BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As the crown jewel of the trade package for Kevin Durant, expectations were high for Mikal Bridges. They only got higher after reports post-NBA trade deadline that teams like Memphis offered Brooklyn four first-round picks for Bridges.
After a 45-point explosion in a win over Miami on Thursday night, he’s living up to that lofty vision.
In a postgame edition of Locked On Nets, hosts Adam Armbrecht and Doug Norrie discussed Bridges’ career night and what it could mean for the rest of his season and his future with the Nets.
“When you trade Kevin Durant you are hoping you get something that you can really hang your hat on, that is always the goal with the superstar pedigree of Kevin Durant,” Norrie said on the show. “Then you hear they could have traded Mikal Bridges for four first-round picks, but 80 picks would not have been enough.”
After trades sent Durant and Kyrie Irving out the door over the course of one week, Nets fans were left with a team made up of spare parts with questionable fit. Bridges has risen above those incongruities to play some of the best basketball of his life as a Net.
Against the Heat, he flashed far more scoring ability with the ball in his hands than he was often able to in Phoenix.
“Miami is a very stout defensive team, they can throw a lot of different looks at you on that end of the floor, and Mikal Bridges was able to do it from the inside, from the outside, take guys off the dribble, create space for himself,” Armbrecht said. “And there’s a real world here where over the back end of the season,we’re going to see performances like this consistently now that it seems like he’s starting to get comfortable and get his legs underneath him in Brooklyn.”
With the Suns, Bridges was often third banana behind star guards Devin Booker and Chris Paul. He started to bloom as both dealt with injuries this season, and if the victory over Miami is any indication, he’s ready to break out down the stretch of this season in Brooklyn.