Mikal Bridges was a part of the incredible 2018 NBA Draft class and was coming off multiple NCAA Championships with the Villanova Wildcats in Pennsylvania.
It seemed like an obvious fit for the state’s NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers, to draft Bridges. They used the 10th pick on Bridges but ended up trading him on draft night to the Phoenix Suns for Zhaire Smith. Bridges opened up on the draft day trade on the Tidal League.
“Cities I wanted to go to was like either New York or Philly, those were the two… I was excited, a dream come true, you know? It’s crazy how getting drafted by your hometown team and then getting traded kind of like messed me up. You’re so excited, this is a dream but now I am so pissed off. I am mad at them, I hate the night, it’s a weird thing to say when you look back.”
https://twitter.com/TidalLeague/status/1666146289363419137
Zhaire Smith was supposed to provide guard offense for the 76ers, as the team had a need for that alongside Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. It was a horrible trade in hindsight, as Smith played a total of 13 games over two seasons before being let go from the squad.
Mikal Bridges Leading Brooklyn’s Rebuild
Bridges got the opportunity to try and execute his revenge on the 76ers in the 2023 playoffs, but the team was clearly not ready for playoff competition just yet. There are a lot of parts on the roster that need to be cleaned up after the Nets acquired multiple players in mid-season trades that sent Kyrie Irving to Dallas and Kevin Durant to Phoenix.
Bridges averaged 26.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 27 games on the Nets. The team needs to get a solid point guard to solidify their hopes of keeping themselves in contention, as the team doesn’t control a few of their future picks and cannot tank to the bottom of the standings. They’re adamant about not trading Bridges away and the forward will step into the role as the franchise star.
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