Mikal Bridges is so far having the best all-around season of his career. It’s time the New York Knicks gauged the boundaries of this breakout by…using him as a de facto backup point guard.
No, the idea isn’t to bring Bridges off the bench. That would be absurd. But with the Knicks in clear need of a primary backup playmaker, head coach Mike Brown should consider giving Bridges even more reps when Brunson is off the floor.
Right now, the 29-year-old wing is fourth in minutes played when the captain takes a seat. Plenty of variables are at play here. Bridges is important to insulating both Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns on defense during their time together. Staggering them too much could come at a cost at the less glamorous end.
KAT also holds the billing as New York’s No. 2 option. The expectation is that he will log plenty of solo-star minutes, in which case having OG Anunoby on the floor becomes paramount.
The Knicks nevertheless have an incentive to trot out more Bridges-plus-bench mobs.
Mikal Bridges is taking a playmaking leap
This wouldn’t be a discussion if not for Bridges’ noticeable improvement as a playmaker. He is bringing the ball up the floor more, getting more frontcourt touches, driving more often, and just generally ferrying extra initiation responsibilities. He’s arguably the biggest example of how much the Knicks are changing under Brown.
The results speak for themselves. Bridges is averaging 5.3 assists per game—second-most on the team, and by far the most of his career. His facilitation comes while running fewer pick-and-rolls than last season, another sign of how seamless his fit into Brown’s system has been. A lion’s share of his playmaking is coming out drives, and swings.
Among 75 players averaging more than eight drives per game, Bridges’ assist rate when going downhill (13.2) currently ranks eighth in the Association. His own scoring efficiency on those plays isn’t the best, but that’s in part because he’s so focused on deferring.
Everything from his shooting percentage on drives to even his already-high assist rate could actually climb in bench-heavy units that are more inclined to play faster.
This isn’t guaranteed to work, but the Knicks should try it
Siphoning part of Bridges’ minutes toward secondary lineups is not without risk. The Knicks can’t be sure it will work. They know he works when playing beside Brunson, and his off-ball gravity that opens up scoring and playmaking opportunities for pretty much everyone.
Still, the early returns on Bridges’ solo work are tantalizing. New York has an offensive rating of 133, with a point differential of plus-16 per 100 possessions, when he’s on the floor without Brunson or Kolek. There have even been a couple of interesting stretches in which he’s on the court sans Brunson, Kolek and Jordan Clarkson.
None of these samples are large enough to declare Bridges a point forward who can run the entire show for long pockets of time. The Knicks should still be skulking around the backup-playmaker market in advance of February’s trade deadline.
They should also, however, give Bridges even more opportunities to try his hand at steering the ship. Not only has he earned it, but his transformation this season is convincing enough that the experiment might actually work.