Mikal Bridges and the Brooklyn Nets have made it to the NBA Playoffs as the 6th seed in a top heavy Eastern Conference. Joe Tsai’s Nets have had quite the tumultuous 2022-23 campaign. Starting the season off with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant ready to make a title run and ending the regular season by trading both was not what they had in their cards.
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However, in return for Kevin Durant upon trading him to the Phoenix Suns, the Nets received perhaps their superstar of the future in Mikal Bridges. The Philly native coincidentally is matched up against the 76ers in the first round this season and made quite the splash in his BKN Playoff debut.
He dropped 30 points on 12-18 shooting from the field in a blowout loss at Wells Fargo stadium in a game that was within reach for close to 40 minutes. Throughout his time with the Nets, he’s played a much larger role offensively and his former head coach clearly is loving what he’s seeing from him.
Monty Williams on Mikal Bridges in his new role
Mikal Bridges was mainly known as a player who was limited to a 3&D role. He played incredible perimeter defense, switching between 1 and 4 with ease, and spread the floor. However, during his time with the Suns, they already had a player who they centered their offense around: Devin Booker.
Bridges never had a chance to take opponents off the dribble and create his own shot. Now, in Brooklyn, he can do that due to their lack of offensive weapons. Monty Williams seems to be enjoying this new and improved ‘Brooklyn Bridges’ as he took to his press conference to praise his former player.
Both Bridges and Cam Johnson, who are usually referred to as ‘The Twins’, led the Nets in scoring in last night’s game against the Sixers.
Mikal Bridges transformed his game with the Nets
Mikal Bridges has switched up his game and established himself as a premier 3-level scorer in the 27 games he’s played with the Brooklyn Nets. In the 54 games he was with the Suns to start this season off, he averaged 13.6 field goal attempts per game. this jumped to 18.6 FGA in Brooklyn with his FG% increasing along with it.
He’s also found a way to draw nearly twice as many fouls, making it to the free throw stripe 6.6 times per game as opposed to him attempting 3.1 free throws a game with the Suns this year. Essentially, Mikal has become a better offensive player across the board for BKN and is their undisputed number 1 option.
