Knicks' Mikal Bridges can change first-season narrative with big postseason
GREENBURGH — Here’s what you might know about Mikal Bridges to this point in his Knicks career. He cost the team five first-round picks, a first-round pick swap and a second-round pick. Some of the picks are in middle school now, but they still dangle around his neck like an anchor.
But the postseason is a time when the story can change, for better or worse. And for Bridges, the story starts now, with expectations and tasks on center stage as the playoffs begin Saturday against the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden.
In the spotlight of New York City, some players rise, creating legacies that last for decades because of playoff heroics. Others find themselves haunted — hello, Charles Smith — by their troubles in the blinding glare of championship hopes.
It has been an odd first season with the Knicks for Bridges. He arrived to join a heralded group of Villanova alumni but struggled to meet the expectations created by the cost the Knicks paid. They went all-in to add him and Karl-Anthony Towns to a team that had reached the Eastern Conference semifinals two straight years.
“It was all right,” Bridges said of his season. “I think I could have obviously been better, but it’s [all right], just getting ready for now and [continuing to] try to get better.”
He is likely to be the first Knick tasked with defending the engine that makes the Pistons go, All-Star guard Cade Cunningham, and providing the kind of offensive help that will allow Jalen Brunson to not have to rattle off 40-point games every night for the Knicks to survive and advance.
“Man, I’m really excited to go,” said Bridges, who has been to an NBA Finals with Phoenix but missed out on the playoffs with the Nets last season. “A year off feels so long from not making the playoffs. I’m excited for the atmosphere as well. It’s gonna be a really good series.”
Whether it is begins with the Knicks’ ability to slow Cunningham, the elite talent who averaged 26.1 points and 9.1 assists per game and lifted the Pistons from 14 to 44 wins this season. It is there where Bridges could silence the questions and critics.
“He’s really talented, man,” Bridges said. “He’s one of those guys that’s an All-Star this year, too. Cade had a lot on his plate and did a really good job . . . I think he had a good amount of assists last year, too, but I think his playmaking grew from last year to this year, even with his scoring. Just makes him tough to guard because he makes the right play a lot. So we’ve got to guard him as a team and do our best.
“He’s definitely a tough guard. He just knows how to play the game the right way. He’s always poised, never really rushed. That’s the big thing I’ve seen with him throughout the years; even playing him when he was young, he never really seems rushed no matter what’s thrown at him. Definitely a good player.”
Bridges was expected to pair with OG Anunoby to provide a defensive duo at the wings, versatile and capable of slowing even the best talent in the NBA — Cunningham this round and, if the Knicks get past this challenge, a possible meeting with the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals. That hasn’t quite lived up to the billing as the Knicks’ defense struggled much of the season.
Offensively, Bridges’ role changed from what he was expected to do for the Nets, for whom he was the primary weapon, averaging 19.6 points last season and 26.1 in 2022-23 after being traded from Phoenix. He averaged 17.6 points this season, and the 35.4% he recorded from three-point range was his worst since his rookie season.
“Throughout the season just feel it out,” he said of his role. “A whole new group of guys and just try to find my role within and things like that within the offense.”
“Just play to win,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “The game tells you what to do. If you’re open, shoot. If you’re guarded, make a play, and you have to do it together. That’s the most important thing. It’s not about how many points do I have. How many points does he get? That’s not how you win in this league. You have to play together.”
If it works out, Bridges is eligible for a contract extension this summer. If it doesn’t, well, the struggles are often as magnified as the highlights.
“It all starts with just one game at a time,” Bridges said. “You can’t look ahead. I think the fans, you guys look ahead a lot. It takes one game at a time. That’s what it is, just one game and play our best basketball, our best version for 48 minutes, and go from there.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
