Mikal Bridges on Nets: 'We just couldn't figure it out'
His time at the top of the organizational totem pole, saddled with the requisite pressures and responsibilities, was brief and disappointing. Not only did his numbers suffer, but his Nets finished a dispiriting 32-50. In retrospect, Mikal Bridges acknowledged his leadership shortcomings. “It could’ve been better,” Bridges said on “Podcast P’ with Paul George” during Summer League this month. “But it’s different. I was close with everybody, we were all pretty close. We just couldn’t figure it out. I think that was the toughest situation. You want to lead and help other guys, but sometimes you got to look yourself in the mirror like, ‘What can I do better to help?’ That’s where I feel I lacked a little bit. … Personally, it was tough.”
Source: New York Post
Source: New York Post
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Stefan Bondy @SBondyNYDN
How the Knicks will help Mikal Bridges rediscover his happy place after ‘toughest situation’ in Brooklyn; plus thoughts on Thibodeau extension; plus Rokas Jokubaitis contract outs in Israel
nypost.com/2024/07/25/spo… – 9:21 AM
How the Knicks will help Mikal Bridges rediscover his happy place after ‘toughest situation’ in Brooklyn; plus thoughts on Thibodeau extension; plus Rokas Jokubaitis contract outs in Israel
nypost.com/2024/07/25/spo… – 9:21 AM
More on this storyline
ClutchPoints: “Switching back to #25 .. have a blessed day .. sorry for the ones that bought #1 jerseys already😓” Mikal Bridges to Knicks fans after announcing that he’s changing his jersey number 😭 pic.twitter.com/bzBqK03KVN -via Twitter @ClutchPointsApp / July 22, 2024
Though Marks said the Bridges final deal came together quickly — technically true since Bojan Bogdanovic and Shake Milton weren’t even Knicks until Feb. 8 and March 5 — a second source told The Post the broad strokes had been offered as early as the Feb. 8 trade deadline. That likely means the five first-round picks and a swap. “We were always prepared for a rebuild. It wasn’t like, oh, let’s wait to be lucky to find the star that’s coming into free agency. We were always prepared to pivot in the other direction if we could see the right opportunity to do that,” a source said. “And who would’ve thought we could trade Mikal Bridges for five first-round draft picks? And who would’ve thought we were able to find that window of opportunity to get Houston to agree to get our picks back? -via New York Post / July 19, 2024
Nets GM Sean Marks has only spoken publicly once since the team traded Mikal Bridges, and team owner Joe Tsai not at all. But multiple highly placed sources peeled the curtain back on Brooklyn’s thinking, explaining its heel turn from chasing stars to embracing a rebuild as all part of game theory. “[The view had been] that if you’re in New York City, you can’t be a bad team, because the fan base is not going to support you. It’s such a big media market, if you’re a terrible team, everything gets very bad,” one source told The Post of the organization’s initial aversion to a rebuild. “But you also have to think about the long term. You cannot be a mediocre team for a long time. So you have to set yourself up to either be really good, and if you only see a path to be just mediocre in the near term, then you have to consider an option that can take you to a rebuild.” -via New York Post / July 19, 2024