“It’s great to be a Knicks player.” Coming from Brooklyn, Mikal Bridges was presented to the press on Wednesday and to listen to him, his short move to New York is a way of coming full circle and above all good news.
“I thought I would be drafted here in 2018”, he continues. “I love everything about this team: Tom Thibodeau, the crowd, Madison Square Garden. It's all that. The history, too. When I thought about basketball when I was younger, I always thought about the Knicks.”
If he remains on a very average season for him, far from the promises displayed when he arrived in Brooklyn in any case, the former Suns winger remains a strong player, not far from being an All-Star. How will he find his place in such an assertive collective and with players like Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle?
“You just have to be ready, that’s all. I adapt very quickly. I want to win and I know the things I have to do to help us win. Looking at last season’s team, I think I fit in pretty well,” he describes, before attempting a comparison. “It won't be hard, you just have to know the style that's played here and play correctly, which is what I do. It's natural. It will be like with Team USA, when I played with the national team last summer, where you know your role is going to change.”
“Who doesn’t want to play all the time?”
What has been much talked about since the announcement of the transfer is obviously the meeting between the Iron Man of the league, who has still not missed a game since his arrival in the league (he even played 83 matches two seasons ago), and Tom Thibodeau, the coach who uses and abuses his players, to the point of exhaustion. “I've seen all the jokes about this. I've seen it all and it's awesome.”jokes Mikal Bridges.
In 2021/22 and 2022/23, the former Brooklyn player was the player who accumulated the most minutes in total and he was still fourth in this ranking last season. And that should not change…
“Who doesn't want to play all the time? When you see the coach, what he embodies, how he sees things, I'm the same, from high school to college or even with Monty Williams with the Suns,” he says before illustrating his point with an anecdote and a match from March 2022 where, while ill, he played 50 minutes. “I was lying in a chair after the win and I don't think Monty thought I was sick. He looked at me and said, 'Look at him, that's how we are.'”
Mikal Bridges had only one desire at the time, ” board the plane “. But he will hold his place a few evenings later, as always. Which will definitely please his new coach.
| Mikal Bridges | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 2018-19 | PHX | 82 | 30 | 43.0 | 33.5 | 80.5 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 8.3 |
| 2019-20 | PHX | 73 | 28 | 51.0 | 36.1 | 84.4 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 9.1 |
| 2020-21 | PHX | 72 | 33 | 54.3 | 42.5 | 84.0 | 1.1 | 3.2 | 4.3 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 13.5 |
| 2021-22 | PHX | 82 | 35 | 53.4 | 36.9 | 83.4 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 14.2 |
| 2022-23 * | All Teams | 83 | 36 | 46.8 | 38.2 | 89.5 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 20.1 |
| 2022-23 * | PHX | 56 | 36 | 46.3 | 38.7 | 89.7 | 1.0 | 3.3 | 4.3 | 3.6 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 17.2 |
| 2022-23 * | BRK | 27 | 34 | 47.5 | 37.6 | 89.4 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 2.7 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 26.2 |
| 2023-24 | BRK | 82 | 35 | 43.6 | 37.2 | 81.4 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.4 | 19.6 |
| Total | 474 | 33 | 48.0 | 37.5 | 84.6 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 14.3 | |
How to read the stats? GM = Games Played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots Made / Shots Attempted; 3pts = 3-pointers / 3-pointers Attempted; LF = Free Throws Made / Free Throws Attempted; Off = Offensive Rebound; Def = Defensive Rebound; Tot = Total Rebounds; Pd = Assists; Fte: Personal Fouls; Int = Steals; Bp = Loose Balls; Ct: Blocks; Pts = Points.
