This Is The Mikal Bridges The New York Knicks Traded For

After acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges this past offseason, the New York Knicks seemed primed to compete for an NBA title in 2025.

For most of the season, though, that didn’t appear to be in the cards. Yes, they finished with a respectable 51-31 record, but they accumulated it by slaying lesser teams rather than going blow-for-blow with heavyweights. According to Cleaning the Glass, they were 6-16 against the top-10 teams in point differential.

Part of those struggles stemmed from the Knicks sacrificing depth in pursuit of high-end talent. In theory, their new starting five was the most formidable five-man combination in basketball. Towns, an All-Star starter in 2024-25, lived up to his end of the bargain. Bridges, on the other hand, has been a bit underwhelming.

When the Knicks dealt five first-round pick for Bridges, they were expecting an Eastern Conference equivalent of what we saw in the first round from Jaden McDaniels — a rangy forward who can attack closeouts, space the floor, defend and provide some secondary creation from time to time.

This wasn’t the Bridges the Knicks got in the regular season. The notorious flamethrower shot just 35.4 percent from three while mustering defensive impact paling in comparison to his 2021-22 campaign when he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting. On the year, he posted a Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus slightly above average (plus-0.1, per Dunks & Threes) and the Knicks were actually worse with him on the floor defensively.

Basketball is a team sport. No one player is solely to blame for a team coming up short. But it’s hard to argue the Knicks wouldn’t look like more of a contender if they got the version of Bridges they expected when trading for him last summer.

But when it’s mattered most this season, Bridges has stepped up. Through two second-round games against the Boston Celtics, we’ve seen flashes of Bridges’ ideal form. And now, the team which couldn’t beat any prize fighters during the regular season holds a 2-0 lead and has the defending champion Celtics on the ropes.

A Big Game 2 Fourth Quarter

Heading into the fourth quarter of Game 2, the Celtics carried a 12-point advantage and Bridges was scoreless on 0-of-8 shooting, epitomizing the regular season woes outlined above.

It seemed order would be restored and the Celtics would even up the series at 1-1. Then, Bridges remembered who he was. Like his three-and-D archetype suggests, he converted a pair of catch-and-shoot threes during this fourth quarter run. But what differentiates him from other three-and-D role players is the creation abilities he developed during his trials and tribulations as the Brooklyn Nets’ No. 1 option.

A good, starting-caliber wing can shoot, attack closeouts,and defend. But the elite ones (like OG Anunoby) do all that and also have the ability to get buckets without any help when duty calls for it. Bridges started honing his self-creation at at the end of his Phoenix Suns tenure before refining it with the Nets.

Of the six field goals he hit in the fourth quarter, four were unassisted, including this play where he turned a Nash dribble into a midrange fadeaway.