Apparently, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson weren’t enough. The Knicks decided to add one more player to their Villanova team, striking a deal Tuesday night to reunite Mikal Bridges with his college teammates.
The exchange wasn’t a total surprise: I proposed a nearly identical one six weeks ago. Bridges made more sense on the Knicks than on the Nets, and the stars aligned to make it happen.
However, it came at a dear price for the Knicks. It was worth it?
Mikal Bridges Business Details
The Knicks receive:
- Mikal Bridges
- 2026 second round pick
Networks receive:
- Bojan Bogdanovic
- Four unprotected first-round picks in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031
- Bucks’ top-four protected first-round pick
- 2025 second round pick
- 2028 pick swap unprotected
Mikal Bridges Trade Grades: Knicks
Five first-round picks and an unprotected pick swap is a gigantic price to pay for Bridges. It’s not entirely an apples-to-apples comparison, but Alex Caruso was traded just days earlier for Josh Giddey and zero picks.
However, the Knicks had up to eight first-round picks available to move after Wednesday’s draft. By moving five first-rounders, they still leave themselves some flexibility to add talent in the future.
Bridges is worth that price. He has shown more personal creation in Brooklyn than he did earlier in his career in Phoenix, averaging 21.2 points per game for the Nets.
While that score is excellent, he was overloaded in that role. He still clearly ranks as the No. 2 or No. 3 player on a championship team, and he has a chance to do so for the Knicks, helping to alleviate some of the enormous pressure Jalen Brunson faced last year as one of the only assets. creators on the team.
Bridges is more than capable of playing off the ball, as he demonstrated in his time in Phoenix. He is a career 37.5 percent three-point shooter who will stretch the floor and make it much harder to take advantage of Brunson’s attacks in the playoffs.
Bridges is also an excellent defender who finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2021-22. Since then he has not returned to that extremely high level. With a reduction in his offensive responsibilities and constant shouting from Tom Thibodeau, he should be able to return to form.
There are some questions about what will happen with free agent OG Anunoby now that Bridges is on the team. The two have similar skills. However, Anunoby proved last year how valuable that type of player is to the Knicks. They went 26-6 with him in the lineup.
Bridges offers some insurance in case Anunoby gets hurt again, and the two can play together on the court very easily. The Knicks were successful last year in large part because of how interchangeable their defensemen were. Having Anunoby and Bridges on the floor together will only enhance that strength.
It’s certainly a steep price, but Bridges is worth it. The Knicks should be considered, ahead of the Bucks and the Sixers, as the Celtics’ main rival in the East.
Grade B
Mikal Bridges Business Qualities: Networks
The Nets had expressed reluctance to trade Bridges in the past. That was until they received an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Bridges was their best player, but in the previous two seasons they saw that their ceiling was extremely limited with him as their number one player. By trading him for national teams, they have given themselves the opportunity to build a true championship contender in the future.
However, this exchange wasn’t just about a title-or-bust mentality. The Nets were tough last season, winning only 32 games. They didn’t have many avenues to improve: They had no picks in the 2024 draft and the Rockets had control of their picks through 2027 thanks to the James Harden trade.
Getting five first-round picks opens up a lot more flexibility to draft the next superstar or move those picks in a trade down the road. I suggested it would take three picks to close a deal. The Nets got five, which shows they are smarter negotiators than I am.
This trade was even better for the Nets after they made an additional move with Houston that gave them back control of their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks. Brooklyn will likely be near the bottom of the standings for the foreseeable future. Getting their own picks back was vital for this trade to make sense for them.
Bogdanovic was included in this deal primarily for salary matching purposes. His contract expires, so he may not be in the team’s long-term plans, but he was excellent for the Pistons, averaging 21.1 points per game over the previous two seasons.
He couldn’t get into a rhythm with the Knicks, which made him expendable. If he returns to that Detroit form, then Brooklyn could give him even more draft equity midseason. Meanwhile, Bogdanovic will return to the team with which he had great memories.
Before the Nets imploded with the trio of Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, they had a fun, organic team built through the draft and shrewd signings on the fringes. General manager Sean Marks has shown that he is capable of building that type of group from the ground up. He has another chance to do it now thanks to a godfather offer from rivals Brooklyn. This was beneficial for both teams.
Grade A