Steve Popper: It's time for the Knicks to bench the struggling Mikal Bridges
Mikal Bridges of the Knicks looks on during the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
As the Knicks were battling their way down the stretch Wednesday night, trying and failing to pull out a game against the Cavaliers, Mikal Bridges was on the bench watching much like the 19,812 fans at Madison Square Garden.
Mike Brown seemed to put all of the chatter to bed afterward, starting his discussion about MIkal Bridges with, “Mikal is a starter.” But maybe what his actions have shown in the fourth quarter of games reveals what he believes of Bridges’ role as a finisher.
While Bridges has struggled mightily in the Knicks' first 11 games, he has held tenuously to his starting role, but in the fourth quarter he has not played a second in five of those 11 games, averaging just 3.45 minutes per fourth quarter this season. Overall, his 24.4 minutes per game are a career-low, a huge drop for a player who just two seasons ago led the NBA in total minutes played. So if Brown’s trust has shifted to Landry Shamet or Deuce McBride or even Jordan Clarkson in crunch time, it’s time to consider the bigger picture.
It’s time to make a change.
It’s not an easy choice. Bridges has established a history of struggling at times in the regular season, disappearing from a team that always plays in the spotlight. But he also has emerged with huge performances in the postseason, no small part of the championship run last season or the Knicks' success the year before. Those playoff performances have made the dismissal of the picks surrendered to trade for him moot.
“He's like a lot of players; they've had their good moments and their not so good moments,” Brown said. “And Mikal has a proven track record of playing at a pretty high level as a starter in this league. So, for me to make a quote-unquote panic decision and change it right now, we're 10 games in or whatever we are. I'm not feeling it.”
No one believes Bridges needs to be benched completely, but a shift in role could benefit the Knicks and maybe Bridges, too. If he seems invisible at times, it’s almost understandable when he’s in a lineup with a pair of All-NBA players in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. OG Anunoby sits next in the pecking order offensively and Josh Hart is a factor for his energy on both ends of the court. The player who occupies that other spot has to play off of those stars, and consider that Shamet is shooting 42.1% from three and McBride is up to 44.2% while Bridges is shooting a career-low 26.5%.
Maybe more revealing than the numbers is the eye test, showing a hesitance at times as he’s struggled. He has just two field goals in the fourth quarter this season, and one came at a crucial moment against Cleveland last week. But at one point Wednesday, Bridges passed up an open three, drove and attempted a mid-range floater that was swatted back at him by Evan Mobley and then fumbled the ball out of bounds.
Brunson backed Bridges, noting, “No matter what’s going on, what people are saying or anything, the people in this room have his back night in and night out. We see the work he puts into his game. We see the time that he puts in. When you’re doing the right things day in and day out things will eventually fall in your favor. Just giving him support, giving him confidence every single day, regardless of what the noise is on the outside, that’s our brother. We’re going to keep it that way.”
This isn’t a new question. It was little more than six months ago that Brown was not so definitive. While the focus was on the Knicks' move to shift the offensive focus after they fell behind two games to one in the opening round of the playoffs against the Hawks, there was another decision being considered. Asked if he was considering removing Bridges from the starting lineup on the day between games, Brown said, “That’ll be a game-time decision. Like I said last night, at this point in the year, everything is on the table . . . But I try to always list and think about the pros and cons for that individual and the repercussions it may have throughout the team, whenever I make decisions.”
The box score tells you, though, that Bridges is seeing his role steadily reduced. He played just 17 minutes Wednesday and has played less than 20 minutes four times in the last seven games. So far, Brown is holding true to his word that Bridges is a starter, but it’s hard to explain why.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
