Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, the Utah Jazz were hoping to trade for Mikal Bridges before the Brooklyn Nets traded him to the Knicks.
The Brooklyn Nets made their decision to enter a full-scale rebuild by trading Mikal Bridges to their inner-city rival in the New York Knicks for a host of draft picks. However, before the Knicks were able to get their hands on Bridges, there was another team trying to trade for him.
According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, the Utah Jazz attempted to trade for Bridges this week in order to surround star forward Lauri Markkanen with the necessary co-stars to make themselves a better team. It looks like Utah was hoping to add someone like Bridges so that the Jazz could be an interesting team for Paul George to go to in free-agency.
“The Utah Jazz have all the cap space, veteran salaries and exorbitant draft capital to add the type of co-stars — such as Mikal Bridges, once upon a time, whom the team attempted to land this week, sources said, before New York splurged six years of first-round draft assets for the Villanova product — to round out a roster that already features All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen,” Fischer wrote.
As Nets fans know, Brooklyn traded Bridges to the Knicks in exchange for forward Bojan Bogdanovic, who could be traded again at some point, and as many as five first-round picks if the Milwaukee Bucks are still a good team next season (top-4 protected). Fischer reported on last week that the Jazz were one of the teams monitoring Bridges’ trade status, along with New York and the Houston Rockets.
Utah has 15 first-round picks between 2025 and 2031 so they have plenty of draft capital to work with after they traded away Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell with the past few years. Most of the extra first-round picks are from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively, so it looks like Brooklyn may have had its pick of draft picks to own in exchange for Bridges and they chose the Knicks’ draft stash.
Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, the Brooklyn Nets were always aware of Mikal Bridges’ desire to join the New York Knicks.
The Brooklyn Nets finally made the move to send them into a full rebuild by trading wing Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks late on Tuesday night. While there had been plenty of reporting suggesting that Brooklyn wanted to hold on to Bridges, they may have just been delaying the inevitable.
Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports wrote on Wednesday that the Nets were always aware of Bridges’ interest in joining the Knicks, something that Nets fans do not want to hear after watching him play for their franchise for the past 1.5 seasons. There was already a significant amount of the fanbase who believed that Bridges wanted to be with his former Villanova teammates anyway.
“The Knicks, sources said, upped the ante Tuesday with a significant offer that Brooklyn simply could not refuse, marking the first time these two neighboring franchises have struck a deal since 1983,” Fischer wrote.
To recap, the Nets traded Bridges along with a 2026 second-round pick in exchange for forward Bojan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031), one top-four protected 2025 first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected pick swap in 2028, and a second-round pick in 2025.
One of the main talking points within the Nets community was if Bridges would be more valuable as a trade piece for Brooklyn as opposed to staying on the roster in the event that the Nets were able to bring in a star somehow. Based on various reports, Brooklyn did what it could to hold on to Bridges, but with the offer that the Knicks made, the Nets can start over with arguably the best stable of draft capital in the NBA.
Gooood morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.
It’s barely been a week since the Celtics won a title and teams around the NBA are already reshuffling the decks. The Knicks are the deckmasters right now.
New York offered up a king’s ransom to the Nets for Mikal Bridges, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Now, he’s changing boroughs.
The Knicks are reportedly trading five first-round picks, including four unprotected first-rounders (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031), a protected 2025 first-round pick from the Bucks, a 2028 unprotected pick swap and a 2025 second-round pick for Bridges.
We just watched the NBA’s first case of live, successful tampering with Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson coaxing their former college teammate to New York. Bridges reportedly requested a trade to the Knicks and the Nets acquiesced. They’re all richer in draft picks today. Because of this deal, Brooklyn now has 16 first-round picks through 2031.
Not only is that an offer no one else could beat, but I’m not sure how many teams were willing to put up an offer like this one for Bridges.
We’re talking about a slew of first-round picks for a guy who has never made an All-Star or an All-NBA team. That’s kind of unprecedented. Even Dejounte Murray was an All-Star when the Hawks traded half of what the Knicks traded for him.
But it doesn’t matter. If the Knicks feel like they’re that close to title contention and believe Bridges can get them over the hump, then you make this trade 10 times out of 10.
What matters is New York got its guy. The team is loving it. And, if the team can keep OG Anunoby, the Knicks emerge as a legitimate threat to the Celtics’ mantle at the top of the Eastern Conference. That’s the priority.
Say what you want about the price, but the Nova Knicks are here. And, boy, does it feel like this is going to be fun.
Don’t take the Lynx lightly
Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Lynx always feel like a forgotten team when talking about contenders in the WNBA this season.
It’s always about what the Liberty are doing. Everyone is waiting for the Las Vegas Aces to step things up. The Connecticut Sun have a great record but continue to struggle against good teams.
But the Lynx are just chugging right along and look every bit as good — maybe even better! — than all the teams mentioned above.
Minnesota won the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup on Tuesday with a win over the Liberty.
This win technically doesn’t count for Minnesota’s overall record on the season since it’s the Commissioner’s Cup championship, but the Lynx have won seven straight games dating back to June 9. That includes wins over the Seattle Storm, the Aces, the Phoenix Mercury and, now, the Liberty.
This is still a long season — we’re not even halfway through. But I’m telling you now, Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx will be a force come playoff time. Just wait on it.
Messi, are you OK?
Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel-USA TODAY Sports
Argentina won its Copa América matchup against Chile on Tuesday for its second group-stage win. But in the long-term, it might have suffered an even bigger loss.
Lionel Messi seemed to have somehow injured his groin/adductor area during the match. He spoke about it after the game to reporters, saying “I didn’t feel a puncture or a tear, but I did find it difficult to move freely.”
Though he finished the match, hearing him talk like that after it is mildly concerning.
With the win, though, Argentina has an out to rest Messi if needed for their next game against Peru on Saturday. Here’s USA Today’s Safid Deen with more:
“Argentina’s win was great for them. They have six points after two matches in Group A, and clinched a trip to the quarterfinals. With Canada in second with three points, and Chile and Peru at the bottom of the group with one point apiece, Argentina can be conservative. They can use the Peru match to give players like Messi some rest for the stretch run, and others an opportunity to play.”
We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully, this is just a scare and nothing more.
Quick hits: OH! That’s right. The NBA Draft is tonight … Jay Wright is thrilled … and more
But then there’s also some chatter: what if the Knicks could somehow hire former Villanova coach Jay Wright to complete the recreation of a title-winning team?
Obviously, it’s not happening as the assumption is that they’ll hand Tom Thibodeau the bag he deserves to coach this contender. But here’s something delightful: Wright posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday morning to address the trade and he talked about how it’s “blessed” that they’re together again, which is wonderful.
That included a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo that we can only assume is joking, with just three words aimed at Brunson and Hart: “Y’all was tampering!”
Indeed, Bridges will join his old Nova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo with the New York Knicks, which instantly makes them one of the most enjoyable and dangerous NBA teams going into next season.
Soon after the news broke on Tuesday night, all four of the former Villanova teammates got on a group call right to discuss their reunion.
Hart shared an absolutely delightful image on Twitter (X) of the four friends all celebrating their reunion, with Bridges the final piece of the puzzle to put all of these old pals back together again.
Per Ian Begley of SNY, Mikal Bridges informed the Brooklyn Nets earlier this week of his intention to be a part of the New York Knicks.
The Brooklyn Nets had been of the idea that they were going to have a soft rebuild with Mikal Bridges being the player that they paired with a star that came to Brooklyn. However, as more reporting comes out surrounding the trade of Bridges to the New York Knicks, it looks like he’s the one who wanted out.
Per Ian Begley of SNY on Tuesday, Bridges informed the Nets earlier this week that he wanted to be a part of the New York Knicks at some point. The Knicks were recently reported by Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports to be one of the teams inquiring about Bridges as we approached the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft that begins on Wednesday.
Begley reported further that the deal between Brooklyn and New York came together quickly after Bridges told the Nets of his intentions to be with the Knicks one way or another. “Bridges was prepared to sign with NYK and his side was prepared to use that leverage to keep other teams from trading for him, per SNY sources,” Begley wrote on X.
The story goes even deeper as Begley wrote that Bridges and his representation was willing to make things harder for the Nets to trade him anywhere but the Knicks as he was trying to get his way.
With all of that being said, the Nets received quite the haul for Bridges as they got forward Bojan Bogdanovic, five first-round picks, a pick swap, and a second-round pick for someone that acquired less than two years ago in a package for Kevin Durant.
With all of the questions surrounding the Nets in terms of the management structure after James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant all requested trades within one year of each other, this will only increase the chatter about players wanting to play for Brooklyn.
This is something that I wasn't expecting to see. It looks like after everything that happened this past season, Mikal Bridges reportedly told the Nets that he wanted to be with the Knicks. There was a lot of speculation about this on Nets Twitter and those people were right. https://t.co/dHU1pgyHmm
— Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) June 26, 2024
The Mikal Bridges deal came together quickly after Bridges informed the Nets that he wanted to be a Knick. Bridges was prepared to sign with NYK and his side was prepared to use that leverage to keep other teams from trading for him, per SNY sources.
Nets surely didn’t want to trade Mikal Bridges to NYK but Bridges’ side was prepared to force the issue by telling teams he wanted to be w/NYK, per SNY sources. Bridges’ side made it clear to BKN that he wanted to be w/NYK, reunite w/Villanova teammates Brunson, Hart, DiVincenzo
Bridges and his reunited Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart shared their excitement on Twitter (X) as soon as the trade news broke, as the three all played college basketball together at Nova.
The three, along with fellow Villanova/Knicks teammate Donte DiVincenzo, will now get a chance to push for an NBA title in the Big Apple, and we bet all four of the NBA standouts will relish the chance to play with each other once again.
You can tell by these reactions how excited all of these guys are to reunite.
The Bridges trade reunites Bridges with his Villanova teammates, guards Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, giving New York a formidable quartet to help push for a title.
The Nets, however, received a king’s ransom of picks to help rebuild Brooklyn after its super team hopes crashed and burned a couple of years ago.
This really might be the rare trade where both sides are huge winners, so let’s break down how this trade went and why it’s truly beneficial to both sides.
BREAKING: The Brooklyn Nets have agreed in principle on a trade to send F Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks for Bojan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick via Bucks, an unprotected pick swap and a second-rounder, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/TEGsIpoa3b
The Nets get: 4 unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected pick swap, a second-round pick and forward Bojan Bogdanović
Jeremy Reper/USA TODAY Sports
New York Knicks
Let’s not waste any time saying what an absolute slam dunk this is for New York. The Knicks got close to making the 2024 NBA Finals this past season, and Bridges rejoining his old Nova buddies gives New York the elite defensive push to help potentially keep a team like the Boston Celtics in check come playoff time. Bridges will join the Knicks with an established chemistry with its stars, and the team will be one of the most purely enjoyable rosters in the NBA to watch play this fall. For a team trying to bring a championship back to the Big Apple, this is the kind of aggressive move you make to get there. This is just a gigantic win for the Knicks.
Trade grade: A
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
Brooklyn Nets
Unlike their crosstown compatriots, the Nets are nowhere near contending shape right now, which made sending Bridges out for an absolute haul so enticing. With Bogdanović a likely reroute candidate, Brooklyn can rest easy knowing it got so many first-round picks back from New York to build for the future. Plus, this makes the Kevin Durant trade all the more successful for the Nets, as Bridges was the centerpiece to make that transaction work. The Nets might not be very good next year, but they’ll have a chance to bottom out for a much better 2025 NBA Draft class. With Bridges traded, the rebuild really can begin in Brooklyn.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Brooklyn Nets are trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for five first-round picks.
The Brooklyn Nets and Mikal Bridges were viewed as a pairing that would go on for years until the franchise found the star to pair with Bridges. However, after plenty of reporting of Brooklyn not being willing to trade Bridges away for any offer, it looks like they were just driving up the price for their most valuable player.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN on Tuesday, the Nets agreed in principle to send Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for forward Bojan Bogdanovic, five first-round picks, an unprotected pick swap and a second-round pick. Four of the five first-round picks are unprotected while the first-round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks is protected.
“The Knicks are sending four unprotected picks (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031) a 2025 protected Milwaukee first, a 2028 unprotected pick swap and a 2025 second-round pick for Mikal Bridges and a 2026 second-round pick,” Wojnarowski wrote on X.
While there had been some rumors of the Knicks being one of the teams periodically checking in with Bridges, it looks like they were doing more than just checking in.
This trade signals that the Nets are entering a full rebuild as Bridges was their best player, but seemed to be someone that was valuable to the team as a trade piece as opposed to having on the team for the time that Brooklyn was ready to win again.
It should be noted that while Aran Smith of NBADraft.net reported that the Nets could be one of the teams going after one of the Knicks’ two first-round picks they have in the upcoming NBA Draft, they did not acquire any capital in this Draft as of yet.
Well, it looks like the Nets got the haul they wanted for Mikal Bridges. Despite the fact that the Nets were adamant about not trading Bridges away, it looks like Brooklyn finally gave it and sent Bridges to reunite with his Villanova teammates. This starts the full rebuild. https://t.co/iIpqpp6HA9
— Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) June 26, 2024
The Knicks pay a steep price to land one of the league’s most coveted trade assets and the Nets get a massive haul to replenish assets and embark on a rebuild with mass cap space and future draft picks.
The Knicks are sending four unprotected picks (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031) a 2025 protected Milwaukee first, a 2028 unprotected pick swap and a 2025 second-round pick for Mikal Bridges and a 2026 second-round pick, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/E4pTq3wCMP
