Bridges has been a revelation for New York.
Mikal Bridges had a rough go of it this season.
The 29-year-old guard came to New York in the summer of 2024 after the Knicks sent five first-round picks to Brooklyn to get him, and the weight of that price tag never really let up.
His second regular season with the team was rocky, and the start of the playoffs went even worse.
But after helping the Knicks sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Bridges talked about how much this moment means to him.
A Bumpy Road to the Finals
Bridges averaged 14.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists across all 82 games for a Knicks team that finished 53-29 under first-year head coach Mike Brown.
A drop from the 17.6 he put up the season before.
Questions about whether he actually fit next to Jalen Brunson followed him all year.
The first round made it worse.
Bridges averaged 7.3 points through the first four games against the Atlanta Hawks, and Brown started trimming his minutes. He shot 3-of-10 in a Game 2 loss before going scoreless with three turnovers in Game 3. There was a real question about whether his starting spot was in danger.
A Different Player When It Counted
Late in the Hawks series, Bridges woke up.
He scored 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting in the Game 6 clincher, and he has been a different player since.
He shot 57.4 percent from the floor through the Conference Finals and locked in defensively during New York's 11-game postseason winning streak.
Against Cleveland he averaged 18.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists across four games as the Knicks ran up the largest point differential in playoff history through three rounds.
After the 130-93 Game 4 win sent New York to its first Finals since 1999, Bridges sat at the podium with former Villanova teammates Brunson and Josh Hart.
"It's definitely a blessing to be a piece of the puzzle, especially in this organization," Bridges said. "No other player, no other guard that I want to be along besides JB so I'm just very grateful to be in this position."
The Villanova Bond
Bridges and Brunson go way back.
They won two national championships together at Villanova in 2016 and 2018, and that history shows up in how they read each other on the court.
Brunson averaged 26.0 points and 6.8 assists during the regular season and took home Eastern Conference Finals MVP, but a big reason he can focus on running the offense is because Bridges takes the toughest defensive assignment every night.
Bridges is the only guy on this roster who has actually been to the Finals before, back with the Phoenix Suns in 2021.
Five years later he gets another shot, and this time the team around him looks like the best in basketball.
