Knicks’ Mikal Bridges expected to sign team-friendly extension

As Stein writes, Bridges will be eligible for a less appealing ($72.5M) two-year extension starting Oct. 1. He will also be eligible for more lucrative three- and four-year extensions several months from now. Either way, an extension isn’t imminent, since it isn’t even currently permitted.

Still, it’s a noteworthy development considering what the Knicks gave up to acquire Bridges — five first-round picks (four unprotected), one swap, Brooklyn’s own 2025 second-rounder and veterans Bojan Bogdanovic, Shake Milton (sign-and-trade) and Mamadi Diakite.

The 10th pick of the 2018 draft, Bridges signed a four-year, $90M rookie scale extension in October 2021, which kicked in starting in 2022-23. He will earn $23.3M in 2024-25, followed by $24.9M in 2025-26. A potential extension wouldn’t begin until 2026-27.

Bridges, 27, was the runner-up for the 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year award, also earning a spot on the All-Defensive First Team that season. He starred in college at Villanova, playing alongside Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart. That surely factors in with Brunson’s deal as well.

Bridges has yet to miss a game in his six-year NBA career. In 82 appearances last season (34.8 MPG), the 6-foot-6 guard/forward averaged 19.6 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.6 APG and 1.0 SPG on .436/.372/.814 shooting.