Three weeks have passed since New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges became eligible to sign a four-year, $156.2 million extension. Yet nothing has been signed.
The holdup, according to SNY’s Ian Begley, is Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s situation in Milwaukee.
“Until the Giannis stuff is fully settled — and I don’t think it’s fully settled yet — teams continue to plan with that in the back of their minds,” Begley said on The Putback on July 15. “When [Bridges] does extend, I think that would tell you Giannis is put to bed.”
But the Bucks are fully confident that Antetokounmpo will not demand a trade after they creatively turned an injured Damian Lillard into Myles Turner.
They stunningly waived Lillard and stretched the remaining $113 million on his contract, which will hit their cap room with $22.5 million in dead money for each of the next five seasons, to be able to sign Turner to a four-year, $108.9 million deal.
An anonymous Knicks executive finally broke their silence on Bridges’ situation.
“We hope to get something done,” a Knicks front office executive told Keith Smith of Spotrac. “When you make the commitment to trade for a player like we did with Mikal, you do it with the intention of them being on the team for a long time.
The Knicks notoriously traded for Bridges last offseason for five first-round picks, four of which are unprotected, and a pick swap.
Mikal Bridges’ Uneven First Season
The 28-year-old Bridges had a roller-coaster first season with the Knicks. He averaged 17.6 points on 50% shooting wth 3.7 assists, 3.2 rebounds and nearly a steal across all 82 games in the regular season. But he struggled with consistency and stirred the pot when he and former Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau had different views on playing time.
“Sometimes it’s not fun on the body,” Bridges told reporters in March. “But you want that as a coach, and also talked to him a little bit knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in and we don’t need to play 48 [minutes], 47.
“We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there.”
Thibodeau denied they had a conversation, which showed cracks in the Knicks locker room that eventually contributed to the veteran coach’s firing at the end of the franchise’s most successful season in a quarter century.
With Thibodeau gone, there will be more pressure on Bridges to deliver next season under new coach Mike Brown.
Knicks Address Lack of Bench Depth
After Thibodeau’s reluctance to play their bench, the team had the least productive second unit in the NBA last season.
The Knicks tried to address that by signing former Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson and French big man Guerschon Yabusele.
Josh Hart welcomed their addition, especially Clarkson, who was his teammate with the Los Angeles Lakers during his rookie year.
“I was excited, “ Hart said of Brown on “The Roommates Show” on July 17. I mean, great dude, gonna fit right into the culture that we have, obviously, something that can create his own shot.
“[Clarkson] can break down the defense, and we needed at times, you know, last year. So it would be a great addition in terms of role. And also as a locker room guy.”
Clarkson signed for the veteran minimum after reaching a buyout with the Utah Jazz. The 32-year-old Filipino-American guard averaged 16.2 points and 3.7 assists off the bench for the Jazz last season. He also shot 36.2% from the 3-point line.
Knicks Exec Breaks Silence on Mikal Bridges’ Contract Situation