Mikal Bridges Trade Reaction: ‘Nova Knicks REUNITED! | The Hoop Collective

Mikal Bridges Trade Reaction: ‘Nova Knicks REUNITED! | The Hoop Collective

hello welcome to Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we are doing in quasi emergency fashion Tuesday night joining me from I get I don’t know what it’s called now it used to be called the Nassau Coliseum what is it called now Bon incorrect we are not at the same building that was nasau colum we’re at a new Arena called UBS arena in Elmont New York next Belmont Park where the WNBA was tonight Liberty played the Minnesota links and late in the third quarter of this game Joe Sai owner of Liberty in the Nets took a phone call he walked out of the bull came back about 101 15 minutes later and then aent mer he had some news a little bit longer after that involing the Nets all right we’ll talk about that in a second who won the game between the links and the uh and the LI by the way links had a big second half comeback in uh in one upset the liberty so Joe Sai lost male Bridges and the commissioner cup in the same night he did but I think the Nets are pretty happy about the uh way the way the that unfolded we’ll talk about joining us from Dallas Texas this is B McMahon howdy Partners you know what the Nets did get tonight they got the benefit from being bad they got the benefit from being bad back that’s what they did in their uh I don’t know secondary deal is ancillary the proper proper usage there the little we’ll go over all we’ll go overall in a second Jackson and I had dinner tonight in New Haven and uh Connecticut and now he’s producing this podcast uh okay so as we are at about 11:30 Eastern um the deals that have happened are uh male Bridges to the New York Knicks from the Nets do we know when the last time the Knicks and Nets made a deal was so the Brooklyn Nets or now the Brooklyn Nets the New Jersey Nets Brooklyn Nets and New York Nicks have made four trades ever before tonight 1978 they traded Phil Jackson in a first round pick for what became two first round picks lat became Michael Ray Richardson and Vinnie Johnson pretty interesting trade trade Mike Woodson got traded from the Knicks to the nets for Mike nulan in 1981 a third round pick became Ed sherro in 1982 and the Knicks traded in 1984 second round pick for Len Elmore in on June 22nd 1983 41 years ago this week yeah were you the last time Nick and Nets made a trade I was not alive the last time the Nix and Nets made a trade wow you guys were both we Lads yeah 41 I was already posting dudes up by them go on anyway four decades later male Bridges to the Nova Knicks for five first round picks and a pick Swap and a second round pi they swap second round picks right they got they got it they got a second round pick next year I believe it was the next second round pick because I think the Knicks had the next second round pick but I’m not POS we’re not going to focus on the second tra exception human trade exception of Buy on bogdanovic a whole bunch of picks so five first round picks four of them are the Knicks um one of them is a bucks 2025 top four protected slightly protected Bucks pick the key is four first round picks from the Knicks and neither of them are the picks that they have in this year’s draft um so long out picks all the way out to 29 and basically this is the trade that the Knicks have been building towards for three-ish years uh Leon Rose has been there this is about to be his fifth year I think fourth year fifth year um they’ve been building towards this trade this whole time um there was a time where I thought that this would be you know swinging for a fence like Giannis even as recently as a couple of days ago I thought it might be swinging for the fence of Paul George y um five first round picks for a player who fits very very well obviously there’s instantaneous chemistry um uh instantaneous chemistry there uh almost probably arguably maybe the one of the best chemistry trades you could see in the modern era of the NBA but it’s also five first round picks for a player who’s never been an allar um and probably you know would be hard to be um uh sorry I’m getting bombarded by text from Agents um I don’t mean to be rude but um very important guy mcmah very important but but and a guy they’re not necessarily coming in and asking to put up Allstar kind of production which he did for that’s you know a couple months well well his role is different from the trade so let’s just corre one at a time um and then the Nets made a secondary trade with the Rockets which we talk about in a second let’s first focus on this um my snap reaction is that this is a lot of stuff to give up for an excellent but not Superstar level player and the big thing will be what do they do with oan noi and Isaiah hartenstein because their ability to keep or lose them following this trade is key to how the Knicks line up um but obviously male Bridges is a excellent player an excellent Wing Defender plays every game golden in the locker room tremendous character fits all this down the line um but he is as you said McMahon he’s not going to be a three and D player again he’s going to be a high level role player but a role player on this yeah a role player on this team and um I don’t know bont temps um I I don’t know how I feel about this about the five picks here and by the way there were other teams that were trying to trade from M bridges in this last couple of weeks because of some statements Joe Sai made about a rebuild the Nets I am told we asking for as many as six first round picks from M Bridges other teams that they talked to asked for six so I guess if frame that way the Knicks were able to talk him down with just a five and a swap yeah I mean listen yeah listen the Knicks tremendously overpaid to get Mel Bridges on the team now again we will see if that results in the Knicks getting where they want to go because by making this trade it is quite obvious what the Knicks are doing they’re looking up the Eastern seab board to the Boston Celtics a team that won as we talked about a lot during the finals and before with having a ton of versatile defensive players can play a lot of different ways size up and down the roster versatility defensively and particular and by going out and get Mel Bridges they can bring back ogan and Obi and Isaiah hartstein especially they’re eight deep across the board they could play every way they’ve got guys that like you said have ining chemistry together like they have a team that that could go toe-to-toe with the Celtics and give them a huge run for their money but look the Knicks dramatically overpaid here they gave up five first round picks for a guy who’s never made an All-Star team and we talked about them not trading for Donovan Mitchell and waiting to trade for a star right that’s what kept talking about when are the Knicks going to trade for a star-level player they decided to trade for a star-level role player and between ogn and Obi in January and Mel Bridges now the Knicks have given up a ton of stuff for two Elite role players now that might be the formula that gets them over the line but it’s a very fascinating bet by them to get two of the best RNG three and D guys in the league and use their draft capital on that and as for theet I mean look this goes back to what M said before you can’t just talk about this trade and not talk about the Rockets Sun Sun trade or Nets trade because with these two moves which are we’re talking about the Knicks right we’ll talk about the Nicks we’re talking about the Nicks now then we’ll talk about the Nets okay so all right well if we’re just not gonna talk about the Nets at all now then that’s We’re not gonna talk about the Nets I just said talk about the Nets we’ll talk about the Nets after the Nets focus on Nick you need to settle down I heard you I said now I didn’t say it all okay I know we had some internet trouble we’re all here you talk about the Knicks then mcmah talks about the Knicks and then we’ll talking about the i w for it for it my turn my turn my turn my turn which that way would have gone in the back for if they had done the trade for Donovan Mitchell but you know seriously though this is a huge swing at fit and chemistry and and and defensive depth now you can’t do this and and let anobi go you know you’re gonna have to pay anobi um you know we’ll see if there’s other pieces in here to prevent the Knicks from being hard capped if they are hard capped I have a difficult time seeing the math that makes Anon Obi and hartenstein possible I think you’re looking at uh losing a big man in that case um but if you if you’re just looking at you’re going to have to beat Boston get out of the East well you better start with how do we guard Tatum and brown and if your answers are well an and Obi and bridges and then you know you have Josh Hart to to take some turns as well and uh that’s a pretty good place to start you know the other thing when you make these massive multipick deals as Brooklyn found out the hard way as Phoenix might end up finding out the hard way a big part of the the risk is boy you better put together a team that’s going to stay together if this if if the team blows up then it’s a real painful deal down the road and the the Nets just dug out of that part of the pain um with the side deal that they did but my point is when you have this kind of chemistry when you have now four guys who won a college championship together you know they’re like this thing is played out on social media in Brunson and Hart’s podcast of them basically you know making fun of bridges for being in you know the JV section of uh of New York City um I I don’t think there’s any real fear of this not being a long-term fit so if you’re the Knicks you’re saying man it’s a lot of picks but we think those picks are all going to be you know in the in the 20s those kind of picks [Laughter] okay um saying yeah I mean I I do admit if you’re trying to beat Boston having oan noi and male Bridges as your lead wi Defenders is a good place to start um and bridges is a lot younger and a lot more reliable than Paul George which we know was an option here I’m not so sure Paul George really wanted to leave the West Coast I think that was something that Philadelphia kind of ran into when they kicked the tires there um but uh you know if they had traded five first round picks for Paul George I would have been a little squeamish to be honest with you and Paul George is an all-nba player right but this is a guy who never literally never misses a game where it’s Paul George is higher upside much less reliability and and and the age doesn’t line up where Bridges is not nearly as high of upside but the man plays every game the age lines up yeah so the Knicks haven’t gassed all of their resources but they’ve pretty much gassed the bulk of what they have this is now what they’re casting their lot as um I know this was their star move this is this is their team for sure I know W’s reporting indicates that you know they they they want to keep anobi but they he’s not sure they’re going to be able to keep hartenstein they can keep them both as long as this trade is structured correctly by the Knicks and they they make smart trades it’s not a surprising structure at least of Trades um as long as the you want to explain that quick because it’s fairly simple why don’t you why don’t you explain it it just so just real quickly with the the way the new rules are set up if you take out if you take in more money then you send out in a trade you’re hard capped at the first salary cap apron it’s like $179 million right so if it’s just buam banovic for Mel Bridges bridges makes more than Buon and therefore the Knicks would be hard capped and they have about $50 million to resign OG and Isaiah hartstein and fill out their Roser if they guarantee a couple minimum contracts with Buon and send them all to Brooklyn they’d get an extra 11 million or so and they’d have about 60 million doll to fill out their roster because it’d be hard capped at the second apron and that I think would be to MCM point a much easier fit to get both of those guys done and fill out your roster and not have to sacrifice any players off your team otherwise you’re either not resigning as hartstein you’re trading Mitchell Robinson you’re doing something else that’s making your team worse in that scenario yeah so these are all the new rules that are just kind of coming online that everybody grappling with um for example the Oklahoma City Thunder are actually hard capped now at the first apron because the trade that they made Josh giddy um for Alex Caruso they took back um more money than they sent out and so they’re hard cap not a issue for them they’re still $30 million under the regular cap but that is now a thing that happens when you look at lining up multiple trades um okay so this for the Nets the Nets the thing that was the impediment for the Nets on a rebuild is they didn’t control their draft so they did two things tonight one they kicked off a massive rebuild obviously after the Kyrie Harden and Durant trades they were in a rebuild but they were trying to rebuild on the Fly that was their goal um about a month ago Joe Sai was at a um a conference he was on a deas he got asked about the Nets he basically indicated he didn’t want to be in the middle anymore and the League’s ears perked up um offer phone started ringing for male Bridges Dorian f Smith cam Johnson others and um their prices were Sky High so Skyhigh that um uh in fact I know of at least one team where they were trying to acquire uh male Bridges because they thought it might help them acquire another free agent who was like let’s do a package deal here and they were told in an outrageous level of of uh of assets required for male Bridges so teams were like okay they want to rebuild but they don’t really want to rebuild they’re just kind of pretending that they do well here comes the move and the move happened in conjunction with the with another move so off goes male Bridges indicating the rest of the league that more trades are coming the first trade they make is with the Houston Rockets according to W and they basically acquire back their the control of their next two drafts the 25 draft which is expected to be very deep and the 26 draft which is also looking good they got them back from the Houston Rockets um using Phoenix Suns draft assets uh two Phoenix Suns control of two picks potentially even three um for all the way out to as far as 2029 so now Houston traded control of of Brooklyn’s draft to significant control of Phoenix’s draft and a straight draft pick for draft pick swap we almost never see trades like this other than like on draft night where you’re where you’re actually trading players for players not really trading pick for Pick and McMahon you’re the Texas man why is what is Houston doing well Houston is doing a couple things number one they are this is a quantity play right they gave up a 2025 Swap and a 2026 pick uh back to Brooklyn and they got the sons unprotected 27 and 29 and then swap rights for 25 and 29 the 29 swap right includes the Mavs pick so that’s owed to Brooklyn from the Kyrie deal so they’ll get the best two of of the three in 29 again 25 swap rights with the Suns and then the Suns 27 and 29 picks so two two and two for one and one it’s a quantity play it’s also you know bumping back their their assets a little bit and this is something that the Rockets actually went to the Nets and asked if they were interested in uh before the trade deadline and you know frankly you know what else they’re doing they’re shorting a Kevin Durant team before they think it’s going to blow up again they worked in Brooklyn and I don’t know what if they’re the team that blows them up well and that’s a possibility um I I would say that the Rockets are trying to build a long longterm sustainable Contender and so if the suns are going to blow up I would look towards Devin Booker before I would look towards Kevin Durant now the Suns Matt ishbia is you know he why would they blow up the Suns I mean 26 29 GMS would you know do back flips to trade places with them so the Suns aren’t ready to do any of that right now and it’s not like that it’s not like the Rockets are just going to wait and not explore any other options and just see what happens with the Suns but should it get to a point where the suns are blowing up and the rockets haven’t used this stockpile of pics that they just increased uh to to do something else then they would be awfully attractive um in in talks with Phoenix now also I want to point out while Brooklyn gave themselves the benefit of being bad for the next two years the Rockets do still have 27 swap rights with the Nets but you know the Rockets again now they’re shorting the Suns more so than the Nets um they do have they they doubl the amount of Assets in this deal um and you know again this is about uh this is this is a bet against Phoenix’s pretty short-term future short and intermediate term future well I I mean it sort of is right what it what it is I think really is for both sides I mean it is obviously partially that right man but I think what it really is here is when you look at the Nets from the net side of this it’s the ability for them to as you said earlier perfectly control and and benefit from being bad the next two years is worth so much to the Nets that it’s worth double the price in the future as bets for the Rockets right because the Nets are going to suck the next two years Doran finny Smith I’ll be stunned if he’s on the team cam Johnson I’ll be stunned if he’s on the team let’s see if Nick CL is on the team on the team they’re not winning those guys are role players they’re not winning they are planning their flag in the Cooper flag sweep Stakes yes by making the Mel Bridges trade this is what I was gonna say before by making the Mel Bridges trade and making this trade virtually simultaneously they obviously made them together in a sense the Nets have clearly stated as man just pointed out whether it’s Cooper flag or the other guys that are a top with a loaded 25 draft the Nets are going to be right there and by getting that 26 pick and especially because they didn’t worry about the other picks involved here they didn’t get the third pick in this year’s draft which was their pick originally they didn’t get the future picks this was about controlling their next two years and all the guys whether it’s and we’ll see what they do with Cam Thomas I think you go up and down the roster any guy on this Nets roster that they can get for I think it’s going to be open season and who wants to trade for them and what can they get because they just stated what their goal clearly is is to be awful and for them that’s worth giving up that future price because they could potentially get two top three or top five picks in the next two drafts and then for Houston this gives them a ton of optionality going forward they don’t have to make a deal witho they can they can make a they with every Phoenix loss yeah with every Phoenix loss these picks get more valuable not just because what Happ with Phoenix but look let’s for it let’s point something out I’m not sure I’m just G to State a couple of facts here if you think they’re not facts you can correct me on Houston wants to get better immediately they’re not looking for holding draft picks they’re looking to get better now fact uh I would say want to yes desperate to no okay okay fair um they Kevin Durant has a relationship with udoka the Rockets head coach and one of the closest people he used two in the league is Royal Ivy yes Rockets assistant coach those are facts um wonder what Kevin Durant feels about this development well and look why was I think I think Bridges wanting to go to New York ended up maybe you know blowing a little wind on the Domino there um you know Matt ispia can can be determined to see how this Contender another podcast leading to a by the way another podcast leading to transactions first it was LeBron and JJ now it’s the uh what do they call that podcast the the Villanova boys well I am listen we’ve been podcasting a lot longer than JJ reck and none of us have even gotten an interview for a head coaching job I can’t even be dude I’m not even the head coach of our freaking uh fifth grade wck team I got to be a freaking assistant there it’s bll rightfully he was the head coach of his team that’s that’s the problem you should have been the head coach and you’d be getting interviews that’s the difference he has a little bit more control over his schedule the the roommate show by the way with with Jaylen Brunson and Josh hark they’re gonna need a bigger boat the Nets obviously hung a shingle up and said we would like to move Mel Bridges bring your best offers and look the Knicks brought the best offer this is an offer for Bridges but how did KD how did KD end up in Phoenix in the first place because the guy bought the team 24 hours before the trade deadline well Andy said get me to Phoenix well but really what happened was that I mean the guy literally bought the team 24 hours before the trade dead L it said damn the torpedoes and it was the fastest turn around history can he did a cannonball into the into the trade pool yes the T said damn the torpedoes and then he said damn the nuclear bombs when they did the Bradley trade well but but again this is it’s all these things are all about timing and Circumstance right and you look at what the Boston Celtics did over time they kept continually adding one piece after another and the Knicks did that for a long time they went partially pretty heavily in with the OG trade and then they went all the way in with the bridges now look you can make that face but they they traded manual quickly traded to first round pick pack Capital they traded RJ Barrett that they traded a lot they didn’t they didn’t trade a first round pick they traded no first round picks tra tra what they traded their for and they’re six man I mean it was it was a pretty move and well at least they traded the 31st pick in the draft the point is they that was an aggressive move to get ogn and Obi obviously this is a vastly more aggressive move they’re not in the same they’re not in the same ballpark well okay the point is the point is for a long time the Knicks were very patient and didn’t do a lot and now in the last six months they’ve gone all in on two Elite role players it’s just it’s a fascinating shift in strategy and now they’re all in on this team they are not I mean they could maybe package some of these guys to trade for somebody else but like they pretty much have said we don’t have any draft picks now this is our team we went all in for the Nova Knicks like this is this is who they’re going to be going to war with for the next couple years it’s a yeah Nicks are all in the Nets are starting over and then the Rockets are in phase two with a whole bunch of ammo phase two they’re trying phase three is on the launching P they got a whole lot of amamos they’re trying to get into phase three so what what let’s let’s let’s say that the Knicks resigned ogan anobi let’s just I I I would be stunned if they’re well Philadelphia now I think is their main competition for OG um because Philadelphia I I think they’ve moved past the idea of getting Paul George I don’t think it’s dead I feel confident OG is gonna be back with the Knicks too okay I I do think that Philly could offer a Max and cause some problems there but let’s just say that let’s just believe that OG’s back what is their starting lineup does Josh Hart come off the bench I think so yes yeah their starting lineup will be Jaylen Brunson male Bridges oan and Obi Julius Randall and then I either Mitchell Robinson or Isaiah hartenstein and then their second unit is new McBride Dante D venzo Josh Hart and the other Center that’s an awesome ninan team like that that’s a super deep team they they could guard everybody they’ve got a lot of shooting that is they’re big um that’s that’s an incredible that’s an incredible team well depending on what happens incredibly versatile the second Center might be precious to cheah depending on how things play out you know they’ll have two bigs I feel pretty confident it won’t be precious I mean it could be somebody like Andre Drummond some minimum big off the market depending on if they have to trade uh either they can’t resign Isaiah hartenstein they can’t trade they have to trade Mitchell Robinson we’ll see what happens there the bottom line is on the wings those seven guys on the wings or six guys on the wings you don’t want to count Julius like that is built to toe-to-toe with the Celtics that that’s what it is they’ve got long athletic versatile guys all over they’ve got jayen to score like they’ve got a lot of shooting there that that’s a team that’s built to try to take down Leon Rose won’t answer questions about this so I guess we’ll have to just suppose what he’s what he may be thinking um but I suppose what he’s thinking here is he’s not just trading for male Bridges he’s also Trading for the best out of Brunson Hart and Devon chenzo yeah he’s trading to solidify their investment and to get it’s a bet on chemistry it’s the ultimate bet on chemistry it’s like we’re we’re betting on the Nova Knicks like we’re gonna have these guys come together and be better than the sum of the parts yeah it’s a bet on a core that they’ll be able to keep together for probably not until this trade is paid off just because I don’t know wins the last pick like 20 31 or something 31 31 I don’t know if it’ll be that are gonna be here for a while while well here’s the other thing here’s the other thing too Jaylen Brunson can sign an extension this summer he can sign an extension for way less than his max is he gonna do it like he might I don’t know but like maybe these guys all are also aligned from that standpoint maybe Mel Bridges extends this summer off of his contract which is obviously has been seen as a bargain deal maybe he takes an extension for less than he could have had potentially on the open market to play with his friends for the next several years Dante demenzo on a great contract the next three years Josh Hart is on a good contract the next few years like this is the other thing the Knicks have done they have stacked up good contract and put themselves in they immediately extend du McBride after the Amo quickly trade that’s instantly become one of the best contracts in the league they have done a phenomenal job of managing their books and now by adding Mel Bridges they can have all of this stuff together and not have to really sacrifice off their team to add an impact player which is why they’re sending out so many picks because they’re not sending out any of the core guys on their team to get the deal but all right um one thing before we go is this the last trade that we see in this 24-hour period of um Team returning their picks you talking about before the draft or because obviously once during so I’m you know Atlanta’s number one on the number one and San Antonio I’m not sure it’s the last trade we see involving the Houston Rockets or for that matter the I agree I’m talking about returning their picks returning their Pi returning their picks see I’m saying you know the the Hawks have the first pick San Antonio has four and eight and San Antonio’s got the Hawks draft Capital yeah there’s that I don’t think that I mean I don’t know I could be wrong I don’t think that I don’t think that is happening in the next 24 hours I would bet against that but maybe we’ll see I mean I think the two sides are talking or have talked so I’m just saying like lot talk about there you know you know they leag it’s a copycat league right it’s a copycat League we’ll see what happens one goes uh okay um with the start of wild transaction season there’s going to be more emergency pods in the coming days I wonder if there’ll be much talk of anything I wonder if there’s a talk of anything uh about the actual draft tomorrow oh listen there’ll be again this there’s no stars in the draft there will be stars in this draft and there will be plenty of of of discussion uh in this draft but yeah I think the main talk that have it there’s going to be a whole bunch of Trades made and a whole bunch of uh you know whole bunch of guys flying around the league all right well McMahon thank you for being available bontemps thank you for being available Jackson Jackson got to keep the leftover pizza he’s gonna need it while he’s putting this together overnight Jackson the big winner we will talk to you uh whenever we talk to you next oh by the way the hoop Collective uh draft show will be on YouTube and ESPN plus uh tomorrow actually I’m just hanging out at the house and house going have a first [Laughter] Bon Temps will be at the barlay center I’ll be at the barlay center shipped off by then yeah yeah all right thank you for uh listening thank you to Jackson thank you McMahon and bontemps we’ll talk to you soon adios amigos

Brian Windhorst is joined by Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to the Knicks trading for Mikal Bridges, if the ‘Nova Knicks reunion creates a title contender in New York right away and why this move & a deal with Houston could be a sign of a huge changes to come for the Nets. Plus, could big moves be coming to Houston as well?
0:00 Intro
0:45 Big Night Of NBA Trades
3:03 What Does This Mean For The Knicks?
14:48 Nets Side Of The Trade
17:07 What Does This Mean Around The League?
26:21 How Does This Impact Future Planning For NY?
30:16 What Does This Mean Around The League?
32:04 Thanks For Watching!

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