Knicks’ Mikal Bridges blockbuster still too early to ‘judge’

Josh Hart was traded for one first-round pick.

Mikal Bridges, the spotlighted player Friday for the interborough rivalry game, cost the Knicks five.

And even though it hasn’t been an encouraging start for Bridges in Manhattan, his teammate brought a measured perspective to a debate about the blockbuster.

“I just think he’s five times better than me,” Hart joked. “But nah, the thing about these trades — especially trades like this — you can’t judge them now. You have five first-round picks, no one has any idea what those first-rounders are going to be, what they’re going to look like, who is available. So I don’t think there’s any pressure.”

Hart is absolutely correct about holding off any evaluation.

But that won’t stop the early concerns about Bridges’ struggles in the opening few weeks of this campaign, a storyline that grew in significance Friday with Karl-Anthony Towns (contused knee) and Miles McBride (illness) both out.

The Knicks needed something bigger and better from their starting backcourt of Bridges and Jalen Brunson.

“I think he’s been doing a solid job. I think [Bridges] can be better. I think we can all be better,” Hart said. “I think we’ve had some frustration at times trying to figure things out. But we know it was going to take time. None of us thought it was going to be an easy, seamless transition and be going round-for-round with Cleveland to be undefeated. Nah. We knew it was going to take time.”

When the trade was first revealed in June, the initial reaction was widely, though certainly not unanimously, “How could the Nets do this? How could they give up their best player to the rival? How could they help the Knicks win a championship?”

Roughly five months later, the answer remains the same but with maybe a greater appreciation for Brooklyn’s logic — they got a lot of draft picks.

There are so many picks the Knicks now only control one of their own first-rounders through 2030.

And the highlight of the Nets haul — at least the short-term highlight — may have already shifted.

The Knicks sent the Nets four of their unprotected first-round draft picks for 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, along with a pick swap in 2028.

The top-4 protected pick arrives courtesy of the Bucks, and that’s suddenly more intriguing given the struggles of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 4-8 squad.

It could be as high as the No. 5 pick for the Nets, in other words, and currently has the feel of a lottery choice.

Bridges, meanwhile, had been largely underwhelming heading into Friday’s matchup.

He tweaked his shooting form and was hitting just 30 percent of his treys — misfiring from everywhere except the corner.

More concerning, however, was Bridges’ defense.

He was promoted as an elite wing stopper but ranked near the bottom of the advanced defensive stats before facing his former team.

“There are some things we’re doing well defensively, but there are things we’ve got to get better at,” coach Tom Thibodeau said after explaining the philosophy of the trade with brevity. “Obviously, we felt he’s a good fit for us. He’s been a good player in the league for a long time, so we just liked the fit.”

Knicks guard Cam Payne, who was also teammates with Bridges in Phoenix, agreed it’s been a defensive adjustment.

“I think so because we got so many defenders,” he said. “So sometimes he’s not on the ball all the time. Sometimes he gets off the guy because we have so many guys who defend. I don’t necessarily think he has a problem with it. I think he does it just fine. If he had to switch off of it, I know he’s fine. I know he’s not stressing it.”

Hart labeled the team’s overall defense as “ass.”

But he also knows there’s time — for the Knicks, Bridges, conclusions about a five-pick blockbuster and a struggling conference.

“We’re trying to find it,” Hart said. “And sometimes when you’re trying to find it, it doesn’t come as quickly as you want. You can get frustrated and those frustrations affect your energy level, those kind of things. We’ve just got to understand at the end of the day we’re not going to be the best we’re going to be in game 10 or game 12. That’s not the goal. The goal is to be the best team we can be in the last game of the season. Hopefully that’s in June, obviously. We can’t get too frustrated with it. We know it’s going to take time. The benefit, at least right now, the benefit of the East is that we’ve been trash this first 11 games and I think we’re fourth in the standings. So East got beat up a little bit early. I guess that’s the benefit to us.”