Nets' Mikal Bridges a strong contender for Most Improved Player Award
Nets forward Mikal Bridges reacts after scoring a three-point basket against the Utah Jazz during the first half of an NBA basketball game at Barclays Center on Sunday, April 2, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Nets game Sunday against the Utah Jazz featured two contenders for this year’s most improved player award in Mikal Bridges and Lauri Markkanen.
Markkanen, the front-runner, has truly emerged from obscurity since being traded from Cleveland to Utah last summer in the Donovan Mitchell trade. Markkanen entered Sunday’s game averaging 25.7 points on 50.1% shooting, which easily surpasses his career highs of 18.7 points and 48% shooting when he was with the Chicago Bulls.
Bridges, meanwhile, was already having a career season in scoring before Phoenix traded him to the Nets in February as part of the Kevin Durant trade. In his first 56 games, all with the Suns, he averaged 17.2. He has taken his game to a new level since coming to the Nets, scoring an average of 27.5 points, making 50.5% of his shots while shooting 91.1% from the free-throw line.
Also, in the Most Improved player conversation are the Knicks' Jalen Brunson and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who along with Markkanen was a first team All-Star this year.
Utah coach Will Hardy said both Bridges and Markkanen have benefited from being traded to teams where they are getting more of an opportunity.
“Mikal was a great player when he was in Phoenix, but you’re playing with Chris Paul and Devin Booker and those guys have the ball a lot,” Hardy said. “Lauri played last year with Darius Garland and higher usage guys on that team . . . I think both of those guys have high ceilings and will continue to get better as they get consistent opportunity.”
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn also believes that Bridges has yet to reach his potential.
“I just look at has Mikal has been able to improve as a player? Yes. On both ends of the floor? Yes. Can he still get better? Yes,” Vaughn said before the Utah game. “ . . . He can get better and he has gotten better.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
