The New York Knicks and wing Mikal Bridges have agreed to a four-year, $150 million contract extension, a league source confirmed to The Athletic.
Like his teammate, Jalen Brunson, Bridges took less than he could have demanded to stay with the Knicks. The contract will come in $6 million short of the maximum extension for which Bridges was eligible.
His logic, according to a league source, was the same as Brunson’s when the All-NBA point guard signed a four-year extension last summer: Bridges is prioritizing sustained success for the Knicks, who have avoided exceeding the second apron during each of the past two seasons and now have a better chance to continue doing so moving forward. Coming off its first Eastern Conference finals appearance in 25 years, New York is on the short list of contenders to win the East heading into this season.
The Knicks now have six of their core players (Bridges, Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Miles “Deuce” McBride) under contract for at least the next two years. Mitchell Robinson is the one significant returning rotation piece on an expiring contract.
ESPN was first to report the agreement.
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 a 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 Brooklyn 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.
At the time, the trade was viewed as an 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 considered one of the best 3-and-D wings in the league, 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.
He will make $24.9 million in 2025-26 before his four-year extension kicks in for the following season. Had Bridges waited until 2026 free agency to sign a new contract, he would have been eligible to re-up with the Knicks for five years instead of four and would have been eligible to earn more money — though whether he received it would have depended on his 2025-26 performance. With opportunities drying up in free agency over the past couple of summers, players nowadays are increasingly opting for the security that comes with an extension.
Bridges’ first season in New York yielded mixed results. Thibodeau had him guarding at the point of attack defensively, a new role for the soon-to-be 29-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 triples 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 league’s most efficient mid-range shooters. Overall, he averaged 17.6 points per game in the regular season and 15.6 in the playoffs.
Prior to this agreement, 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. Anunoby signed a five-year, $212.5 million contract in the summer of 2024, while 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.) Had Bridges declined the Knicks’ extension offer, he may have been one of the 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. Now, both sides will go forward together, attempting to secure the elusive NBA championship.
(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
