INSIDE THE PIVOT: New York Knicks offer for Mikal Bridges ‘eye-opening,’ too good to pass up

In yet another discussion of how the Brooklyn Nets big Draft Day blockbuster trades came to be, Brian Lewis writes that the New York Knicks’ offer of five first round picks, a first round pick swap and a second rounder was too simply too good for Nets to pass up, changing the franchise’s trajectory.

“Who would’ve thought we could trade Mikal Bridges for five first-round draft picks?” Lewis quotes a source with insider knowledge. “It was eye-opening to see the Knicks offer these kinds of assets for Mikal.”

The Knicks who wanted to combine Bridges with his three Villanova teammates gave up their own unprotected first round picks in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, as well as the Milwaukee Bucks lightly protected (1-4) first in 2025. Also included in the package was an unprotected pick swap in 2028 and a second rounder in 2025 which had originally been a Nets pick and which could now be quite valuable in its own right. The deal was also constructed so the Nets could generate a $23.3 million trade exception, second biggest in the NBA.

The same night they agreed to the Knicks deal, the Nets engaged in a trade of draft assets with the Houston Rockets. In return for long term assets they had acquired from the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades, the Nets were able to regain control of their own first rounders in 2025 and 2026 from Houston. They had given the Rockets swap rights in 2025 and their own unprotected first in 2026 as part of the original James Harden trade back in 2021. One trade didn’t really work without the other.

Overall, the two deals made the Nets pivot from trying to win while retooling their roster to a complete, down-to-the-studs rebuild, a rebuild that continues apace with reports the Nets are trying to move two more veteran players, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith. The Nets also have two other veterans, Dennis Schroder and Bojan Bogdanovic on expiring deals. (On Saturday while preparing for the Olympics, Schroder reiterated his desire to stay on in Brooklyn, citing the organization’s family-friendly culture.)

A whole host of NBA journalists — including Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania — reported at the trade deadline in February that the Nets had turned down a number of offers for Bridges with Woj specifically stating that the Nets had turned down an offer of five firsts … presumably the Knicks offer. A second league source told Lewis that “the broad strokes” of the Knicks deal had been offered as early as the February 8 trade deadline. Similarly, NetsDaily was told in the days after the trade, “That deal has been there since the deadline … and they always said no.”

What changed? Lewis’ source said it was simply a realization that the team’s collapse in the second half of the season made them re-evaluate things. After playing respectable basketball early in the season, injuries and what many saw as half-hearted effort, the Nets finished 32-50, ending a five-year streak of making the playoffs.

“[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,” said the source, explaining what the organization had been thinking prior to the pivot.

“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.”

In addition, while Bridges may or may not have specifically asked out, he gave numerous hints he’d preferred the other side of the East River. As Lewis wrote, Bridges averaged just 15.4 points over his final 29 games of the season following the February 14 loss in Boston, after which he was openly critical of the team’s direction. That was six days after the deadline passed. Also, the Rockets willingness to return the Nets firsts in 2025 and 2016 may have played a role.

“It’s just a matter of opportunity,” the source told The Post. “When we see that our team last year performed below expectations — and it’s something that everybody was just disappointed in — then we asked ourselves can we add pieces that will make us much better? The answer was, well, it’ll just depend on what happens, who’s available.”

The Nets, now armed with 16 first round picks and a swap, are happy with the result, in large part because of the historic nature of the 2025 Draft. The Nets now have four firsts and their own second, acquired in the Knicks trade as well as the Miami pick, protected 31-37.

“If you look at our ability to reload our assets, particularly in the draft year of 2025, we have one pick that’s our own that could be very. very good,” said the source. “We’ve got three more first-round picks that probably will be in the 20s but it’s a very deep draft. Plus, we have our own second-round pick. That’s a class we can get very excited about.”