Here in his second go-around with the New York Knicks, Mikal Bridges has drawn a ton of attention to himself for all of the wrong reasons.
From his highly inconsistent shooting stroke to his painful scoring escapades, the veteran forward has been on the receiving end of ample criticism in 2025-26. Things have gotten so bad, in fact, that even the impressive factoid that he's now played in a whopping 83 games in a season for the second time in his career is somehow being lambasted.
Fortunately, with the regular season now in the rearview and the playoffs right on the horizon, Bridges has an opportunity to not only quiet his critics, but, frankly, seal his fate with the Knicks in one way or another, for the way he plays during this forthcoming championship-round-or-bust excursion is going to have the biggest role in determining what his future may look like.
How Mikal Bridges plays in postseason should decide his Knicks future
As noted, Bridges has received a ton of flack for his production throughout the season.
Not only is he averaging his lowest point totals (14.4) since the 2021-22 campaign and the most personal fouls since his sophomore season, but, over his final 19 games of the year, his on-court productivity objectively fell off a cliff, as he was posting just 10.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.9 assists on a putrid 31.7 percent shooting from deep during this span.
Considering his level of play, coupled with the lofty price it took for the Knicks to land his services just two summers ago, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith has gone on record stating that his acquisition has the potential to go down as "an absolutely horrific trade," while many others are begging the front office to consider using the 29-year-old as a key cog in a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster.
How he fairs under the bright lights of this year's postseason should serve as a major influence on his Knicks tenure moving forward.
If he continues on his current track, then one should only expect the calls for his dismissal via offseason trade to grow louder and more frequent as the months go by.
Of course, we're also talking about the man who, in many ways, played the biggest role in New York advancing to their first Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years during last year's run, when he sealed a Game 1 win over the Celtics with an elite on-ball defensive stand and went nuclear during the fourth quarter of Game 2 with 14 points during round two.
For better or worse, Bridges is undeniably one of the biggest X-factors this Knicks team has, and should his efforts not help lead them to at least a final four finish, the end of his stint in the Big Apple may be soon to follow.
Needless to say, at this point, the forward holds the keys to his own destiny.
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