Mikal Bridges lastly obtained his deal.
The deal features a participant possibility for the 2029-30 NBA season and a commerce kicker.
Which suggests New York avoids the nightmare state of affairs: Bridges holding them over a barrel in free company discussions subsequent summer time, when he would have been eligible for a five-year deal price near $300M. And the Knicks, who traded away 5 first-round picks to accumulate Bridges from the Nets final offseason, would have had little selection however to pay him his quantity — or watch him stroll to a rival group subsequent summer time, very similar to OG Anunoby threatened final summer time after the Knicks traded away R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to land him.
Anunoby in the end commanded a franchise-record five-year, $212.5M deal.
As a substitute, the Knicks obtained Bridges at a modest low cost, the second consecutive summer time New York has satisfied a key participant to take a pay minimize. Jalen Brunson left greater than $100M on the desk when he signed a four-year, $156.5M contract extension with the Knicks final summer time, and now Bridges leaves $6M on the desk to assist the Knicks proceed to construct a sustainable roster with respect to the second apron.
With Bridges’ new cap determine — projected at $33.5M in 12 months 1 of his deal — the Knicks at the moment are checking in roughly $15.6M beneath the $222.37M second apron threshold anticipated for the 2026-27 NBA season. They now have six core gamers beneath contract for the following two seasons (Brunson, Bridges, Karl-Anthony Cities, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Miles McBride) and 5 core gamers locked in for the following three seasons.
The Bridges extension handles one among two key items of enterprise remaining for the Knicks this offseason. They need to additionally decide on Mitchell Robinson, who’s on an expiring deal and is eligible for a four-year, $81M extension this summer time. Signing Robinson to his max extension would push the Knicks nicely over the second apron for the 2026-27 NBA season with the opposite core rotation gamers remaining beneath contract.
The Knicks also can signal Cities to a two-year extension price roughly $150M, however the All-Star heart is already beneath contract by 2027.
Bridges, who by no means missed a recreation in his collegiate profession at Villanova, has appeared in all 556 of his profession NBA video games, rating 14th in NBA historical past in consecutive video games performed. If he performs all 82 video games subsequent season, he’ll transfer into eighth place all-time with a 638 recreation streak.
The gifted two-way wing had a rocky season beneath Tom Thibodeau in 12 months 1 in New York however nonetheless managed 17.6 factors on 50% taking pictures from the sphere and 35% taking pictures from three-point vary in orange and blue whereas Thibodeau commonly deployed him because the staff’s level of assault defender.
The Knicks imagine retaining Bridges is vital to their skill to compete for a championship in an Japanese Convention blown wide-open by accidents to Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Tyrese Haliburton (Indiana Pacers), and Damian Lillard, who the Milwaukee Bucks in the end waived from the roster to create area to signal Myles Turner in free company. Bridges matches New York’s timeline and enjoying fashion, and he enhances Brunson and Cities as an off-ball scorer and on-ball defender.
The Knicks stay solely centered on successful a championship and increasing their championship window past this season, and in locking in Bridges by at the very least 2029, the Knicks are giving themselves their very best shot to finish a championship drought that has stretched longer than 50 years.
Initially Revealed: July 31, 2025 at 5:53 PM EDT
