Mikal Bridges Emerging as Difference Maker for Knicks

The Mikal Bridges trade has been dissected over and over again since the start of the regular season, nearly as many times as the move that brought the New York Knicks their front court star in Karl-Anthony Towns.

By this point, the masses have generally agreed that five first-round picks was a steep price to pay for Bridges, a high-level role player who'd spent his last season-and-a-half putting up big numbers in an uncompetitive Brooklyn situation. He was asked to convert some of the elite 3&D potential he once displayed on the contending Phoenix Suns, but couldn't seem to consistently meet that price tag as 2024 turned to 2025.

Every time he has a moment, though, that trade seems defensible. And that's a relatively frequent occurrence; he played all 82 games under head coach Tom Thibodeau, famous for riding his starters for as many minutes as they can give, and delivered with some clutch buckets during an otherwise-down season by his standards.

His defense isn't the same high-effort stifle job it once was, nor is he knocking down 3-pointers at the 37% rate he'd boasted over his last three seasons. Despite the occasional unsightly box score and the loud misses from deep, Bridges has shown up when the team really needs him to.

Look no further than Game 1 of New York's second-round series against the Boston Celtics. The Knicks were, by all accounts, the matchup's underdog going in, but held on for a frantic 108-105 win to take an early 1-0 lead.

A box score watcher might see that Bridges shot 3-for-13 from the field and assume he threw up another dud, but he was crucial in actuality. The plays he made were big, with no instance more indicative than him tying up Jaylen Brown at the overtime buzzer to keep the Celtics from even getting a potential game-tying shot up.

His clutch stuff was the third stock he accumulated in those five minutes of overtime, joining a block on a Jrue Holiday three and another steal.