With the Mikal Bridges trade, Knicks are all in, but now they have to prove it

For years, every decision the New York Knicks made was part of a grander plan.

They would trade a draft pick today for one tomorrow because they believed a future first-rounder held more value in a trade for a star. They would acquire middling, tradeable contracts, refuse to let go of their picks and obsess over maintaining flexibility for trades.

Knicks minutiae became its little sub-story.

If they acquired Bojan Bogdanović, it wasn’t just to help the current roster but also because a partially guaranteed salary in 2024-25 would be helpful in a mega-trade — as they’ve just proven. If they negotiated a big-time swap for OG Anunoby, talk would follow about their fight not to include a first-rounder, hoping to keep the powder dry for someone else.

Ever since team president Leon Rose took over the front office in 2020, this has been the plan. The Knicks didn’t just want a star. They knew how they would get him, too: In a trade.

Four years later, that trade has finally occurred.

The Knicks acquired former Brooklyn Nets wing Mikal Bridges late Tuesday evening in a deal that almost makes too much sense. Bridges is an ideal fit inside New York’s current core — and not just because he’s now the fourth member of the “Nova Knicks,” the quartet of Villanova alumni that will be all the rave.

Bridges is a knockdown spot-up shooter, can act as a secondary source of offense, can drain catch-and-shoot 3-pointers alongside Jalen Brunson and is a prime-aged, versatile wing who already has an NBA All-Defense appearance on his résumé.

The Knicks have pulled off their blockbuster. And that means, for the first time in more than four years, judging the success of a move requires new context.

Trading for Bridges, 27, is no longer about the overarching philosophy or the tiny details that come with it. The chase is done. The Knicks will send Brooklyn four unprotected first-round picks (2025, ’27, ’29 and ’31), the most they could legally give up in a deal, along with the Milwaukee Bucks’ protected 2025 first-rounder, a 2028 first-round swap, a second-rounder and, for salary purposes, Bogdanović.

The haul going to Brooklyn is huge. Even the famed package that landed the Minnesota Timberwolves four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert a couple of summers ago did not include this many unprotected first-rounders.

This is the Knicks’ all-in move, their way of shouting to the world they are ready to enter the NBA’s inner circle of title contenders. The days of the cute, upstart, super-hustlers are behind them. So like with the Gobert trade, deciding whether or not this one is a success will be less about the process and more about the results.

If this version of the Knicks never makes it past the second round of the playoffs, they could regret giving up so much of their future for a player who did not put them over the top. Bridges has never been an All-Star, though he’s morphed into a consistent 20-point scorer since landing in Brooklyn.

But if this goes the other way, if Bridges is the final piece to help the Knicks to their first championship since 1973, no number of draft picks could be too many.

Last summer, following Brunson’s first season in New York, the Knicks adjusted the long-term plan. They knew they wanted to trade for a star, but they had learned in 2022-23 that they already had their first one in Brunson. From then on, the strategy wasn’t to hand over their future for just any big name.

From that point, the Knicks asked themselves one essential question before acquiring any player of consequence: How does this guy mesh with Brunson?

If his presence would create problems elsewhere, New York wasn’t interested. For example, such was why they never entered the Damian Lillard sweepstakes last summer. Placing another offensive-minded point guard alongside Brunson would gape open defensive holes the Knicks wouldn’t have been able to fill against elite teams deep in the playoffs.

But if one of their targets jived with or even enhanced Brunson, the Knicks were all in.

They decided, given Brunson’s archetype, that a bunch of heady, skilled, stifling, 3-point shooting athletes would do. Of course, acquiring hoards of those is easier said than done.

They began to lust after Anunoby long before acquiring him in December for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, waiting patiently for the price to drop to their standards. Bridges fits the same category as Anunoby does.

He averaged 19.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 44 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent 3-point accuracy with the Nets this past season, but there is reason to expect his efficiency to skyrocket as his responsibilities lessen. Defenders cannot leave him alone in the corner, just as they can’t stray from Anunoby or Donte DiVincenzo without paying a three-point price.

He’s another heady cutter, too, like an overeager golden retriever: Any time the back door is open, he will run through it.

He’s an ironman, joining a team that prides itself on its toughness. Bridges has never missed a game in his professional career.

He will slide into a starting lineup that is currently uncertain for next season. Both Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein are free agents. And, especially if this trade, which is not yet finalized, goes down as currently constructed, bringing back both of those guys is now less likely.

But the Knicks remain confident that they can re-sign Anunoby, according to a league source. If they do, he and Bridges would form one of the league’s most smothering defensive duos on the perimeter. Rank the NBA’s 3-and-D wings, and you won’t have to count long before naming both of those stoppers.

The league’s new collective bargaining agreement will make keeping great teams together more challenging. Once teams become too expensive, not only are the dollar amounts overwhelming. They also lose resources to make trades or sign free agents.

Financial flexibility is as important as ever.

Bridges is on a modest contract: $23.3 million in 2024-25 and $24.9 million in 2025-26.

On top of that, Brunson is still considering signing an extension this summer, according to a league source. If he were the sign it, he’d be agreeing to a contract that would pay him far less than a max would if waited until 2025 free agency to sign one.

Adding another of his Villanova besties to a group that already includes DiVincenzo and Josh Hart won’t hurt the Knicks’ case when they present Brunson with the offer on July 12, the first day he’s eligible to extend.

Just as the Knicks were due for Bridges, Bridges has been due for a move like this, one that lowers him on a team’s hierarchy but still props him up higher than where he was earlier in his career with the Phoenix Suns when he was purely an off-ball scorer.

The Knicks offer a middle ground. Brunson is the top dog, the man who finished this past season fourth in the NBA in scoring and sixth in MVP voting. Julius Randle is the two-time All-NBA bruiser. Then come the scorers by committee.

On one night, Bridges could get hot. On the next, it could be Anunoby or DiVincenzo.

The Knicks and Nets were intuitive trade partners. There was just one issue: Crosstown swaps were seemingly impossible.

Intra-city politics and fights for back pages presented obstacles for years. These two teams had not made a trade with each other since 1983. But this one had stared deep into the corneas of both sides since long before Tuesday.

The Nets are rebounding from a 50-loss season, and though they had previously shut down offers for Bridges, hoping to pair him with another star, dreams of trading for someone great enough to carry them back to relevance were fading. If the team wanted to enter full-rebuild mode, trading Bridges would be the way to start it.

Meanwhile, the Knicks could offer an enticing package: Lots of first-round picks and Bogdanović’s salary to match.

If the trade locks in as currently constructed (and it is not finalized yet), the Knicks would be hard-capped at the first apron because they would be receiving more salary than they send out in the deal. Adding money to Bogdanović’s could open up the Knicks’ financial flexibility, helping them part with more salary than they take in and thus allowing them to exceed the first apron, which projects to be $179 million in 2024-25.

Assuming the trade stays as is, the Knicks would be approximately $38 million below the hard cap, which would not provide enough room to sign both Anunoby and Hartenstein to their market values, though New York could attempt to dump salary elsewhere to create more space.

Yet, these are the bits of NBA minutiae that still matter but aren’t nearly as pressing as they have been in the recent past.

Whether or not the Knicks are hard capped, whether or not there are other moves to come, no matter how big or how small, the Knicks have made their all-in trade for a star. They opted for chemistry over star power, for fit over fame. Beating the defending champion Boston Celtics will take stockpiling wings. That’s what the Knicks are doing.

This is not a situation like the one in Phoenix, where the Suns traded for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, pushing all their chips into the middle to lock in an older roster. Phoenix has only a short window to win a title, given the age of their team.

Every member of the Knicks’ rotation is younger than 30. Randle, the grandpa of the group, is only 29.

The upcoming season is not title or bust. Yet, starting now, expectations have changed — not just from the outside but the inside, too. The Knicks make this trade only if they believe it vaults them into the NBA’s elite. Now, they have to prove it did.

(Photo of Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)