New York Knicks News

Home

Quizzes

Watch

Newsletter

Oct 26, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges (25) reacts against the Miami Heat during the first quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Knicks' Mike Brown Reveals Secret to Mikal Bridges' Success

Originally posted on New York Knicks on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated Nov 3, 2025 5:00 PM ET

A lot has had to go wrong for the New York Knicks for them to have won as many games as they've lost through the first two weeks of this NBA season.

Their bench, first and foremost, has disappointed. A combination of injuries and contributors struggling to adjust to new roles has held the rotation back from competing at the level they grew accustomed to last season, even if less strain is supposed to be on the starters.

It hasn't helped when those availability questions trickle into the starting lineup, holding Karl-Anthony Towns back from shooting nearly as efficiently as he did last year and leaving Jalen Brunson to take over the burdensome scoring responsibility that the new coaching staff was attempting to alleviate him from.

They have had constants through their first handful of games, though, and some of those stabilizing performances have arrived from unlikely candidates. For all of his inconsistencies in last year's Knicks debut, Mikal Bridges has looked as ready as anyone to fit into Mike Brown's new style.

Looking Past the Box Score

His 17.5 points per game through New York's first half-dozen contests don't look markedly different from his scoring averages last year, but he's shooting much more efficiently while sharing the ball much more. After former head coach Tom Thibodeau only really used him as a play-finisher around the perimeter, he's doing his part in spreading the ball and making on-ball decisions in rhythm, as opposed to only firing as an afterthought.

New York Knicks Forward Mikal Bridges Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

His usage rate has decreased from 19.6 to 15.9 between seasons, yet his assists have jumped from 3.7 per night to a career-high 5.5. And that isn't just because of one fluke passing game; his nine assists over the weekend did register as his highest mark of the fall, but Bridges has accumulated six dimes or more in all but two outings to this point.

Brown, who sounded excited to re-unlock Bridges' previously-untapped potential as a part-time offensive conductor and defender, attributed the wing's early success to the extensive time he put in over the summer in picking up on the new coach's principles, studying up and getting his time in with the young prospects to institute some of that culture some of his teammates have recently preached.

"This is going to be a process," Brown said over the weekend. "We're still not where we need to be offensively, but guys are starting to understand how to space the floor. Part of spacing the floor is, if you cut, how to re-space. They're understanding quick decisions. When to get off the ball. And when you have a good understanding of those things, you can make a blind pass because you know, based on our spacing and our spots, somebody's supposed to be there.

"Mikal, he was one of the guys who was here with the young guys earlier in the summer, so he was getting reps at this back in August and September, so he's probably a little ahead of the curve."

"This is going to be a process. We're still not where we need to be offensively, but guys are starting to understand how to space the floor."

Mike Brown talks about the Knicks building chemistry offensively and Mikal Bridges being "ahead of the curve" in making reads: pic.twitter.com/bR6Fo1V1Br
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 3, 2025

The NBA's iron man wasn't as much of a hand-in-glove fit into Thibodeau's grinding, occasionally-stagnant offense as many would have anticipated, given that Bridges has yet to miss a game since joining the league and has never shied away from intimidating workloads.

And while Brown's providing Bridges with similarly-daunting minute portions, he's more involved in the offense and playing a key role in spreading the ball and getting easier shots within the arc (62.2%, up from 59.4% last season) and on its outskirts (jumped from 35.4% last year to 46.9% so far this fall).

His returning to the Swiss army knife status that he'd built up for himself over recent campaigns was going to be crucial for Brown to bridge the gap between his star scorers and reserve contributors, and Bridges has fully delivered on the expectations publicly ladled onto his plate entering November.

This article first appeared on New York Knicks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: