The Trade: New York Knicks acquire Mikal Bridges, Keita Bates-Diop and a 2026 second-round pick from the Brooklyn Nets for Bojan Bogdanović, Mamadi Diakite, Shake Milton, a 2025 first-round pick, a 2025 first-round pick (via MIL; protected 1-4), a 2027 first-round pick, a 2029 first-round pick, a 2031 first-round pick, a 2028 first-round swap and a 2025 second-round pick
The Knicks clearly viewed Bridges as a missing piece, though most of the league probably felt similarly about such a scaleable three-and-D player with just two years and $48.2 million left on the extension he signed in 2022. New York’s willingness to part with such a shocking number of first-round picks for a non-star set it apart—and it also resulted in a deal that is now the standard against which others are measured.
Well, if it cost five first-rounders for Bridges, what’s this guy worth?
Bridges was mostly fine for the Knicks last year, though his scoring average and three-point accuracy (17.6 points and 35.4 percent, respectively) fell short of where they were in Brooklyn and his later years in Phoenix.
If Bridges re-ups on a below-market extension worth just $156.5 million over four years, this deal will look better. But if he winds up holding out for a max worth much more than that in 2026 free agency, or if the the Knicks determine they have to trade him this season to avoid that possibility, this grade could slip even lower.
The Nets have yet to turn any of the first-round assets they got for Bridges into anything exciting, but that’s because Nolan Traoré and Ben Saraf, the rookies they drafted using 2025 firsts from New York and Milwaukee, have yet to see the floor in a game that actually counts.
Depending on what becomes of those two and the other picks Brooklyn hasn’t even made yet, this grade has plenty of room to rise. Even if everyone the Nets eventually land underwhelms, saying yes to so much draft capital for a player of Bridges’ caliber will have been the right decision.