New York Knicks acquire Mikal Bridges in ‘crazy’ trade with Brooklyn Nets

Mikal Bridges will be traded by the Brooklyn Nets to the New York Knicks, where he will join Jalen Brunson and his other former Villanova teammates, two people with knowledge of the details said Tuesday.

The first trade between the New York rivals since 1983 brings Bridges into the lineup alongside Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, players who helped the Wildcats win two NCAA championships and formed the core of the Knicks lineup that won half last season. reached the Eastern Conference finals.

The Knicks will pay a lot to get him ESPN reporting that they send Bojan Bogdanović to the Nets, along with four unprotected first-round picks and one protected pick.

The Nets acquired Bridges from Phoenix in the deal for Kevin Durant in February 2023 and he averaged 26.1 points the rest of that season in helping Brooklyn reach the playoffs. The swingman scored 19.6 per game in 2023-24, but the Nets fell to 32-50 and missed the postseason.

And while his team was struggling, he noticed how much fun his friends were having just a few miles away. The Knicks signed Brunson in the summer of 2022, traded for Hart in the 2022-2023 season and then signed DiVincenzo last summer, reaching the second round in both seasons.

The four players helped Villanova to the 2016 NCAA title, and Brunson, Bridges and DiVincenzo were also there when the Wildcats won again in 2018.

They clearly can’t wait to get the band back together. “This is crazy lol,” Bridges wrote on X after the deal was reported.

Responding to the idea that he was pushing for a trade to be reunited with his former college teammates, Bridges wrote, “You mfs really think I’m so hungry lol please be fr.”

The crosstown rivals hadn’t made a deal since 1983, when the Nets were still in New Jersey and sent Len Elmore to New York for a future draft pick. This gives Brooklyn more choices to build into further transactions through the concept or package.

The Knicks had choices to move and expected to strengthen a team that is on the rise. They were one game away from their first appearance in the Eastern Conference finals since 2000 last season, despite losing several key players to injuries before and during the postseason.

Their new addition, on the other hand, is not injured.

Bridges was the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and is now the NBA’s most durable player, which should quickly make him a favorite of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. He played in all 474 games in his career – and never missed a game in college either – and led the league in minutes played in 2021-22 and 2022-23.