Knicks’ Jalen Brunson discusses Mikal Bridges acquisition, goals for 2024 season

The Knicks were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs for the second straight season.

In an effort to help push them over that hump this year, New York acquired another superstar talent in the form of Mikal Bridges in a blockbuster deal with the crosstown rival Nets over the offseason.

Bridges now joins three of his former college teammates on the other side of town as he helps make up the “Nova Knicks,” and he’ll look to help take them to another level in search of the franchise’s third title.

Newly appointed Knicks captain Jalen Brunson told reporters during his ceremonial press conference on Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden that he thinks the All-Star forward is going to be a nice piece for the boys in orange and blue.

“It was really cool to get another one of our old teammates back,” he said. “Just a guy who gets in the gym, works as hard as he can, and just tries to provide as much as he can for his team. That’s the type of guys we want on this team.

“He’s a dude who fits the identity of this team. We work hard, try our best not to complain and we just want to win, that’s pretty much all of our guys and he just adds to that.”

As we saw so often last season, the connection that this team had helped take their game to another level, and Brunson thinks that’ll only expand even more with a player like Bridges in the mix.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun, I’m excited,” he said. “The chemistry, the character, the guys we’re going to have it’s going to make this team a lot better because of how close we’re going to be so I’m excited.”

And while he enjoyed the run down the stretch last year, the superstar point guard is nowhere near satisfied with how things ended up for this Knicks club, and he has one goal in mind heading into this season.

“It was a fun season, obviously I wish we would’ve done more in the end, but it was a fun season,” he said. “I’m just focused on what we can do to be better, what we can do to get past the second round, that’s our goal.”