76ers Rival Report: Does Mikal Bridges Expect Major Changes?
The Brooklyn Nets have had quite the amount of changes over the last two seasons. After putting together one of the league’s most notable star trios with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, the squad broke up rather quickly.
Harden was the first domino to fall two seasons ago when he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and draft compensation. Last season, Brooklyn started slow while led by Durant and Irving, but eventually, they picked it up and became one of the league’s hottest teams. However, winning didn’t cure all.
Irving forced the Nets’ hand and received a trade to the Dallas Mavericks ahead of the deadline. Durant wanted to be next and landed with the Phoenix Suns during the early hours of the morning on deadline day. In the trade with Phoenix, Brooklyn netted its current star, Mikal Bridges.
In Phoenix, Bridges carved out a solid role for himself, becoming one of the league’s most useful supporting players. During the 2022-2023 season, he averaged 17 points while hitting on 39 percent of his threes in 56 starts. Although he was initially an untouchable prospect in Phoenix, Bridges helped move the needle in the Suns’ pursuit of Durant.
As soon as Bridges arrived in Brooklyn, he became the face of the franchise and immediately boosted his solo production. For 27 games, Bridges averaged 26 points while knocking down 38 percent of his threes. He also averaged a career-high of five rebounds per game while dishing out three assists.
The Nets maintained their solid record and cracked the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs, but it became clear they weren’t good enough to compete for a title. In the first-round series against the Sixers, Bridges found personal success, averaging his best playoff numbers by far. Unfortunately for Brooklyn, they were swept by Philadelphia.
After seeing their team flame out in the postseason, the Nets haven’t made any significant changes this offseason. And in Bridges’ eyes, he doesn’t see the roster making too many changes ahead of opening night at this point in the offseason.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Bridges said in regards to keeping the current roster intact, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “I love the guys that we’ve got. Just bring everybody back and finally go through preseason and new coaching staff and for Jacque [Vaughn[ just to have his preseason and have his coaching staff whoever he wants and put what he wants coming in for him.”
While Bridges boosted his personal statistics by joining the Nets, Brooklyn definitely didn’t pose a threat to the rest of the East following the departure of Durant and Irving. In the 28 games following the trade deadline, the Nets went 13-15 before finishing the year in sixth place.
When the playoffs rolled around, the Nets didn’t stand a chance against the Sixers — even after Philly lost their starting point guard James Harden during Game 3 on the road — and didn’t play with Joel Embiid in the Game 4 elimination matchup as he dealt with a knee injury.
While Brooklyn might be hopeful the three-time All-Star Ben Simmons could give the team an extra boost next season as he works on getting healthy, the Simmons experiment hasn’t gone as planned. After missing the entire 2021-2022 season, Simmons’ debut run with the Nets was cut to just 42 games. He averaged just seven points, six rebounds, and six assists.
Of course, additional time together could help the Nets improve slightly, but they’ll still struggle to pose a significant threat to the rest of the East next year if they keep the team’s core the same.
