Getty Mikal Bridges #1 of the Brooklyn Nets.
The Brooklyn Nets shocked the NBA world when they traded All-NBA forward Kevin Durant in the waning hours of the February deadline. But in trading Durant to the Suns, the Nets acquired a gem in starting guard Mikal Bridges.
Bridges was just a role player in Phoenix, playing third option to Chris Paul and Devin Booker, but he has played at an All-Star level since his arrival in Brooklyn. In 25 games, he is averaging 27.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists and has the Nets just one win away from securing the sixth seed in the NBA playoffs. Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report says Bridges’ emergence will have a significant impact on future trades between teams, causing them to reevaluate the true value of their role players.
“The rapid expansion of Mikal Bridges’ game is going to cause executives around the league to look anew at the high-end role players on their rosters. They’ll wonder whether those players have more (much more!) to offer if given the chance to take on greater offensive responsibility,” Hughes writes. “Chances are, most such supporting pieces will fall short of what Bridges achieved this season.”
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Mikal Bridges’ Efficiency Has Improved
It is not just Bridges’ numbers that have been impressive since the Suns traded him. His efficiency has been off the charts as well. Since his Nets’ debut in February, Bridges is shooting a scorching 39.6% from the three-point line and 48.4% from the field, both improvements from his numbers in Phoenix this season.
He has become as reliable a player as the Nets could ask for. Not only in his elevated play but also in his availability. He has played in every single game since being traded. In fact, Bridges has not missed a game in his NBA career. Hughes says he has been an “entirely different player” since arriving.
“Though he’d made incremental strides as an on-ball option prior to the deadline deal that sent him to the Brooklyn Nets, Bridges essentially turned into an entirely different player on his new team,” Hughes adds.
“His usage rate spiked 10 percentage points, and his true shooting percentage went from 57.4 with the Suns to 63.5 in his first 20 games with the Nets. That’s not how the volume-efficiency dynamic typically works, but Bridges managed to add loads of field goals and free throws without sacrificing efficiency.”
Mikal Bridges Has Suffered a Dropoff Defensively
But as impressive as Bridges has been during his Nets tenure, the NBA is still a game of give and take. And with his recent uptick in scoring, Bridges has had to sacrifice some of his dominance on the defensive end as his steals and blocks per game average has dropped.
But even with him suffering a slight dip on defense, Hughes says that what Bridges offers offensively now more than makes up for it.
“Defensively, Bridges hasn’t been as dominant as he was in Phoenix when his offensive role was so much less taxing,” Hughes said of Bridges.
“The Nets will take the tradeoff because now they have a top-flight two-way wing averaging over 27.0 points per game while flirting with a 50/40/90 shooing split—a player so good they reportedly turned down offers of four first-round picks for him.”