Sixth-year wing Mikal Bridges put up impressive statistics when he was traded to Brooklyn last February, averaging 26.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 2.7 APG and 1.0 SPG on .475/.376/.894 shooting in 27 games to close the 2022/23 season.
While his numbers are solid again for the Nets in ’23/24 — he’s averaging 21.7 PPG, 5.2 RPG and 3.8 APG on .455/.363/.839 shooting in 43 games — Bridges doesn’t expect to make the All-Star Game, he tells Mark Medina of Sportskeeda.
“I don’t think so. Maybe next year,” Bridges said. “You have to win and play to the level.”
As Medina notes, the Nets are currently 17-26, having lost 16 of their past 20 games. Multiple reports have indicated that Brooklyn has no plans to trade Bridges ahead of the February 8 deadline, but he knows things can change quickly in the NBA.
“Just prepare, watch and wait,” Bridges said of the next couple weeks.
Here’s more from Brooklyn:
- After giving up a 22-0 run to lose to the Clippers in L.A. on Sunday, the Nets blew another fourth quarter lead in Tuesday’s home contest vs. New York, with the crowd chanting “Let’s go Knicks” late in the final period, writes Bridget Reilly of The New York Post. Bridges wasn’t pleased that the atmosphere felt like “an away game at home.” “You could hear in the crowd, felt like a friggin’ away game when they made their run,” Bridges said. “Yes, we got good looks. They got some key buckets. We just got to overcome it, you can’t fold and put our heads down if they make a little run. It’s part of the game, just got to be able to execute after and go out and win.”
- Lonnie Walker was a rotation regular to open the season, but his hot shooting start was interrupted by a hamstring injury, which caused him to miss 17 consecutive games. Since returning from the injury, Walker’s minutes have been more sporadic — he has averaged just 12.5 MPG after playing 21.3 MPG prior to the injury. Head coach Jacque Vaughn wants Walker to make better decisions on defense and contribute more on the boards in order to receive more playing time, relays Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily.com.
- The Nets recently provided injury updates on Ben Simmons and Day’Ron Sharpe, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post. According to Vaughn, Simmons will be out at least this week, but he could practice with the team’s G League affiliate in Long Island soon. Simmons has been out since November 6 with a back injury. As for backup center Sharpe, who has missed the past six games with a hyperextended left knee, he says he still isn’t doing contact work. “I think I’ve got a lot more steps I’ve got to take. Right now, I’m just still on the process of strengthening my leg back,” said Sharpe, who didn’t offer a return timeline. “I don’t know yet. But I just feel good. Better. I feel like I’m going in a positive direction.”
Trae to Brooklyn for Mikal, Dinwiddie & a future 1st… or Trae to Brooklyn for Ben Simmons & 4 1sts… link to m.youtube.com
No! The Brooklyn Nets may want Trae, but not in exchange for Mikal.
Ben and four 1sts?! Interesting trade, but no
hahahahaha
Change Trae to Ja on your first offer and add a young big from a 3rd team like WCJr. Or erase the trade for Smart by sending him to a team for a good 3. I’m ok with Smart as the starting PG if they get Mikal plus some, but if not he isn’t the best fit imo and he should then be moved.
What a fall from grace for the Nets. The KD/Kyrie/Harden days are now this. It’s tough because if you’re trying to trade Mikal, he’s certainly not at peak value like he was 1-2 seasons ago. And he’s still on an affordable deal. But it’s likely gonna get worse for the Nets before it gets better. If they keep falling and Mikal gets upset and demands a trade. It’ll be really tough on the Nets and their leverage/value may drop a little bit more. It’s probably best they hold onto him since the free agent market is fairly weak this summer and then try to trade him then (if they want to trade him).
Why would Brooklyn want to trade Mikal tho? He’s clearly their best player, he’s in his prime & like you say he’s on a good contract for yrs to come
I’m not saying they should or want to trade him. But the Nets are not in a good spot right now. They’re not good enough to push for a playoff spot, maybe not even a play-in spot. Then every team underneath them has either started rebuilding (CHA, TOR) or are actively tanking (WAS, DET).
Looking at just the East, the Celtics are gonna be on top for a while. The emergence of Maxey and hiring of Nick Nurse has Embiid playing his best ball ever and probably extended their window by a few years. While I think the Doc signing will blow the Bucks up, right now they have 2 legitimate stars.
Then you have a group of teams right underneath them that have a lot of talent and have assets to strengthen their teams going forward (CLE, MIA, NYK). Then underneath that, you have teams like IND & ORL who have young stars and may be challenging for the conference in 2-3 years.
The Nets are probably at best the 10th best team in the conference. And right now, they don’t have the assets to get better. Their unprotected picks this year and in 2026 belong to Houston. And while it’s a complicated mess, their 2025 is subject to an unprotected swap with OKC. So if the Nets win the lottery after next season, OKC can take it.
While the Nets will have some picks coming back in time, they likely aren’t even low lottery picks. Getting picks from the Suns, Thunder, Sixers, and Heat are likely low value picks in of themselves. Then they have some guys like Ben Simmons whose completely untradable. And with the Knicks success and assets they have, it’s likely the Nets are gonna keep being #2 in NY for a while and may not be a popular FA destination.
Couple that with Bridges, who got spoiled for competing for titles the last few years and is severely underpaid for his production. I imagine he’s not super thrilled right now. And while Birds Rights may get him more $$$, being the best player on bad/losing team like the Nets can depress earnings. Also, he’s only under contract for 2 more years after this year. I don’t see any way the Nets are relevant, let alone a conference contender at that time. And by the time you get there, he’ll be 3 years older and 3x as expensive as he is now. And with the salary cap reworking, it may be tough to pay him and pay an above average supporting cast of players.
If they can extract a big expiring contract, 1-2 young players with upside, and 2-3 lightly protected or unprotected first round picks, I think the Nets should do that and jump start a rebuild.
Sadly for them, Mikal Bridges is the right player at the wrong time.
his value hasn’t dropped lol you don’t know what you’re saying and we aint trading him regardless
His value has dropped compared to where it was 2 years ago. At that time he was a younger, elite 3 & D wing that was emerging. Value comes from production but also contract. Bridges 2 years ago is what guys like Haliburton and Maxey are now. They’re young up and coming potential stars.
Bridges is a player any team would want. And given your response, you’re a Nets fan who probably really likes him. But the difference is, Bridges hasn’t become that superstar that people thought he may be. After the Kings traded Haliburton to Indy, he took off and took that next step. Bridges hasn’t done that. What he does, he does well. But he’s not one of the 10-15 best players in the league that people thought he may be a couple years ago in Phoenix.
He’s still a great player but his value has gone down and will likely do so over the course of the next 2 years unless his numbers go way up. Team control and salary are part of a player’s value too, not just production. Look at the Sixers with Tobias Harris the last few years, his salary makes him a negative asset regardless of how many years he has left or how much he scores.
And the new salary cap and tax rules complicate this. It won’t be easy for teams to stack contacts like they did in the past. So that limits the market as well. The only way I can see the Nets succeeding with Bridges on their roster over the next 2.5 years is to throw every asset they have left to acquire another star. Then use what payroll they have left to sign above average rotation players. Also getting out of the DFS contract and/or hiring a new head coach would also work. Or they lure a big name free agent 2 summers from now, but that’s easier said than done.
Sean Marks is waiting for the right trades to manifest. Meanwhile, fans and players suffer with loss after loss after loss after loss.
knicks’ fans let us have it in our building. They’re bold now that they’re winning. They were scared little obnoxious mice when we were stomping them with Durant.
Can’t fault Nets’ fans for staying home. This team ain’t built to make the Playoffs. It could be if we acquired Dejounte Murray…
Lonnie Walker should be the 1st or 2nd player off the bench. Jacque Vaughn’s defensive philosophy sucks no matter how many good defensive decisions the players make.
In fact, if the players had to make their own decisions instead of follow Vaughn’s philosophy, we’d be winning more games!
agree besides the not blaming the fans part, we can’t let corny knicks fans take over your entire arena….
Would you gut your club of the last remaining assets it has left to get Murray and maybe be at best the 8th seed in the East? If so, you’re only setting the rebuild back even further. The Hornets & Raptors already have a head start. Even with Murray, the Nets aren’t the Pacers or the Magic where they’re setup for the next handful of years and their best years are ahead of them.
It’s tough but the Nets are in NBA purgatory. They’re not good enough to be a legitimate threat in the playoffs and they aren’t bad enough to have top 3-4 odds in the draft (plus they don’t own their picks for the next 3 years, 2025 cause of a complicated optional unprotected swap they have with the Thunder).
Mikal’s a fun player but not a true #1 superstar. If they can recoup a bunch of assets by trading him, it’s probably the right move long term.
Lastly, I get it’s frustrating with Knicks fans taking over. But at the same time, that’s the deal with the devil that you make. Nets fans were fine signing KD and giving him power so they could stomp on the Knicks. But you also have to own it when KD dumps you for someone else and leaves you. I think Knick fans have all the reason to be obnoxious right now. It’s the northeast, if you can give it out, you gotta take it. If anything, Nets fans should be thankful they were able to get Bridges out of the KD deal. The only reason they have any hope right now is because they have him. Especially considering what they got back for Harden. If the Nets were able to give up a little more with Harden and they got Maxey back in the Harden deal. The Nets would look a lot different (any maybe KD doesn’t totally walk out).
So your solution is to, what, rush into a bad trade? This is why fans would make terrible GMs.
I completely understand the fans not wanting to support the product, but this is now about the medium/long-term game. The results this year are secondary.
The Nets refuse to do what’s best, which is rebuild. I won’t waste energy creating trades to blow this s%&t up.
Sean Marks needs to acquire Dejounte Murray and Wendell Carter, Jr.
Keep Claxton, keep Cam Thomas.
Murray/ Cam Thomas
Mikal/ Walker
Johnson/ Simmons/ Wilson
Claxton/ Watford
Carter Jr./ Sharpe
This team will not only make the Playoffs, it will compete in the 1st Round and have a great chance to make the semi-Finals
A full rebuild only makes sense when you own your own picks! we have other teams picks, not our own
Do you realize we rebuilt when the Boston Celtics used our Picks to draft Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum?
Oh… and they used our Pick that became Collin Sexton to acquire Kyrie Irving.
Joe Tsai doesn’t want a rebuild because he’s afraid season ticket holders will cancel their plans. You know when I got a half-season plan? The summer of 2018 when nobody could’ve guessed we would surprise the NBA and make the Playoffs with D-Lo, LeVert, Allen, Harris, RHJ, Dinwiddie, and Jared Dudley.
Shout-out to my main man, Kenny Atkinson
Claxton at the 4 LOL. this is how i know you don’t know ball
Is anyone under the illusion that Baby Ben will ever play meaningful minutes in the NBA.
He might return this season, but only until he gets another boo boo.
Why not Dejounte for Spencer and 2 firsts?
Then trade for Toppin and Derozen?
Nets need to at least try to be competitive or simply trade Mikal.
I believe Sankara will give u a “Hard pass” reply soon bcoz he dont want hawks trade away Dejounte.
Don’t care about his views or feelings.