The Brooklyn Nets trade Bridges, their best player but no cornerstone, to the New York Knicks for a draft haul, so they're poised to tank--and rebuild

It is possible that the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets both won a huge trade that will keep the Nets in the doldrums next season and possibly far longer?

Maybe. Before the draft, the Knicks acquired the Nets' best player, Mikal Bridges, who's very good but not the star to build around, for an enormous haul of draft picks.

That solidifies the Knicks' talent and team chemistry, with Bridges joining three Villanova teammates (Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Donte DeVincenzo) in a win-now effort to dislodge the Boston Celtics.

It also positions the Nets, pending luck in the lottery, to tank and be able to draft some of the 2025 stars, notably incoming Duke star Cooper Flagg. 

Which is why The Athletic's Zack Harper, for example, gave both teams an A, especially since Bridges is no Kevin Durant or Rudy Gobert, who were in similarly lopsided trades. 

For now, the buzz goes to the Knicks, who already had it, while Barclays Center should again see lots of fans of the visiting teams.

The details

As the New York Post's Brian Lewis summarized it, Mikal Bridges trade puts Nets in full rebuild mode:

The Nets agreed to send Bridges and a 2026 second-round pick to the Garden for four unprotected first-round picks (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031), a 2025 protected first-rounder via Milwaukee, a 2028 unprotected pick swap, a 2025 second-round pick and veteran shooter Bojan Bogdanovic.

In a different move Tuesday night, Brooklyn got back their own 2026 first-rounder from Houston and saw the Rockets give up the right to swap the Nets’ 2025 first-rounder

Now, with new coach Jordi Fernandez, the Nets will have not just draft picks but salary-cap space after a year, he wrote, once "Ben Simmons’ $40 million albatross of a contract comes off the books."

How long will it take?

Columnist Steve Lichtentstein, in Tanks Again: Nets On Bridges To Nowhere, argued that it would "take YEARS for this franchise to be close to competitive again."

That may depend on whether the Nets can draft well, and with luck, since three of the four first-round picks next year look to be at the end of the first round.. 

Lichtenstein noted, "the one pick among the four above that Nets fans can look forward to—the return of their own from Houston—could have been generated without trading Bridges."hare this on Facebook (opens in new window)

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