Mikal Bridges joins 3 former Villanova teammates, including Jalen Brunson, after being traded to the New York Knicks.
Mikal Bridges is crossing the East River and joining three of his former Villanova teammates with the New York Knicks, who traded five first-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets for the 27-year-old forward.
The Knicks, one win short of the Eastern Conference Finals last month, are going all-in. The Nets, meanwhile, take another step back.
Here are some numbers to know about Bridges as he moves from Brooklyn to Manhattan:
1. Mr. Reliable is well-travelled
1. Bridges hasn’t missed a game since entering the league six years ago, even playing in 83 games in 2022-23 when he was traded from Phoenix to Brooklyn.
2. His 15,479 regular season minutes are the most by any player over the past six seasons.
3. Ranked second in total yards (211.7) last season, having led the league the previous two seasons.
2. Numbers down in second season in Brooklyn
4. After being traded from Phoenix in Feb. 2023, Bridges shot 29.5% and averaged 26.1 points per game in 27 games with the Nets in ’22-23. Last season, he had a 23.8% usage rate and averaged just 19.6 points per game.
5. His 51.8% shooting in the paint was a career low.
6. His 40.8% from mid-range was down from 45.3% in ’22-23 and ranked 52nd among 81 players with at least 100 mid-range attempts.
7. His steals per 36 minutes (1.0), blocks per 36 minutes (0.4) and deflections per 36 minutes (1.6) were all career lows.
3. Big shots, corner 3d
8. Bridges ranked sixth in clutch scoring (scored five points in the final five minutes) last season.
9. Ranked fifth with six buckets (on 14 attempts) to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime.
10. Ranked fourth with 82 corner threes made in 2023-24, though down from 88 (second) last season. His percentage of 3-point attempts coming from the corner has dropped in each of the last three seasons, from 61% in 2020-21 to 35% in ’23-24.
4. Many more drives, a few more assists
11. Bridges’ 870 total carries and 11.4 carries per 36 minutes were both career highs by a wide margin.
12. He had an assist percentage of 15.9%, up from 10.3% in those 27 games with the Nets in 2022-2023, though he still ranked just 59th among 86 players with a usage percentage of 22% or higher.
13. Scored just 0.72 points per individual possession, according to Synergy tracking. That was the third-worst mark among 56 players with at least 100 isolated possessions.
5. I’m still defensive
14. Opponents shot 46.5% on shots Bridges defended, compared to an expected 47.0% on those shots. That difference (minus 0.5%) was the best mark of his career.
15. Bridges allowed 0.74 points per isolated possession, a mark that ranked eighth among 109 players who defended at least 50 isolated possessions, according to Synergy.
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John Schuhmann is a senior statistician for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him to X.
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