The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks made an interborough trade on Tuesday night, a blockbuster that sent wing Mikal Bridges to Manhattan in exchange for a bevy of draft picks and veteran forward Bojan Bogdanović.
It will take time to ultimately render a final judgment on the deal, but once the dust settled late last night, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton got to work on his initial assessment for both teams.
While the Nets and Knicks both made out well in Pelton’s opinion, Brooklyn was the clear winner in the deal. He gave the Nets an ‘A’ grade while handing out a ‘B’ to the Knicks.
“A rebuild isn’t for the faint of heart, and there are some tough days ahead for Brooklyn,” Pelton wrote. “Nonetheless, adding five more first-rounders to the haul the Nets already got with Bridges and Johnson in the Durant trade has positioned them to either hope they’re on the other end of a surprising draft haul or dealing those picks to supplement a homegrown core.
“There’s now a path to relevance for Brooklyn that wasn’t clear prior to this trade.”
In total, Brooklyn received four unprotected first-round picks from the Knicks (2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031), along with a protected 2025 first-rounder, via the Milwaukee Bucks, a 2028 first-round pick swap. a 2025 second-round pick and Bogdanović in exchange for Bridges and a 2026 second-round selection.
The Nets also executed another deal involving draft picks with the Houston Rockets as the team looks to embark on a full rebuild, starting with the 2024-25 season.