Is Mikal Bridges the glue to this Knicks team?

Believe it or not, a dude named Bridges may end up connecting all the different parts of the Knick whole

It’s been a busy offseason for your New York Knicks. Julius Randle, Isaiah Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo are all wearing different uniforms. Can you imagine telling a Knick fan in March of 2023 that the three of them as well as Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Quentin Grimes all belong to different franchises? Dead men tell no tales.

But the Knicks are on a mission. Led by Leon Rose, the front office is determined to bring a championship home to New York. It seems clear that they are beholden to little outside of that primary goal. So while once-beloved Knicks are gone, they’ve been replaced by Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns. The Knicks have cashed in their chips.

The roles for Towns and Anunoby are clear. Towns will work in unison with Jalen Brunson to – hopefully – create one of the league’s most devastating offensive attacks. With three of Josh Hart, Deuce McBride, Bridges or Anunoby lurking on the perimeter, Brunson and Towns will have maximum space to inflict damage on opposing defenses. As for Anunoby, Knicks fans should be well aware of how important he is on both ends of the floor. Last season New York was over 22 points per 100 possessions better when Anunoby played versus when he sat. He is their most important defensive player plus an elite shooter from both wings.

So where does that leave Bridges? The Knicks dealt a hefty package of draft capital for him, so you’d like to believe there’s a plan. But what, exactly? How can the Knicks get the BEST version of him? To me, it comes down to three areas.

Shooting

Yeah, this is obvious. It’s 2024. Shooting matters. It’s about time we all accepted this as a fact of modern NBA life.

But it’s not just shooting that will matter with Bridges, it’s the kind of shots he shoots. The best version of Bridges was the one we saw across four seasons in Phoenix, where he was assisted on at least 96.2% of his 3-pointers. With Chris Paul on the team, that number crept up to over 98% in back-to-back seasons. On the other hand, in two seasons in Brooklyn Bridges was assisted on 92.3% and 88.2% of his 3-pointers, just the 32nd percentile across the NBA.

The Knicks did not acquire Bridges to rely on him to self-create to that degree. The first step for Bridges to maximize his offensive impact on this team is for him to revert to shooting the majority of his 3-pointers off-the-catch.

Weaponizing his new skills

So we don’t want him to create? Ever?

Not exactly.

While Brooklyn’s acquisition of Bridges didn’t result in any team success, it did lead to an evolution in Bridges’ overall skill. Due to the nature of his expanded role, he nearly doubled his attempts from the midrange. Again, the huge difference lies in how Bridges took these shots: his looks from the midrange and at the rim were self-created at a much higher rate. Naturally, his efficiency dipped.

It’s reasonable to assume Bridges is better today in those areas than three years ago. Not all evolution is linear, but in this case there’s a fairly strong correlation. Bridges can use his newfound skills in these areas attacking close-outs off advantages created by Brunson or Town, as well as the bench unit Bridges seems poised to lead.

There is a world where his shot profile reverts to a similar version of what we saw in Phoenix, one where the evolution of his skills has sharpened the edges. This combination could lead to the most lethal version of Bridges yet.

Defense

With Bridges (hopefully) expending less energy creating offense, ideally he’ll have more to give defensively. A common misconception is that his defense fell off a cliff in Brooklyn due to the expansion of his offensive role. That’s not entirely true. Bridges remained an above-average defender in Brooklyn. But his overall defensive impact was not near the peak he showed in Phoenix.

Bridges will be asked to do a lot in New York. I mentioned how important Anunoby will be to this defense, and that’s true, but we saw last season that the Knicks are at their best against certain teams letting Anunoby roam rather than at the point of attack. Teams like the Cavaliers and 76ers, potential playoff opponents, have smaller lead guards in Darius Garland and Tyrese Maxey the Knicks would prefer to keep Anunoby off of. This is where Bridges will be called upon. But it doesn’t end there.

We’ve seen in the preseason the value of Bridges, Anunoby and Hart switching against wings. Bridges will need to be in rhythm with those two. Off the ball, Bridges has to try and approximate what Anunoby brings off it, especially when OG is on the primary wing. Bridges has shown flashes of being a solid rim protector on the wing; the Knicks will need him to emphasize that after replacing Hartenstein with Towns.

Bridges isn’t going to be the player he was in Brooklyn. And while there will be an attempt to replicate his role in Phoenix, he won’t be that player either. The goal is to combine these two players and become the best version of Bridges the NBA has ever seen. If the Knicks get that, their starting lineup will be a contender for best in the league — and Bridges will find himself in All-Star conversations.