{"id":269519,"date":"2026-06-17T13:16:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/269519\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:16:47","slug":"how-the-brooklyn-nets-could-still-win-the-mikal-bridges-to-knicks-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/269519\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Brooklyn Nets Could Still Win the Mikal Bridges to Knicks Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">Two years ago, a pair of crosstown rivals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/40434308\/new-york-knicks-trade-mikal-bridges-brooklyn-nets-load-picks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">executed a rare trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">The Brooklyn Nets traded Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks for five first-round picks and an unprotected pick swap in 2028.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6z\">Many Nets fans were ecstatic to replenish their draft capital for a guy many viewed as a role player, save for his blistering hot stretch in his first 27 games in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"72\">However, the Knicks accomplished the ultimate goal with Bridges playing a vital part in their championship success, which by default means they have won the trade.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">But that&#8217;s not to say the Nets can&#8217;t still make out in this transaction.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">No knock on Bridges, but he didn&#8217;t prove to be good enough to handle being the No. 1 option of a team. He also seemed to signal a desire to play for the other New York team, often seen hanging out with his former Villanova buddies after games and on podcasts and publicly voicing his displeasure with Knicks fans invading the Barclays Center.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Although the Nets have a long way to go before they can start talking about a championship, the assets they acquired from the Knicks could at least help them get towards that goal.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">The Nets already drafted Nolan Traor\u00e9 and Ben Saraf with two of the picks they got in the deal.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">Traor\u00e9 has shown flashes of becoming at least a rotational two-way guard in the future, but the jury is still out on Saraf.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">Brooklyn still owns New York&#8217;s first round picks in 2027, 2029 and 2031.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\">The 2027 pick is likely going to be a late first-rounder, but the Nets&#8217; scouting department could always find a gem at that spot.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">In 2029 and 2031, however, the Knicks could look like a completely different team.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7t\">New York&#8217;s core of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Bridges will all be approaching their mid-30s, and with the second apron rules fully intact, that team may not be able to stick together, especially if Brunson wants to cash in on his new deal.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7w\">That could open the door for the Nets to draft a franchise-changing superstar or flip those picks for a superstar ready to call Brooklyn their next home.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">Could that move <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/brooklyn-nets-among-favorites-to-land-two-time-mvp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">happen this offseason<\/a>? Who knows, but at the very least, the Nets could end up with their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/brooklyn-nets-projected-to-select-next-jalen-brunson-at-nba-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">own version of Brunson<\/a> in this upcoming draft.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, a pair of crosstown rivals executed a rare trade. The Brooklyn Nets traded Mikal Bridges&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-269519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}