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The Brooklyn Nets are moving on to a full-scale rebuild of their franchise now that they have an eye towards the future with their young players and cache of draft picks. While Brooklyn once had a vision of their future with Mikal Bridges in it, the franchise eventually traded him to the New York Knicks, ending a tenure that he admits he could have handled better.
“I think could have been better, that’s what I think,” Bridges said during a recent appearance on “Podcast P” along with Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George, former NBA player Carmelo Anthony, actor Jackie Long, and Dallas Rutherford. Bridges and Anthony both made guest appearances on the show and some of what the cast talked about pertained to Bridges’ time with the Nets.
“But, it’s different. I was close to everybody, we was all pretty close,” Bridges explained. “We just couldn’t figure it out. I think that was the toughest situation and you want to lead and help other guys but, sometimes you got to look yourself in the mirror. It’s like, what can I do better to help?”
After the Nets traded Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant during the 2022-23 season, the Durant trade being the one that brought Bridges to Brooklyn, Bridges became one of the leaders of a Nets team still looking to still be competitive despite not having a superstar on the roster. Coming into the 2023-24 season, with many in the NBA space expecting an All-Star level season from him, Bridges’ numbers dropped across the board and it seemed that the joyfulness that he normally played with was fading away with each loss.
After spending the first 4.5 seasons of his NBA career playing with guys like Chris Paul and Devin Booker while being led by coaches like Monty Williams, Bridges was thrust into a leadership role that was unfamiliar to him up to that point. It sounds like he gave it his best shot, but it appears that he is looking forward to having less of a leadership responsibility with the Knicks next season.