Veteran ahead Mikal Bridges averaged 19.6 factors, 4.5 rebounds and three.6 assists for Brooklyn final season.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Mikal Bridges is being traded by the Brooklyn Nets to the New York Knicks, the place he’ll be part of Jalen Brunson and his different former Villanova teammates, two individuals with information of the main points mentioned Tuesday.
The primary commerce between the New York rivals since 1983 will put Bridges within the lineup alongside Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, gamers who helped the Wildcats win two NCAA championships and had been the core of a Knicks lineup that reached the Jap Convention semifinals final season.
The Knicks can pay massive to get him, with ESPN reporting that they’re sending Bojan Bogdanovic to the Nets together with 4 unprotected first-round picks and one protected decide. The deal was confirmed to The Related Press beneath situation of anonymity as a result of it’s not but official.
Knicks obtain:
- Mikal Bridges
- 2026 2nd-round decide
Nets obtain:
- Bojan Bogdanovic
- unprotected 1st-round decide in 2025
- unprotected 1st-round decide in 2027
- unprotected 1st-round decide in 2029
- unprotected 1st-round decide in 2031
- unprotected decide swap in 2028
- top-four protected 2025 1st-round decide through Bucks
- 2nd spherical decide in 2025
One other large deal: Brooklyn has a take care of Houston to return the Nets’ 2026 first-round decide for a 2027 Phoenix Suns first-round decide, sources inform ESPN. Rockets additionally purchase 2025 proper to swap Houston/OKC first for 2025 Suns first-round decide. Extra particulars approaching picks… pic.twitter.com/qkTh3KwV63
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2024
The Nets acquired Bridges from Phoenix within the deal for Kevin Durant in February 2023 and he went on to common 26.1 factors the remainder of that season in serving to Brooklyn attain the playoffs. The swingman scored 19.6 per recreation in 2023-24 however the Nets slipped to 32-50 and missed the postseason.
And whereas his workforce was struggling, he couldn’t assist however discover how a lot enjoyable his mates had been having just some miles away. The Nets signed Brunson in the summertime of 2022, traded for Hart within the 2022-23 season after which signed DiVincenzo final summer time, and the Knicks have reached the second spherical in each seasons.
The 4 gamers helped Villanova win the 2016 NCAA title, and Brunson, Bridges and DiVincenzo had been nonetheless there when the Wildcats gained once more in 2018.
They clearly can’t wait to get the band again collectively.
“That is loopy lol,” Bridges wrote on the social media platform X after the deal was reported.
Hart posted an image of what seemed to be the 4 gamers smiling throughout a bunch video name.
The groups hadn’t made a deal since 1983, when the Nets had been nonetheless in New Jersey and despatched Len Elmore to New York for a future draft decide. This one provides Brooklyn extra picks to construct by means of the draft or bundle in additional trades.
The Knicks had picks to maneuver and have been seeking to strengthen a workforce that has been on the rise. They had been a recreation away from their first look within the Jap Convention finals since 2000 final season regardless of dropping various key gamers to accidents earlier than and throughout the postseason.
Their new addition, then again, doesn’t get damage.
Bridges was the runner-up for Defensive Participant of the 12 months in 2022 and is at the moment the NBA’s most sturdy participant, which ought to rapidly make him a favourite of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. He has performed in all 474 video games in his profession — and by no means missed a recreation in faculty, both — and led the league in minutes performed in each 2021-22 and 2022-23.