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<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 If hypotheticals about what could have been are a good dream for New York Knicks fans, then Mikal Bridges is the alarm clock that startles them awake.<\/p>\n
If New York didn\u2019t trade five first-round picks for Bridges, who has never been an All-Star, maybe Giannis Antetokounmpo is already a Knick. If New York didn\u2019t mortgage its assets last summer to get Bridges, maybe a slightly-flawed roster is a little less creaky.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, the Knicks and their fans live in a reality where, when that alarm sounds, Bridges is here and has to work out. Winning a title is the only way to justify such a trade \u2014 a trade that, on a surface level, is nearly impossible to rationalize for Bridges or roughly 434 other NBA players who don\u2019t fall into the elite category of players who might vindicate trading lock, stock and barrel for them.<\/p>\n
All things considered, dreams versus reality is what makes Bridges\u2019 season so complicated. To the naked eye, Bridges is having a solid season: He\u2019s shooting nearly 50 percent from the field, 39 percent from 3 and averaging 1.5 steals per game, which is the second-best mark of his long career. There are games when it\u2019s clear where the best version of Bridges can take New York, as made obvious in Sunday\u2019s dominant 114-89 victory over the red-hot San Antonio Spurs, a game in which he scored 25 points and had five steals in 33 minutes. He jumped a Victor Wembanyama post-up attempt and took off the other way like a bandit. Bridges had a one-pass-away denial that he converted into a steal.<\/p>\n
Then, to the trained eye, there are nights when you forget he\u2019s playing. There are games when you wonder if his minutes should be limited. Then you remember it took five first-round picks to get him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a process \u2014 new coach, new system, both offensively and defensively,\u201d New York head coach Mike Brown said of Bridges\u2019 season following Sunday\u2019s win. \u201cNot only that, but a new team and more guys behind him. Landry (Shamet) didn\u2019t play much last year. (Miles) McBride didn\u2019t play much last year. We got Jose (Alvarado) and we can move Jalen (Brunson) to the two-guard. There\u2019s different ways we can go, and whether it\u2019s Mikal or this guy or that guy, if we need to make a change over the course of the game because we need something different, it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, guys don\u2019t always get the minutes or shots that they want, but our first standard is about sacrificing, and everyone in that room is willing to sacrifice to make sure we achieve one common goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are reasons within Bridges\u2019 control and reasons outside of it as to why his presence on the court can, at times, feel underwhelming. To be clear, there is a lot that Bridges brings to the table. He\u2019s an elite corner 3-point shooter. He runs the floor in transition like he stole something, and he often does steal something when he\u2019s able to be more of an off-the-ball defender and jump passing lanes.<\/p>\n
Bridges is best as a defender off the ball as opposed to at the point of attack. However, because the bulk of Bridges\u2019 minutes come as part of a starting lineup that has an elite off-the-ball defender in OG Anunoby and a roamer in Josh Hart, who is best at mucking things up for offenses, Bridges often takes on the role of guarding the primary ballhandler to fill the gap as the premier on-ball defender. That responsibility can highlight some of Bridges\u2019 weaknesses, such as asserting himself as a physical presence while teams look to initiate their offense on that end of the court.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that aspect of Bridges\u2019 game where you often wonder if someone like Shamet could just step into the starting lineup and maximize the starters. Shamet, too, is a top-notch 3-point shooter but is better at getting through screens and makes ballhandlers feel his presence. The same could be said for a healthy McBride.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the other side of the floor, where too often Bridges has a maddening inclination to turn down drives to the basket and potential trips to the free-throw line so that he can shoot a midrange jumper. Per NBA.com, nearly four of Bridges\u2019 12 shots per game come between eight feet and 24 feet from the basket. His 47 percent conversion rate on those attempts isn\u2019t quite high enough to warrant turning down layups that could lead to three-point plays and put opponents into foul trouble.<\/p>\n
Bridges took a career-low 118 free throws last season, and he\u2019d be lucky to reach 100 this year. That approach, though, helps make him available. It\u2019s harder to miss games when you avoid situations that could cause injury. With that said, as Bridges\u2019 NBA-leading streak of 617 consecutive games played continues to grow, his inconsistencies make me wonder if he\u2019d benefit from taking a game or two off here and there to rest his body.<\/p>\n
The best version of Bridges is what we saw against San Antonio, when his jumper was automatic and he was able to roam the passing lanes. But when the jump shot isn\u2019t falling and the team needs him to primarily be on the ball, that\u2019s when the frustration presents itself. You look around, waiting for someone else to come in and try to get the job done.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Mikal Bridges (25) and Jalen Brunson combined for 49 points and nine rebounds in New York\u2019s win over the Spurs.<\/p>\n
The word \u201csacrifice\u201d has been a buzzword among the Knicks players since last season, when this roster of individual talents was assembled. Hart has talked about it ad nauseam. Brunson, too. Bridges emptied his heart just before the deadline during a postgame interview with MSG Network, saying he hadn\u2019t been coachable enough and \u201cmaybe I felt too much entitlement.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be fair to Bridges, he has spent time on each end of the spectrum over his career. He went from being a role player on a promising Phoenix Suns team to a No. 1 option for a Brooklyn Nets squad that wasn\u2019t going anywhere, only to get traded across the bridge. Suddenly, he found himself needing to find a balance between his previous basketball life and his new one on a team with championship aspirations.<\/p>\n
Bridges has had to learn to sacrifice with the Knicks, just like all of his other talented teammates have, and that has been a work in progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou come here and have Jalen and (Karl-Anthony Towns) and, offensively, might have to take a step back,\u201d Hart told The Athletic about his viewpoint on Bridges\u2019 relationship with sacrifice. \u201cSometimes that\u2019s difficult. Sometimes that\u2019s tough. You go from getting 15-20 play calls to getting three or four play calls. Mentally, it can take time to adjust to that. I think that\u2019s something he\u2019s worked with and getting more comfortable with it. He\u2019s able to not worry about that or focus on that and play his game.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York doesn\u2019t need Bridges to be the player we saw against the Spurs every night. He\u2019s not going to always get 17 shots. The Knicks need Bridges to be willing to make the most of every opportunity he gets when shooting the ball. They need him to be more physical defensively when guarding the ball. They need him to be more willing to put his body on the line.<\/p>\n
Bridges complicates his own game at times, which is why his season has become so complicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 If hypotheticals about what could have been are a good dream for New York Knicks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,361,99],"class_list":["post-499268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}