After two blockbuster trades completely revamped the team, two months is all these Nets had to build chemistry in advance of facing a top contender in the first round of the playoffs. It’ll be a tough challenge on head coach Jacque Vaughn and the roster.
Perhaps the biggest weight falls on Mikal Bridges, the 26-year-old centerpiece of Brooklyn’s trade of Kevin Durant. Since becoming a Net he’s been their number one option, an entirely new role he’s excelled at in a limited sample.
Now he’ll get to test himself against a top-ten defense led by Joel Embiid and teeming with big defensive wings, an audition as Brooklyn’s key building block moving forward into this new era. Can he rise to the occasion and cement himself as a young star in this league?
Bridges sure has looked like one this season. Even before he joined the Nets, he saw a scoring bump in Phoenix partially due to injuries to the starters.
A career-high 17.2 points per game on 38.7 percent shooting from the field and increases in assists and free throws suggested Bridges was taking a step offensively. With the new workload in Brooklyn, he’s blown those numbers out of the water, putting up 27.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game on 53.1 percent shooting from two and 37.6 percent shooting from three.
We’ve only seen 27 games of this, many of which in the doldrums of the NBA season. Yet it looks completely real, and like it can be repeated against postseason competition.
Bridges had some of his biggest games against the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, while his worst shooting stretch came to end the season against less impressive foes. While he’ll have the occasional stinker from the field, he’s largely been a consistent threat, not to mention constant defensive presence.
How has his scoring blossomed? In part thanks to becoming an elite mid-range weapon.