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New York Knicks’ 2025 Title Odds Improve After Trade for Mikal Bridges

Ahead of the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, the New York Knicks made a stunning trade with the rival Brooklyn Nets, shipping veteran guard Bojan Bogdanovic, five first-round draft picks, a first-round pick swap and a second-round selection to the Nets for forward Miles Bridges and a 2026 second-round pick.

My Analysis

The deal came together quickly after Bridges informed Nets brass that he wanted to be a Knick. New York’s 2025 NBA title odds have improved dramatically.

Brooklyn gets unprotected New York picks in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, along with an unprotected pick swap with New York in 2028. Brooklyn also receives a top-four protected 2025 first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks, as well as a 2025 second-rounder.

It’s an amazing haul for Bridges, who is a fine two-way player but also has never made an All-Star team. The 27-year-old has never missed a game in his NBA career and is seen as one of the elite 3-and-D players in the league.

Bridges thrived after being dealt to the Nets as part of the return for Kevin Durant at the 2023 trade deadline, averaging 26.1 points per game on above-average efficiency (.607 true shooting percentage) the rest of the season.

He couldn’t maintain that pace last season, averaging 21.7 PPG on .573 true shooting before the All-Star break and sliding all the way to 15.6 PPG on .529 true shooting thereafter.

It’s possible that Bridges was overburdened as the Nets’ No. 1 guy. He still slots in as a clear No. 2 or 3 guy on a championship team, and he has a chance to do that for the Knicks, helping to relieve some of the massive pressure that Jalen Brunson faced last year as one of the few advantage creators on the team.

Bridges is a career 37.5 percent 3-point shooter who will stretch the floor and make it much harder to load up on Brunson’s drives in the playoffs. Bridges has two seasons and $48.2 million left on his contract. He will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season.

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MyBookie NBA Odds & Lines For Next Season

Villanova Knicks

The Knicks now can truly be referred to as the Villanova Knicks as the deal Bridges with his Villanova Wildcats teammates — Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo.

The four won a national championship in 2016 and played together for two seasons at Villanova. Brunson, Bridges and DiVincenzo won a second national title in 2018.

The Knicks signed Brunson in the summer of 2022, traded for Hart in the 2022-23 season and then signed DiVincenzo last summer, and have reached the Eastern Conference semifinals in both seasons.

“This is crazy, lol,” Bridges wrote on X just minutes after news broke of the deal. The trade is just the fifth between the two New York franchises since the Nets entered the NBA in 1976 — and the first since the Nets traded Len Elmore to the Knicks for a 1984 second-round pick (used on Tom Sluby) on June 22, 1983.

2025 NBA Championship

New York had been +1600 to win the 2025 NBA title but is now down to +900 with only reigning champion Boston (+300) and Denver (+750) having shorter odds.

Giving away control of five of your own first-round picks in a seven-year span leaves you incredibly vulnerable. If this goes wrong for whatever reason, there’s no pivot here for the Knicks.

At least they didn’t give up any picks this year, still leaving New York with three very valuable picks on Wednesday and Thursday: No. 24 and No. 25 overall in the first round and No. 38 in the second.

OG Anunoby

The Knicks remain focused on attempting to re-sign forward OG Anunoby, whom they acquired midseason from the Toronto Raptors and who opted out of his contract to become a free agent. Anunoby is expected to command a deal that starts – at minimum – at $35 million.

Assuming Anunoby is brought back, the Knicks would have two of the league’s most versatile perimeter defenders paired with DiVincenzo and Hart, both of whom might end up coming off the bench when Julius Randle returns from — barring an additional move involving Randle.

Isaiah Hartenstein

The Knicks also hope to re-sign center Isaiah Hartenstein but are limited in what they can pay him due to only holding his early Bird rights — which means, at most, he can sign a four-year, $72.5 million deal with the team. Hartenstein might be able to get more on the free-agent market.

The Nets, who have a new first-time head coach in Jordi Fernández, went just 32-50 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They are now looking at a significant rebuild, which, considering the draft picks they now have available, is absolutely possible in the coming years.

Bogdanovic is a solid player off the bench but at age 35 doesn’t fit the Nets so he likely will be flipped to a contender at some point.

NBA wins totals for next season should be out in the not-too-distant future once free agency shakes out. The Nets will be near the bottom with their 2024-25 total and the Knicks near the top.