New York Knicks fans began to panic during the preseason when Mikal Bridges shot 2-for-19 from three. That panic carried over to the first half of the regular season when Bridges went scoreless against the Celtics. He picked it up in the second half, scoring 16 points.
There has been a lot of talk about Bridges' changed jump shot, which has looked more fluid since the first half in Boston. He didn't seem confident, either. Things quickly changed. Bridges scored 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field in New York's 123-98 win over Indiana on Friday. He added five assists, one rebound, and one steal.
NBA fans clowned the Knicks for sending five first-round picks and a first-round pick swap to the Nets for Bridges in June. That chatter intensified after New York's loss to Boston, even though Bridges turned things around in the second half. He didn't look well on the defensive end, but to be fair, nobody did.
New York indeed paid a high price for Bridges, but the wing showed why the front office did so on Friday. He played like a man on a mission. It's as if he was on the team when the Pacers beat the Knicks in the playoffs. Bridges was locked in from start to finish.
🗣️ GET BUSY MIKAL pic.twitter.com/nJ17tzByca
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) October 26, 2024
Mikal Bridges comes alive in Knicks' first win of the regular season
Josh Hart was spot on about what he said about Bridges' shot after New York's loss to Boston:
"We don't care about all the background noise about Mikal, his shot. We don't care about it. He puts the work in every day. He's going to be good. The talk around it is stupidity. There's stupidity to it because, at the end of the day, he's been almost a 40% career 3-point shooter. The talk around it is stupid, and we're not really going to entertain it."
Did Hart know that Bridges would "be good" so soon? It sounds like it. It's normal for it to take time for new players to get acclimated to a new system. The Bridges trade seemed like it happened forever ago compared to the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, but he's still getting used to things, too.
The more comfortable Bridges gets, the better. Look at how he improved from game one to game two.
Knicks fans can enjoy their weekend knowing the Bridges trade wasn't a waste. It turns out that a one-game sample size isn't enough to condemn an offseason trade.