We all know that Mikal Bridges is the NBA's ultimate Iron Man - he never misses a game. But with the New York Knicks struggling so much as of late, is it possible that Bridges playing so much is actually hurting his overall output?
When you talk about a player's greatest strength, you're often discussing the aspect of their game that sets them apart from others. And for Mikal, that attribute is his ability to stay healthy year after year. As the old saying goes, availability is the best ability, and this is the area he consistently gets right that no one else can.
Playing all 82 games is a lost art in today's NBA. Only a handful of guys achieve that feat on a yearly basis, and it's hardly ever the same players. From the outside, it seems like it's usually just whoever caught a break with injuries that year, and was able to avoid things that might have otherwise sidelined them.
But the truth is that while there's certainly an element of luck that goes into playing every game in a season, it's also about putting in work to take care of your body. That shows that in some way, Bridges has a skill no one else in the NBA does. He keeps himself in shape meticulously to the point that he's always going to be available, and the Knicks never have to wonder if he's going to be healthy.
Mikal Bridges might be a bit fatigued right now
As reliable as he is and as elite a skill as staying healthy this much for this long is, perhaps there's something to be said for how it's affecting Bridges' play at the moment. He's in the middle of a rough stretch recently, having scored only 27 points total in his last three games, averaging 9.0 PPG and shooting 34.8% from the floor, along with 23.1% from three.
Knicks fans have been concerned with his lack of production, and one has to wonder if fatigue is playing into it at all. Of course, it would be the simplest thing to argue that Bridges has always played this many games in a season, so there's no logical reason why it would be affecting him now when it hasn't in years past.
But that's just the thing - we're talking about a guy who's in his eighth season and still hasn't missed a game. In fact, his fifth season was one where he played 83 games in the regular season after being traded mid-season. And not to mention, he's been in the playoffs four of those years as well.
That's a lot of wear and tear on a player's body. It's probably as much as someone who plays less in the regular season would accumulate by year 10 or 11 of their career. When you think about it this way, it feels like less of a stretch to think Mikal might need to do the unthinkable, and actually take a game or two off to ease the stress on his body.