He is the missing piece, KNICKS needs to get him back in the Orange and Blue.

It will be tough, but the Knicks should try everything possible to get Mikal Bridges in the Orange and Blue.

The Knicks’ exciting and energizing season came to a disappointing conclusion a few weeks ago with a Game 7 home loss to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Despite the disappointing ending, they enjoyed an incredibly successful season that was eventually derailed by key injuries to Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby for stretches, and then ultimately, Jalen Brunson. Undoubtedly one of the most likable and successful Knicks teams of this generation won 50 games in the regular season and battled tooth and nail to the exact finish until they had nothing left to offer. Although the ‘Bockers fell short of the ultimate goal, there is now immense hope and excitement for the future, and looking back, plenty of memories that made us supporters tremendously proud to pull for them.

CLOUDED JUDGEMENT
The aforementioned wave of brutal injuries had a lot to do with why the Knicks couldn’t advance past the second round of the Playoffs and the burning question out there that we won’t get the answer to and only speculate on: Could the Knicks have won the Finals if fully healthy? While New York had an amazing season, their talent paled compared to the Celtics and Mavericks; those two teams will be vying for the ‘chip this year. So my answer to that question would be no.

A chunk of Knicks fans would disagree and would prefer to run it back with the same crew, but, there needs to be (correct) pieces added to the fold if they intend to usurp the likes of Boston and other Western powers and have a chance to bring home the Larry O’Brien trophy for the first time since 1973. The good news is the relationship is there, the coaching is there, and the grit defensively is there, but what is coming up a touch short is offensive juice and overall talent to bring them over the hump. One man who should be on everyone’s radar is Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges.

MANHATTAN BRIDGES
The soon-to-be 28-year-old Bridges is in the peak of his career, coming off of a strong season on a poor and directionless Nets club, which sorely needs a reset to come back into the frame of relevance. Bridges, who is under contract through the ’25-’26 season is a prime candidate to be dealt out of Brooklyn, as he may bring a significant return back as the Nets attempt to rebuild. Bridges, at 6’6″ is an exceptional perimeter defender and three-point shooter, knocking down, 37.5% of his career shots from behind the arc, per ESPN Stats.

Frankly, he may be a terrific match for any NBA team but would suit extremely well with the Knicks who sorely need supplementary scoring. Bridges is not of the ilk to be regarded a number one option on a championship team but he is a man who can slot effortlessly into the Knicks and be a no. two or three in a role that would lift the Knicks into the upper echelon of teams in the NBA.

Much is made about selecting the ideal players while constructing a squad and assembling utilizing fit as a measure for whether to bring a guy in above general talent. We’ve seen teams being thrown together with a mish-mosh of amazing talent and no chemistry and they typically come up extremely short of expectations. Leon Rose has done a fantastic job of developing the Knicks and spent money and capital on players who operate well together. This past season’s Knicks team looked to all genuinely like each other and Bridges, due to the evident Villanova Connection and his overall adaptive attitude, would fit right in and to boot, can provide you 20-25 points each game.

If New York can bring in Mikal and resign OG Anunoby, you also have one of the top defensive backcourts in the NBA to go along with the offensive superstardom of Jalen Brunson, you might have yourself a championship-level perimeter brigade.

GETTING HIM HERE
The issue of Mikal going to the Knicks has some facets to it; one is he is under contract in Brooklyn, so you’d have to pay a large trade price tag to convince the Nets to pull the trigger. Secondly, we all know the Nets are the little brothers in town and aren’t willing to do the Knicks any favors so there’s a genuine possibility Brooklyn makes things difficult for the Knicks and tries to wring every asset out of them they possibly can.

If you can bring a guy of Bridges’ caliber in here, you move mountains to do so, and thankfully the Knicks have enough tradeable pieces and draft capital to make it work if the Nets are willing to engage. The asking price for Bridges would likely start at three first-round selections and a handful of solid players, with that, the Nets can begin their reconstruction with something concrete on their roster. Julius Randle’s name comes up a lot and he’d be the best the Knicks can offer, but would the Nets want to build around a 30-year-old forward, who is fantastic, but isn’t a top-level player in this league and has been bitten by the injury bug a bit the previous few seasons.

Brooklyn is in a bad place since they need to recoup draft money that they lost with their Harden, Kyrie, and Durant trades to begin their reconstruction; they will likely want some fundamental, proven assets for the future. This in turn, puts the Knicks at a disadvantage because the unwillingness of the Nets to make deal with the Knicks is already there and, if they can’t offer what the Nets want, there are plenty of other teams that can deliver NBA-level players on top of draft money in exchange for Mikal.

This gets us to the most likely scenario for a three-team trade if this does go down, so everyone can get what they want but getting to that point will be a long and tough journey ahead.