New York, New York – December 20: Mikal Bridges #1 of the Brooklyn Nets drives to the basket as Isaiah ,
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According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the New York Knicks agreed to a blockbuster trade for Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges on Wednesday night. In return, they are sending forward Bojan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031), a 2025 protected Milwaukee Bucks first-round pick, a 2028 unprotected first-round pick swap and a 2025 second-round pick for Bridges and a 2026 second-round pick.
The deal reunites Bridges with his former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. They appear to have given the deal unanimous approval.
Five first-round picks and an unprotected pick swap is a huge cost for Bridges, who profiles as a low-level No. 2 option or high-level No. 3. However, his well-below-market contract — he’s making $23.3 million next season and $24.9 million in 2025-26 — could boost his trade value more than his play on the court.
Either way, it’s an understandable gamble for the Knicks. They were one game away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, and they just added one of the league’s premier two-way wings. With Bridges, Hart, DiVincenzo, Mitchell Robinson and Deuce McBride all contracted through at least the 2025-26 season, the Knicks are now entering a clear two-year championship window.
The Knicks aren’t just giving up draft picks for Bridges, though. Unless they change the structure of the deal before it’s finalized, they’ll be limited to a $178.7 million first apron because they’re taking back more salary than they’re sending out (according to current reporting, anyway). If Bogdanovic is the only contract they include in this deal, the Knicks won’t be allowed to have more than $178.7 million in salary on their books at any point between now and June 30, 2025.
That could force the Knicks to choose between re-signing OG Anunoby or Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency this summer.
With seven players under guaranteed contracts—Brunson, Bridges, Hart, Robinson, DiVincenzo, McBride and Julius Randle—the Knicks already have $125.8 million in guaranteed salary for next year. That leaves them with about $52.7 million in flexibility below the first apron and eight roster spots to fill if they don’t pick up their team options on Dequan Jeffries and Jericho Sims and release Mamadi Diakite, whose $2.3 million contract won’t become fully guaranteed until January.
The Knicks also have the No. 24 and No. 25 picks in the 2024 NBA Draft (as of publication time, anyway), which would cost a combined $5.6 million. If they kept both of those picks, their total salary would be $131.4 million (excluding Jeffries, Sims and Diakite), which would leave them with $47.3 million less off the apron.
If Anunoby receives his full maximum starting salary ($42.3 million), the Knicks will not have enough flexibility to re-sign him and fill out the rest of their roster without making another move. However, both Wojnarowski and SNY’s Ian Begley reported Tuesday night that the Knicks still hope to re-sign him.
However, this would effectively prevent them from retaining Hartenstein.
Maybe it was in the cards anyway. Since the Knicks signed a two-year deal with Hartenstein in 2022, they only have Early Bird rights in free agency. That means they can offer him a starting salary worth 175% of what he would have earned in 2023-24 ($9.2 million), which would be about $16.2 million. He can earn 8% of his annual salary from there, but the Knicks can’t offer him a contract worth more than a four-year, $72.5 million contract overall.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, who are projected to have over $30 million in cap space this offseason, have already been linked to Hartenstein as they need another big man. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Orlando Magic are also “expected to have a lot of interest,” who can create around $50 million in cap space this summer without hesitation.
Between the hard cap and their Early Bird limits, the Knicks may have to be willing to lose Hartenstein in free agency. However, they could still theoretically extend the framework of the Bridges deal before it’s finalized in order to avoid being hard-capped on the apron first.
If they add two or more contracts to Bridges’ deal and ultimately send out more salary than they’re getting back, the Knicks would be hard-capped at a second apron of $189.5 million. That would give them about $11 million in additional room to re-sign Anunoby, Hartenstein and restricted free agent Precious Achiuwa.
However, the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement prevents teams from accumulating multiple players on minimum contracts during the offseason. That means the Knicks can’t include two of Sims, Diakite and Jeffries in the Bridges deal to ensure they’re taking back less salary than they send out. They may have to find another team to take Robinson or Randle.
Scotto said Goga Bitadze and Jonas Valanciunas could be potential free-agent targets for the Knicks if they lose Hartenstein. Either way, they have to be mindful of what hard cap they’re ultimately under, especially when it comes to negotiations with Anunoby. If they spend too much to re-sign him, it will greatly limit their ability to cater to the rest of the players on their roster.
The Knicks established themselves as one of the favorite teams in the Eastern Conference with the Bridges trade, but they paid a heavy price for it. In addition to the huge pile of draft picks, they have now complicated the rest of their offseason business as well.
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