Knicks' Mikal Bridges to hit ground running to start season
The Knicks' Mikal Bridges, front, and the Philadelphia 76ers' Kelly Oubre Jr. go for a loose ball during the first half of an NBA preseason game Thursday in Abu Dhabi. Credit: AP/Altaf Qadri
GREENBURGH — The command has been repeated over and over since training camp began, demanding the Knicks to run and run faster. Although on this day when the doors to the gym opened to the media, it was the large contingent of coaches who were on the baseline ready to run with Jalen Brunson giving them the signal to start.
If this was the group running the floor maybe Mike Brown would opt for a different system as a number of the coaches who’d had long playing careers hobbled back and forth on worn out knees.
But when the Knicks make their Madison Square Garden debut Thursday after winning their first two preseason games in Abu Dhabi, it will be the players doing the running — and no one might be more qualified to heed that command than Mikal Bridges.
Bridges struggled to find his place with the Knicks last season, enduring an up-and-down regular season before a handful of standout performances in the postseason relieved some of the pressure on him. As he readies for his second season with the team, the players are more familiar around him — and perhaps most important, Brown’s fast-paced demands match up with Bridges' style.
Bridges ran more miles than anyone in the NBA last season. His 285.8 miles traveled not only led the NBA but set a record since the league began tracking the number in 2013.
“When you look at him, you know he can be if not the best runner . . . in the NBA, at least in the top three,” Brown said. “I mean, he can get out and go. He's got long strides. Everything's real fluid. He's long. And now when he does do that, it puts a lot of pressure on our opponents because he's getting to the corner. He can shoot the three and so he's going to flatten the defense.
“You saw it when we were in Abu Dhabi: caught the ball in the corner, kicked it up top, Jalen filled the strong corner that he was in. We know we can't have two guys in the same spot. Mikal read that. He was going to create or re-space in the correct spot to keep our spacing the right way. And as soon as he landed, he took a stride and a half and he was at the rim, and he was wide-open and he got the dunk.”
Bridges didn’t exactly struggle last season even if he talks about it as if he did. He averaged 17.6 points per game, slightly below his numbers with the Nets but close enough, and he played every game as he always has in his career. But with a year to acclimate to the pressures of the spotlight the Knicks play under and a system that takes advantage of runners, he hopes to step up.
“Yeah, personally and then for our team as well,” Bridges said. “I think it’s a great fit for all of us. The talent we have one through 15. We’ve got 20 guys in there today in this camp so 1 through 20, it’s for everybody. Everybody is unselfish and making the right play and being aggressive. Not just personally me, I think it helps the team a lot.
“I think I’ll be better. Yeah, just be better throughout the whole year. [In the] playoffs, defensively I was better. I still think I could have been better and done more on both sides. People think I had a pretty good playoffs, but I still think I could have done a lot more. [So] start the season off strong, be better than I was last year."
Notes & quotes: Josh Hart, who has been day-to-day with back spasms suffered in the first game in Abu Dhabi, was absent from practice Wednesday (illness).
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.
