Mikal Bridges emblematic of directions in which Knicks and Nets are headed
Knicks forward Mikal Bridges checks out and returns to the bench during the first half of an NBA game against the Nets on Sunday at Barclays Center. Credit: AP/Heather Khalifa
Mikal Bridges was the only Knicks starter who suited up for the team’s season finale on Sunday.
Of course, the reason the Knicks played Bridges for the first six seconds of a meaningless 113-105 victory over the Nets was to extend his playing streak to 556 games. Streak or not, though, it seemed right that Bridges was on the floor. He has emerged as the pivotal player connecting the direction in which the two teams seem to be heading.
The Nets again have launched a massive rebuild, and more than half of the players on the floor Sunday likely won’t be on the roster next season. A big reason they actually might be able to pull this off and get past the Kyrie Irving-Kevin Durant debacle is Bridges and the haul of first-round picks the Nets got when they traded him to the Knicks last June.
As for the Knicks, they again are headed to the playoffs, though with a reconfigured team that seems neither as likable nor as tough as the one that came within one win of getting to the Eastern Conference finals last year.
Knicks fans had mixed feelings when five first-round picks were sent to the Nets for a player who had never been an All-Star, but they were generally hopeful. The move was the first of two blockbuster trades designed to lift the Knicks to the next level, designed to make them a contender for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. The third-seeded Knicks head into the postseason with an 0-8 record against Cleveland and Boston, the two top teams in the conference. What’s more, they are 1-3 against the sixth-seeded Detroit Pistons, the team they will open the playoffs against on Saturday or Sunday.
On paper, the Knicks should be a stronger team with the addition of Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, whom the Knicks picked up in October for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. On the court and in the locker room, however, that simply hasn’t been the case.
Where the Knicks have suffered the most is on defense, an area that has long been the strong suit of Tom Thibodeau teams. The Knicks have really missed Isaiah Hartenstein, whom they lost in free agency, and his loss has been exacerbated by the fact that Mitchell Robinson missed the first 58 games of the season while recovering from ankle surgery.
While Towns has been everything and more that the Knicks want on offense — this has been one of the best-shooting seasons of his career — elite teams have had little problem scoring on the All-Star.
While Towns’ shortcomings on defense were well-known when the Knicks traded for him, Bridges has been much worse than advertised at defending the point of attack. He was a runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, but his commitment to get through screens has been underwhelming at best. While it might not be fair to say Bridges shies away from contact to keep his streak going, he does seem to avoid it.
Offensively, he has been infuriatingly inconsistent. Against top teams Oklahoma City, Boston and Cleveland, he has pretty much been consistently bad.
While it’s not Bridges’ fault that the Knicks gave up so much to get him, he is going to be forever judged by whether he was worth all those picks. If the Knicks hadn’t given up all five first-rounders for Bridges, it’s possible that they could have included a few of them in a deal for Towns and not given up DiVincenzo.
And make no mistake, the Knicks miss DiVincenzo and his toughness and fire.
The fact that the Knicks were able to survive injury after injury in last year’s playoffs has a lot to do with that team’s personality. That Knicks team was tough, committed and willing to run through a wall for each other and their coach.
This team? Well, the best you can say is the playoffs are a reset.
“You win 51 games, you’re the third seed, so you’ve earned the right to be in the playoffs,” Thibodeau said Sunday. “It’s really a new season.”
A new season and a final chance for the Knicks and all of their new parts to come together.
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.
