Knicks add Mikal Bridges in stunning Nets, Rockets trade
06/25/2024 10:09 PM
In a shocking twist less than 24 hours before the 2024 NBA Draft, the Brooklyn Nets have traded rising star Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for numerous draft picks and veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovic, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Knicks are sending four unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected first-round pick swap, and a second-round pick.
The Nets are sending Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks for Bojan Bogdanovic and picks, per @wojespn.
Bridges reunites with fellow Villanova alumni Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo pic.twitter.com/lXllaHm6Z3
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The Nets are set to receive four unprotected first-round picks from the Knicks in 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031, as well as a 2025 first-round pick from the Bucks that is top-four protected. New York is also sending a 2028 unprotected pick swap and a 2025 second-round pick, along with Bogdanovic, to Brooklyn for Bridges.
In addition to this trade with the Knicks, the Nets are finalizing another trade that involves numerous draft assets with the Houston Rockets. This massive deal includes several picks that were initially traded away by Brooklyn when they acquired James Harden from Houston in 2021. Not only are the Nets sending the Phoenix Suns’ 2027 first-round picks to the Rockets to get their own 2026 first-round pick back, but Houston also acquires the 2025 rights to swap their own or the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2025 first-round pick for the Suns’ 2025 first-round pick via Brooklyn.
As part of this secondary trade involving draft picks with the Nets, Houston is relinquishing the rights to swap a Rockets/Thunder first-round pick for Brooklyn’s 2025 first-round pick, allowing the Nets to retain their draft assets and enter a rebuild. The Rockets are also getting the more favorable of the Dallas Mavericks’ and the Suns’ 2029 first-round pick and acquires the right to swap their own first-round pick for the less favorable Dallas first and Phoenix first, according to Wojnarowski.
This is a stunning trade that the Nets, Knicks, and Rockets have pulled off on the eve of the NBA Draft. Bridges, who the Nets had long remained adamant on keeping, now finds himself joining a Knicks team that should look familiar to him. Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and Bridges are all reunited with one another after winning a national championship together in 2016 as members of the Villanova Wildcats.
The Knicks are hopeful that Bridges, who is a rising star in the NBA, will be the final piece to their championship equation after stepping into his own with the Nets. Since joining Brooklyn as part of the blockbuster Kevin Durant trade with the Suns, Bridges has played in a total of 109 games, averaging 19.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting 37.2 percent from the floor. Bridges has not missed a single game in his NBA career.
If there is any player built for Tom Thibodeau’s system with the Knicks, besides Hart, it is an ironman like Bridges. Now, the Knicks have added yet another weapon in their pursuit of reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
This is a developing story that will be updated shortly.
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