The Brooklyn Nets are trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks, where he will join Jalen Brunson and reunite with his other former Villanova teammates. Two people who know about the details reported on Tuesday.
The first trade between these two New York rivals (Nets and Knicks) will place Bridges in a lineup alongside Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. These players helped the Wildcats win two NCAA championships. They were the soul of a Knicks squad that advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.
New York will pay a huge sum to get him, with ESPN reporting they are sending Bojan Bogdanovic to the Nets. Bogdanovic will get four unprotected first-round picks and one-protected pick. The Associated Press confirmed the deal under condition of anonymity as it is not yet official.
Knicks receive:
- Mikal Bridges
- 2026 2nd-round pick
Nets receive:
- Bojan Bogdanovic
- unprotected 1st-round pick in 2025
- unprotected 1st-round pick in 2027
- unprotected 1st-round pick in 2029
- unprotected 1st-round pick in 2031
- unprotected pick swap in 2028
- top-four protected 2025 1st-round pick via Bucks
- 2nd round pick in 2025
The Brooklyn Nets got Bridges from the Phoenix Sun in the deal for Kevin Durant in February 2023 and he went ahead to average 26.1 points for the rest of that campaign, helping the Nets reach the playoffs. He scored 19.6 per game in 2023-24 but the Nets fell to 32-50 and missed the postseason.
While his team was struggling, Bridges noticed how much fun his friends were having only a few miles away. Brooklyn signed Brunson in the summer of 2022, traded for Hart in the 2022-23 season and then signed DiVincenzo last summer. The Knicks have advanced to the second round in both campaigns.
The four players helped Villanova win the 2016 NCAA title, while Brunson, Bridges and DiVincenzo were still playing for the Wildcats when they won the title again in 2018. They cannot wait to reconnect.
“This is crazy lol,” Bridges wrote on the social media platform X after the deal was reported.
Hart posted a picture of what appeared to be the four players smiling during a group video call.
Bridges was runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and is presently the NBA’s most durable player, which should make him an instant favourite with Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. He has played in all 474 matches in his career and never missed a game in college, either. He led the NBA in minutes played in both 2021-22 and 2022-23.
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Jane Njoku
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