets own; and even a swap of firsts, also unprotected.
The Knicks also sent three players, the injured Bojan Bogdanovic, Shake Milton and Mamadi Diakite whose contract wasn’t even guaranteed making it ideal for use in salary dumps. It was. Sean Marks moved it three weeks later for Ziaire Williams and another second.
That was a bigger draft haul than the Nets had gotten for Kevin Durant, a bigger haul than the Rockets had gotten for James Harden, a bigger haul than the Jazz had gotten for Rudy Gobert. Yes, a bigger haul than the Raptors got for Pascal Siakam who went to bed last night no doubt cradling the Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy. Adding to the shock value was that it was the first trade between the two New York teams in 43 years.
The Nets, as predicted, went on a rebuild spree, hiring a rookie head coach, trading two valuable pieces for second rounders, shuttling players around etc. The Knicks went for broke, acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns just before Opening Night, sending out more pieces.
Now, between the end of the Knicks drive for a championship and the approaching draft is a good time to reevaluate and reporters are doing just that. The Knicks had their most successful season in a quarter century but didn’t get to the Finals. Bridges while okay was not the game changer his Villanova buddies had hoped for. As more than one pundit, chief among them Tim Bontemps of ESPN, noted on Sunday’s Hoop Collective, you don’t send out a haul like the Knicks did for a player who is “just okay.”
“It’s just another reminder Whether it’s three picks, five picks, seven picks, whatever, you’ve got to hit on it because you really have just one chance to push in on it,” said Bontemps, “But if you wind up with a guy who’s just okay ...”
Bridges did bring his big moments, particularly during the Celtics series where he won two games near single-handedly with late game defense against Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. As Steve Popper of Newsday tweeted, his steal of the ball from Brown in Boston may have been worth two of those picks.
But overall, he didn’t do what was expected vs. the Pacers. As Lewis wrote Monday. he finished with a team worst -6.2 rating in the six-game series while Tyrese Haliburton averaged 21 points and 10 assists. Lewis thinks Bridges was either ill-suited for the Knicks or maybe has fallen off a bit. Not to mention Thibs.
Bridges’ inability to fight through screens didn’t cost the Knicks against Boston because they switched on the perimeter and the Celtics kept chucking up horrible shots. But Indiana coach Rick Carlisle cannily kept setting multiple screens to free up Haliburton, and the result was ugly.
Part of that may be fatigue from Bridges logging 3,746 minutes including the playoffs — a workload only three active players have ever topped. Part of it may be Tom Thibodeau asking Bridges to do something he simply can’t.
In any case, it’s hard to reconcile that version of Bridges with the one who wowed Nets fans in those 27 games back in 2023. Now the Knicks have a decision to make on Bridges. He is under contract through next season at a reasonable $23.4 million but is eligible to sign a four-year, $156 million extension this summer. He turns 29 in August, so the extension, if the team and player agreed to the max, would take him to near his 34th birthday.
The way Rose structured his payroll, with help for Brunson’s extraordinary decision to take less than the max, the Knicks can handle Bridges deal without passing the draconian second apron. And while Bridges may have disappointed compared to what the Knicks gave up, he still averaged 17.6 points on 50/35/81 splits. His “stocks” number — steals and blocks combined — was his lowest production in his career despite all those minutes.
Moreover, the Knicks are still in a championship window. They finished in the NBA’s Final Four and have all their key players back next season. They could use some bench help but they are as much if not more in the Giannnis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes than the Nets. If a player you traded for helps you get a chip, you won that trade.
The Nets and their fans shouldn’t really care much about Bridges pending extension or even his production. What matters is what they get back once those picks get used — or traded. Fans can attempt to secure bragging rights in conversations with their Knick counterparts but that isn’t much of a factor at HSS Training Center.
Schadenfreude from their fans aside, the Nets won’t give a damn where the Knicks went out in the playoffs. They’re only worried about their return for Bridges, and that haul being tied for the most ever for a single player. Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, MVP of the Eastern Conference finals, went for just three and has had the impact the Knicks hoped Bridges would’ve.
This June 25-26, as things stand, the Nets will have the first returns from the Bridges trade. Of their five picks, three at Nos. 19, 26 and 36, are products of the Bridges trade. (The other two at Nos. 8 and 27 are outgrowths of the Rockets trade.)
It is a generational draft strengthened by its depth, ideal for a team gifted with so much draft capital. They can be used in trades for players, to move up, punch things up to the 2026 Draft, where the Nets currently have only a first, their own, and two seconds, their own and the Hawks, unprotected.
You would expect with all that capital this year, the Nets will wind up with something good. But it’s never guaranteed. In 2009, the Timberwolves had seven picks, four firsts and three seconds. They passed on Steph Curry (twice) and also passed on DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague, and Patty Mills. The best player they got out of that draft was Ricky Rubio. One of their second rounders decided to stay in Europe.
It is far too early to say who won the trade, particularly when we have no idea what Sean Marks & co. will do with all those picks, which stretch out to 2031. The player taken with that selection is currently 12 or 13 years old.
Still at the moment, most pundits think the Nets won the trade but the Knicks are still in a much better place.