Brooklyn is getting some serious future assets from New York: unprotected picks in 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031, plus a chance to swap picks in 2028. They'll also snag a top-four protected first-round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks in 2025 and a second-round pick in the same year.
Bridges, who's 27, hasn't sat out a single game in his NBA journey and put up an impressive 19.6 points per game last season with Brooklyn. He's widely recognized as one of the top 3-and-D players in the league.
This trade marks the fifth time the Knicks and Nets have dealt with each other since the Nets joined the NBA in 1976. It's their first swap since June 22, 1983, when the Nets sent Len Elmore to the Knicks for a second-round pick in 1984, which they used to pick Tom Sluby.
Nearly 41 years later, on almost the same date, the teams made a huge blockbuster trade that will have significant impacts on both franchises going forward.
Bridges joins former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo at the Knicks, reuniting with the squad that won the 2016 national championship. Brunson, Bridges, and DiVincenzo also clinched another title together two years later.
Now, they aim to help the Knicks break a 52-year championship dry spell next spring. The Knicks recently made waves by winning their first playoff series in back-to-back seasons in 24 years, triumphing 4-2 against the Philadelphia 76ers before a hard-fought seven-game series loss to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Sources say New York is prioritizing re-signing OG Anunoby, whom they acquired from the Raptors midseason and who will be a free agent this summer. They're also looking to keep center Isaiah Hartenstein, but their ability to pay him is restricted because they only have his early Bird rights. This means the most they can offer him is a four-year deal worth $72.5 million.
By adding Bridges and Anunoby in back-to-back trades, New York is loading up on length, versatility, and perimeter shooting to challenge the reigning Eastern Conference champs, the Boston Celtics.
Bridges has never missed a game in his NBA career, playing in 474 consecutive games, the longest streak in the league in the last 40 seasons. He's also one of just four players, along with Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, and Jayson Tatum, to notch 1,500 points, 150 3-pointers, and 75 steals in each of the past two seasons.
Bridges has remaining contract payments of $23.3 million and $24.9 million for the next two years. He can negotiate a two-year extension starting October 1st and could potentially extend for three more years with a contract worth $113 million in six months.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn has made a clear choice by parting ways with Bridges and also trading away some of the first-round draft picks it acquired from the Phoenix Suns in the Kevin Durant trade back in February 2022.
Brooklyn now has the rights to its 2025 and 2026 draft picks, which are expected to feature top talents like Cooper Flagg in 2025 and Cameron Boozer, son of former NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, in 2026.
Bogdanovic, who's 35, scored an average of 15.2 points last season split between the Knicks and the Detroit Pistons. He was drafted by the Nets in 2011 and spent the first 2½ years of his career with them.
SOURCE: ESPN