2023-07-05 05:22:22
For the next few weeks, he will stay at a hotel near the Brooklyn Bridge until he finds a more permanent place. But as turbulent as the transition may feel, it’s not just a change of circumstances that he’ll have to adjust to over the next few weeks, he’ll be ushering in a completely different role.
Twenty-four hours following the Phoenix Suns flew from New York to Atlanta, Mikal Bridges was told he had to take a one-way flight back to Brooklyn because he was traded. Bridges didn’t get a chance to take any personal items from his home in Phoenix, he just packed his bags for the five road games (Atlanta was the fourth), said goodbye to his teammates and staff, and headed back to Brooklyn.
For the next few weeks, he will stay at a hotel near the Brooklyn Bridge until he finds a more permanent place. But while the transition might feel turbulent, he’ll have to adjust to more than just a change of circumstances over the next few weeks.
He will also usher in a completely different role.
draft night trades
The day of the 2018 NBA draft brought mixed memories for Mikal Bridges — the Philadelphia 76ers selected Bridges with the 10th pick in the first round. For Bridges, who hails from Philadelphia and attended Penn’s native Villanova University, getting drafted by his hometown Philadelphia 76ers was a lifelong dream … until the Sixers traded him to the Phoenix Suns on draft day for The 16th overall pick that year and the 2021 first-round pick.
In the end, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Zhaire Smith with the 16th overall pick, but he only played 13 games for the 76ers; and the 2021 first-round pick came to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Tobias Harris trade case.
Mikal Bridges discussed this on The CJ McCollum Show:
“My mom was there for six years, and I was talking all year if Philly got the 10th pick, they’d be stupid if they didn’t pick Mikal. I’m a local kid, they need a three-pointer and a defense guy, and the situation It looks ideal.”
“The city I want to go to is either New York or Philadelphia, those two cities … I’m so excited, it’s a dream come true, you know? It’s crazy, being drafted in the first round by a hometown team and getting traded , kind of bothered me. I hated that night, it’s a weird thing to look back on.”
“Phoenix is probably one of the few teams I would want to go to. In fact, I haven’t talked to anyone from them at all, except for Devin Booker, the coach, the general manager, etc., so it was a moment for me. Really surprised. It was hard to get used to it at first, but once I knew what they paid for me and what they wanted to build there, I understood it.”
In the Phoenix Suns, Mikal Bridges managed to stand out from a group of players at the same position as Trevor Ariza, TJ Warren, Josh Jackson and Kelly Oubre Jr., becoming the starting forward at the end of the season. The increasingly stable perimeter and suffocating defense not only helped the Suns successfully win the league’s first record of 64 wins in the 2020-21 season, but also helped the Suns advance all the way to the championship game. His outstanding performance on the defensive end earned him the honor of the first defensive team of the year in the 2021-22 season.
Bridges would have been the perfect pairing for Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Sure, the Sixers still had notable success that season, and they were within a Kawhi Leonard’s game-winning shot of a possible Eastern Conference Finals, but Bridges’ skill set was exactly what the Sixers were missing. On the other hand, Zhaire Smith left the NBA following only playing 13 games, and the 2021 first-round pick he exchanged for was also sold in a subsequent transaction. Against the backdrop of Mikal Bridges’ glowing career, this transaction is particularly ironic .
career turning point
The Suns lost in the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, especially in the last two games of the second round of the Western Conference in 2022. They lost 27 and 33 points respectively and were reversed by the Dallas Mavericks. After the dual-core in the backcourt was blocked by the Mavericks, Mikal Bridges failed to jump out to prove himself. In the last two games, he only scored 13 points on 5 of 18 shots.
Although Bridges’ endurance and relatively cheap salary are quite suitable for playing a key role in the league’s top teams, the timeline of the Suns is no longer slowly gaining experience in the playoffs but urgently needs to succeed in the playoffs. With Chris Paul aging, DeAndre Ayton not yet enlightened, and the failure experience of the previous year, the Suns began to think regarding improving the level of wing players and looking for ball-handling cores at critical moments.
So when Kevin Durant pressured the Nets for a trade over the summer, the Suns were the most active team, and of course Mikal Bridges, a fan-favorite model of labor, was one of the main courses in the deal. Although Kevin Durant promised to stay with the Nets in the end, Sun fans didn’t have to wait too long-the Nets officially disbanded before the trade deadline, and Mikal Bridges was sent to the Brooklyn Nets in the Kevin Durant trade case.
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