Knicks Acquire Star From Nets for Massive Haul of Draft Picks

NBA players Cameron Johnson, Nic Claxton, Mikal Bridges and Ben Simmons of the Brooklyn Nets attend Game One of the 2023 WNBA Playoffs finals between the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces at Michelob ULTRA Arena on October 08, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bridges is now heading to New York's other team.

The Brooklyn Nets are officially picking a lane.

After spending the 2023-24 season trying — and failing — to be a fringe play-in team, the club brought in a new head coach, former Sacramento Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernández. Now, Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks has decided to make a massive trade and embrace the tank.

Marks is flipping his best player, two-way veteran swingman Mikal Bridges, plus a 2026 Nets second round draft pick, to the New York Knicks in exchange for a whopping six future draft picks, plus one swap and the $19 million contract of little-used Knicks power forward Bojan Bogdanovic. Brooklyn will receive the Knicks' unprotected first-round picks in 2026, 2027, 2029 and 2031, a protected Milwaukee Bucks 2025 first-round selection New York added in an earlier trade, a 2025 Knicks second-rounder, and a 2028 pick swap.

The deal will reunite Bridges with three of his former NCAA title-winning Villanova teammates: all-NBA Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, and wings Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. Bridges, Brunson, and DiVincenzo were both on two Villanova championship teams, in 2016 and '18, while Hart was only on the first. He left for the 2017 NBA Draft after a four-year stint under Jay Wright.

It's a terrific gamble from New York, albeit for a steep cost in future equity. Notably, the Knicks managed to hold onto all three of their picks for this Wednesday's upcoming draft. The team possesses the Nos. 24 and 25 picks in the first round, plus the No. 38 selection in the second round Thursday.

The 6-foot-6 Bridges was the best player this past season on a 32-50 team that finished outside the Eastern Conference playoffs looking in. A one-time All-Defensive First Teamer in 2022 (he also finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting that season, for the 64-18 Phoenix Suns), the 27-year-old posted efficient averages of 19.6 points on .436/.372/.814 shooting splits, 4.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and one steal.

The Knicks finished with a 50-32 record in 2023-24, good for the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed. New York ultimately fell a bit earlier than anticipated, losing to the No. 6-seeded Indiana Pacers in a hard-fought seven-game series. This was due in part to most of the Knicks' core rotation players playing major minutes and succumbing to injuries throughout the course of the postseason. Last year, the Knicks' core also included All-Star power forward Julius Randle, and centers Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson.

New York head coach Tom Thibodeau is going to love Bridges. The league's reigning iron man has never missed a single professional regular season game (and he's played in 474 of them) since being drafted with the No. 10 pick in 2018. In fact, he suited up for a whopping 83 games during the 2022-23 season, because he was flipped to the Nets from the Suns in the trade that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix and was granted an extra game in a scheduling quirk.

On the hardwood, the addition of Bridges gives Thibodeau even more switchable wings with which to mix and match lineups in 2024-25. According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, Bridges himself requested he be sent to New York's other team.

Wojnarowski added that New York still hopes to re-sign combo forward OG Anunoby. A midseason trade acquisition from the Toronto Raptors, Anunoby was a lockdown defender and 3-point shooting release valve for New York when healthy. He has opted out of his $20 million player option for 2024-25 to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, where he seems poised to make much more than that prior number.

Wojnarowski also notes that the Knicks made this move in part to combat the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics and their wing-heavy roster. Keeping starting center Hartenstein, who is also a free agent this year, will become a bit tougher thanks to the addition of Bridges and the team's intent to hold onto Anunoby.

The Knicks clearly believe they have an opportunity to move up the standings in a relatively open Eastern Conference. Time will tell if the gamble was worth the lost assets.

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