Knicks, Mikal Bridges agree to four-year, $150 million extension, source confirms
Knicks forward Mikal Bridges reacts in the first quarter against the Detroit Pistons in Game 1 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs on April 19. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The Knicks moved to keep the core of their roster intact by agreeing to a four-year, $150 million contract extension with Mikal Bridges on Thursday, according to a league source.
Bridges, who could have been an unrestricted free agent after the upcoming season, was eligible this summer for a deal worth up to $156 million but took slightly less than the max extension he was eligible to receive. He could have waited until next summer and been eligible for a five-year, $300 million deal in free agency, but like Jalen Brunson last summer, he opted to take the security of a deal in hand while prioritizing trying to win a championship and sustaining success with the group the team has assembled.
The Knicks have six of their core players under contract for at least the next two seasons and five of them secured for the next three seasons. Bridges' age and contract now fit in the timeline with Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. According to a league source, the move now increases the odds of the team staying below the second apron into the future as the team has managed to do during the last two seasons.
This move is in line with the work the front office has done with all but one of its core pieces — Mitchell Robinson, who is on an expiring contract this season as of now — as they have either signed an extension or moved the player before he could enter the free-agent market. Brunson was signed last summer; others such as Julius Randle and Immanuel Quickley were moved in trades.
While Bridges' most notable attribute is his durability, playing in all 556 games since he entered the NBA (as well as never missing a game while with Villanova), he provided some huge moments in the postseason after an up-and-down regular season. He came up with steals to seal both of the first two games in Boston as the Knicks took a shocking two-games-to-none lead on their way to knocking out the defending champions in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Much of the season seemed like an adjustment for Bridges, who was a third or fourth option offensively after having a lead role for the Nets the previous two seasons and seemed to struggle to live up to the price the Knicks paid to acquire him. They sent five first-round picks to their cross-river rivals in the first deal the two teams had made in decades. He averaged 17.6 points in the regular season and 15.6 points in the playoffs.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
