The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks agreed to a commerce that can ship former All-Protection member and 20-point scorer Mikal Bridges throughout the East River, league sources confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday.
The Knicks will ship a bundle that features Bojan Bogdanović, 4 unprotected first-round picks, a 2025 protected first-rounder that belongs to the Milwaukee Bucks, a 2028 first-round choose swap and a 2026 second-round choose, sources confirmed to The Athletic. ESPN was first to report the information.
In return, New York lastly lands the beforehand faceless star it’s ready for because the present administration took over in 2020.
Bridges will be a part of a bunch that has championship ambitions, one which completed this previous season with 50 wins, a No. 2 seed and a playoff run that ended one victory in need of the Japanese Convention finals. Not solely that, he’ll reconnect Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart because the fourth member of ‘Nova Knicks,’ the quartet of former Villanova stars that has made its approach to Madison Sq. Backyard.
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When staff president Leon Rose took over the Knicks 4 years in the past, this was the objective: Maintain onto the franchise’s first-round picks, purchase ones from different groups and stockpile tradeable contracts all whereas enhancing yr over yr. Buying and selling for Bridges is the ultimate consequence.
He’ll slide right into a beginning lineup that’s unsure for subsequent season. The Knicks reigning first unit included Brunson, DiVincenzo, OG Anunoby, Julius Randle and Isaiah Hartensten — however Hartenstein and Anunoby will each turn into unrestricted free brokers on June 30. For now, their futures are unsure.
Others are locked up on the Knicks, too.
Hart and Miles McBride start the primary seasons of three-year contract extensions in 2024-25. Mitchell Robinson has a few years remaining on his deal, as does Bridges, who the Knicks pays $23.3 million this season and $24.9 million within the one after that.
Bridges provides a two-way presence to a two-way staff.
He was a deserving All-Protection member in 2022 when he was a extremely environment friendly function participant who helped the Phoenix Suns to 64 wins. He developed as a person scorer in Brooklyn, the place he carried a heavier burden after arriving as a centerpiece of the Kevin Durant commerce.
With the Knicks, his function initiatives to be someplace between the spot-up shooter and cutter he was in Phoenix and the primary choice he turned on the opposite facet of the bridge.
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Brunson is coming off a season throughout which he completed fourth within the league in scoring and sixth in MVP voting. Randle is a two-time All-NBA participant. Anunoby, if he returns, will take up pictures, although he’s hardly a ball-dominant participant. He and Bridges would make up one of many NBA’s scariest defensive wing mixtures.
Bridges averaged 19.6 factors, 4.5 rebounds and three.6 assists on 44-37-81 taking pictures this previous season in Brooklyn.
For the Nets, the deal represents a change in course. They’d swatted away affords for Bridges ever since buying him. Following a 50-loss season, they flip to a rebuild that features a haul of draft picks.
The 4 unprotected first-rounders the Knicks owe the Nets are in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031. Brooklyn additionally owns three unprotected first-round picks belonging to the Phoenix Suns, one other belonging to the Dallas Mavericks, a protected 2027 one from the Philadelphia 76ers and a 2028 first-round swap with the Suns.
The Bridges commerce snaps a 41-year streak. The Knicks and Nets final made a commerce with each other in 1983.
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(Photograph: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE by way of Getty Photos)
