Do the Knicks have a Mikal Bridges dilemma this offseason?

New York Times

2 days ago

Despite just making the Eastern Conference finals, the New York Knicks have a few things that need to be ironed out this offseason.
First and foremost, New York's season was a success, even if the stench of losing to the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 still hasn't diminished. The Knicks had the most regular-season wins in over a decade. They dethroned the defending NBA champions. They reached the conference's pinnacle for the first time in a quarter-century. That's a success, no matter how anyone wants to spin it. Led by head coach Tom Thibodeau and star Jalen Brunson, the franchise has continuously reached new heights over the past few years.
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However, the Knicks' decision-makers also have to acknowledge that the starting lineup they invested so many resources in simply did not work. By any advanced metric, the lineup of Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns got worse as the regular season went on and didn't succeed as a collective in the playoffs. The suits have to decide why that was the case. They get paid to evaluate and make those decisions.
Bridges' future is the most fascinating of that group. The 28-year-old was traded to the Knicks from the Brooklyn Nets last summer for five first-round picks, a hefty price tag for a player who never made an All-Star Game. But on paper, Bridges was the perfect archetype to help New York get to the next level. Ultimately, he helped in doing that. He made some big defensive plays and hit some big shots throughout the playoffs. Yet, his season in totality was underwhelming considering what the Knicks gave up to get him.
MIKAL BRIDGES WAS ON A MISSION IN THE 4TH 😤
All 14 points of his points… and the game-sealing steal (again)!
New York leads series 2-0 🗽 pic.twitter.com/FivkQGtQco
— NBA (@NBA) May 8, 2025
New York hoped Bridges would be a great defender, but he was only OK-to-good for most of the season, with some great and bad sprinkled in at points. New York needed Bridges to be a knockdown 3-point shooter. His 35 percent clip from 3-point distance was the lowest mark since his rookie season. In the regular season, Bridges struggled to make 3s that were anywhere but in the corners, making just 30 percent of his above-the-break 3s. In the playoffs, that flipped, as he shot 36 percent on above-the-break 3s but made only 32 percent of his corner 3s.
Now, the franchise has to decide if it should give Bridges the four-year, $156 million extension he's eligible for this summer. He's under contract for one more year at $24.9 million.
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The thing working for Bridges is that the organization invested so much to get him. The five first-round picks New York gave up are less about who it might miss out on with the 28th pick in the 2027 NBA Draft and more about the assets being gone to make it easier to trade for another star player. It would be a bad look for the franchise if, after a year, it decided Bridges wasn't worth an extension of some sort or wasn't able to trade him for something of significance. Surely, if the Knicks decided to move on from Bridges this summer, they wouldn't recoup anything close to what they gave up to get him as it pertains to draft capital.
Also worth noting is that Bridges had just one underwhelming season in a new market. It's not like this has been a year-after-year thing. It's quite possible the organization will chalk up the Bridges experience to him trying to get adjusted to a new environment. We've seen Bridges play well for Brooklyn and the Phoenix Suns. The player in both places is a perfect fit for the Knicks.
New York's decision-makers, led by Leon Rose, have shown a willingness to move on from a player if the sides can't reach an agreement on what a contract should look like. They did it with Immanuel Quickley, Julius Randle and Obi Toppin. Maybe the Knicks no longer see Bridges as a player worth $39 million per year over the next four seasons, even with the salary cap continuously rising. It's also reasonable for Bridges to view his value as higher than what New York can offer, and perhaps he would rather test the open market as a free agent this time next year. He could see himself as the shooting-guard version of Anunoby, who signed a five-year, $212 million deal last year. Their counting stats are similar. And, lastly, maybe Bridges doesn't want to take anything less than $156 million to be a Knick.
That brings me to my next question: What if Bridges doesn't want to be in New York?
Bridges, the only core player not represented by CAA, was under the microscope more than ever this season. He was often a source of frustration for fans, in large part due to his inconsistent play and the picks given up to get him.
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Bridges' claim to fame is that he never missed a game in his NBA career. He's always been available. This season, the Knicks asked him to be their primary point-of-attack defender. He was at the forefront of pick-and-roll coverage as much as any player in recent league history and was continuously asked to fight through screens. Bridges made it through, not getting injured, but does that role interest him? Bridges publicly spoke out about playing too many minutes in March, and even if it was more of a plea to get his bench teammates some more tick, Thibodeau-coached players don't tend to do that.
Furthermore, Bridges split the duties with Anunoby as the third option in the Knicks offense and often faced the same scrutiny as a star player, which, again, was rooted in what the Knicks gave up to get him. It's not a stretch to assume someone might not view that as a favorable position to be in.
As much as New York has to decide how it views Bridges and the fit of this core group, Bridges has to decide how he views the Knicks experience and his role, too.