Mikal Bridges On Fourth-Quarter Benching: I Got To Play Better

[RealGM Wiretap]

New York Knicks wing Mikal Bridges is one of the NBA's true ironmen, often leading the league in games and minutes played. That's why it was strange to see Bridges on the bench for most of the fourth quarter in a back-and-forth Knicks victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday afternoon.

New York coach Tom Thibodeau went with Miles McBride for most of the quarter because he felt the Knicks were "stuck in the mud" on offense. Thibodeau also referenced McBride being "fresher" and that the Knicks sixth man was "making shots".

For his part, Bridges agreed that his coach "made the right decision". Bridges put it on himself to make sure he's on the floor during crunch time.

"I got to play better. I’ve been inconsistent," Bridges said. "I’ve had some games where I’ve played good, some I haven’t. Just got to find a rhythm within the team. That’s pretty much it. Not even 20 games in, still just trying to figure it out."

Via Stefan Bondy/New York Post

[spree2kawhi]

Fair.

[BKNETS13]

Bridges is a really nice guy, but he’s no where as good as people think he is. His defense is sooooo overrated and McBride is flat out better than he is. What the Knicks gave up for him was insane and they were truly robbed by the Nets. They will have buyers remorse before long.

[Rek]

Bridges is a really nice guy, but he’s no where as good as people think he is. His defense is sooooo overrated and McBride is flat out better than he is. What the Knicks gave up for him was insane and they were truly robbed by the Nets. They will have buyers remorse before long.

They weren't robbed, just dumb AF and overly obsessed with reuniting the Villanova boys. He was never worth anything close to what was being discussed, and they decided to pursue him anyway, knowing full well how much was being asked.

They could have kept Hark and still have all of those picks. It is just outright terrible FO decision-making which is a bit confusing given all of the good moves they've made leading up to this. It only made sense to go all in for Bridges if they didn't already have Hart and OG. Even under those circumstances, it's just a massive overpay mostly because Minnesota set an insane bar with the Rudy trade. Anything beyond 2 FRPs for Bridges is just wasteful IMO.

[Moose]

Bridges is a really nice guy, but he’s no where as good as people think he is. His defense is sooooo overrated and McBride is flat out better than he is. What the Knicks gave up for him was insane and they were truly robbed by the Nets. They will have buyers remorse before long.

Most of those picks are likely going to be meh. And they gave up no quality players in the deal, which is key. Not even a young player like McBride. Plus, the Knicks were able to work around the Apron issues when the Nets agreed to take on some salary, which likely cost the Knicks another first round pick to get done.

There's a lot that likely went into it.

I think the bigger issue for the Knicks is that they may have one more move in them with Dadiet and the Washington pick. So it will be tough to improve, but maybe they can find another rim protecting big to push KAT to the 4 defensively, where he belongs.

In saying all that, due to Apron rules, the time was now to make a move for a quality player. By next season, it would only get tougher.

[Governor Dudley]

Bridges is a really nice guy, but he’s no where as good as people think he is. His defense is sooooo overrated and McBride is flat out better than he is. What the Knicks gave up for him was insane and they were truly robbed by the Nets. They will have buyers remorse before long.

They weren't robbed, just dumb AF and overly obsessed with reuniting the Villanova boys. He was never worth anything close to what was being discussed, and they decided to pursue him anyway, knowing full well how much was being asked.

They could have kept Hark and still have all of those picks. It is just outright terrible FO decision-making which is a bit confusing given all of the good moves they've made leading up to this. It only made sense to go all in for Bridges if they didn't already have Hart and OG. Even under those circumstances, it's just a massive overpay mostly because Minnesota set an insane bar with the Rudy trade. Anything beyond 2 FRPs for Bridges is just wasteful IMO.

Knicks had no way of keeping Hark(i assume you mean Hartenstein).

[Rek]

Bridges is a really nice guy, but he’s no where as good as people think he is. His defense is sooooo overrated and McBride is flat out better than he is. What the Knicks gave up for him was insane and they were truly robbed by the Nets. They will have buyers remorse before long.

They weren't robbed, just dumb AF and overly obsessed with reuniting the Villanova boys. He was never worth anything close to what was being discussed, and they decided to pursue him anyway, knowing full well how much was being asked.

They could have kept Hark and still have all of those picks. It is just outright terrible FO decision-making which is a bit confusing given all of the good moves they've made leading up to this. It only made sense to go all in for Bridges if they didn't already have Hart and OG. Even under those circumstances, it's just a massive overpay mostly because Minnesota set an insane bar with the Rudy trade. Anything beyond 2 FRPs for Bridges is just wasteful IMO.

Knicks had no way of keeping Hark(i assume you mean Hartenstein).

Yes and I didn't realize that. My bad!

Regardless, they could have pursued another option that didn't waste all of those picks.

[beefymajesto]

Bridges is a really nice guy, but he’s no where as good as people think he is. His defense is sooooo overrated and McBride is flat out better than he is. What the Knicks gave up for him was insane and they were truly robbed by the Nets. They will have buyers remorse before long.

They weren't robbed, just dumb AF and overly obsessed with reuniting the Villanova boys. He was never worth anything close to what was being discussed, and they decided to pursue him anyway, knowing full well how much was being asked.

They could have kept Hark and still have all of those picks. It is just outright terrible FO decision-making which is a bit confusing given all of the good moves they've made leading up to this. It only made sense to go all in for Bridges if they didn't already have Hart and OG. Even under those circumstances, it's just a massive overpay mostly because Minnesota set an insane bar with the Rudy trade. Anything beyond 2 FRPs for Bridges is just wasteful IMO.

Wouldn't being dumb af play into how they got robbed? You kind of went on to explain how they were robbed..

[saltybs]

this is all too premature IMO. i've watched most of our games - IMO the only thing that he's not doing well enough is hitting the open catch/shoot 3. If he was shooting those at a higher percentage, none of this criticism would stick because he otherwise has shown he's got a "thing" that we didn't have before = secondary iso scoring threat from the wing.

in fairly sizable sample size, the team has done a good job identifying when Mikal has a weaker or smaller defender on him, then giving him the room to dominate that defender. against 2nd units in particular he's shown the ability to isolate a defender 1 on 1 and rise up over them on that fade jumper he does so well, often times near the baseline. this is a level of 1 on 1 scoring that Donte couldn't provide - he was most damaging as a complimentary piece, not an iso player.

my point is that they're still figuring out how to maximize what he brings. when he's out there with the 4 other starters, his thing looks a bit like a "luxury" and not a "need" when he isn't connecting on enough spot-up 3s. but then there are points of the game where he looks like the player we were missing, scoring in bursts against sub-par defenders - often times when Brunson is on the bench. my feeling is this will become a bigger thing as time goes on, and the shooting issues with the starting 5 will ease over time. we'll be left with a guy averaging 18+pts a game on high percentages, for a top 3 seed... and we'll be saying "what was the big deal a few months ago? i forget what the problem was."