Knicks, Mikal Bridges agree to 4-year, $150 million extension: Source

New York Times

a day ago

The New York Knicks and Mikal Bridges have agreed to a four-year, $150 million contract extension, a league source confirmed to The Athletic.
Bridges took less than the max to help New York attempt to stay under the second apron and continue to push toward a championship. The Knicks have six core players under contract for the next two years. ESPN was first to report the agreement.
Can confirm the NYk and Mikal Bridges have agreed to a four-year, $150 million extension.
Bridges took less than the max to help New York try and stay under 2nd apron and continue push toward title.
Knicks have 6 core guys under contract next 2 seasons.@ShamsCharania first
— James L. Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) July 31, 2025
The deal comes on the heels of the Knicks hiring Mike Brown as their new head coach. Brown, who replaced Tom Thibodeau, will manage the core of the New York team fresh off its first Eastern Conference finals appearance in 25 years.
Last summer, the Knicks acquired Bridges in a trade with the crosstown-rival Nets, which was the first deal between the two teams since 1983. New York traded five first-round picks, a first-round pick swap, a second-round pick and Bojan Bogdanović to pair Bridges with Knicks wings OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
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At the time, the trade was viewed as a massive overpay for Bridges, who has never been named an All-Star. However, per league sources, the Knicks saw Bridges as the missing piece for a team that had the potential to contend for an NBA championship. Bridges was deemed league wide as one of the best 3-and-D wings given his ability to also operate with the ball in his hands. New York was also intrigued by the fact that Bridges has never missed a game in his NBA career.
The Bridges trade was followed up by New York dealing for Karl-Anthony Towns just before the start of the last season. After those moves, the Knicks won 51 regular-season games and reached Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Despite the hefty price the Knicks executives forked over to trade for Bridges last summer, a contract extension agreement this offseason was not a given. Bridges' season in New York brought about mixed results. Thibodeau had him guarding at the point of attack defensively, which was a new role for the 28-year-old wing. Bridges struggled to be a consistent force for the first half of the season before finding more comfort as the head of the snake defensively. Bridges made several big defensive plays in the playoffs to help the Knicks hold off the Pistons and Celtics in the first two rounds.
'I don't know if people thought I stopped playing (defense),' Bridges said in a conversation with The Athletic during the playoffs. 'I know I struggled a little bit this year, but (I'm) just getting comfortable.'
Offensively, Bridges was up-and-down for the bulk of the season. His 35.4-percent clip from 3 was his lowest mark since his rookie season. He struggled to make 3s that weren't in the corners, knocking down just 30 percent of his above-the-break 3s in the regular season. Bridges shot less than 120 free throws (118) during the regular season, which he also hadn't done since his rookie year (118). Furthermore, only 18.5 percent of Bridges' shot attempts came within three feet of the basket. Conversely, Bridges was one of the NBA's most efficient mid-range shooters.
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On the other hand, there was some belief around the NBA that Bridges might want to test the open market next summer as a free agent. Anunoby signed a five-year, $212.5 million contract in the summer of 2024 and Desmond Bane signed a five-year, $197.2 million extension with the Grizzlies that same summer. (Bane's situation is a little different because it was the full rookie-scale extension.) Some league executives who spoke to The Athletic thought Bridges, given his history of never missing games, might play next season on an expiring contract and attempt to get closer to $200 million on the open market next summer. Bridges would have likely been one of the five most coveted unrestricted free agents in the summer of 2026, assuming the likes of Luka Dončić, De'Aaron Fox and Trae Young eventually strike extensions with their current teams.
In the end, Bridges and the Knicks found a middle ground as the former went with the security. Now, both sides will go forward together attempting to secure the elusive NBA championship for the Knicks.