Brooklyn Nets make bombshell trade, Ben Simmons’ contract floated

The Brooklyn Nets have made two huge trades including sending Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in a major NBA shake-up.

Mikal Bridges is now a New York Knick. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

The Brooklyn Nets have made two huge trades including sending Mikal Bridges to the New Yok Knicks.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the first trade on Wednesday (EST), with the Knicks surrendering five first-round picks — four unprotected — an unprotected pick swap and Bojan Bogdanovic to acquire Bridges.

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Brooklyn followed it up with a second trade with the Rockets — sending its 2025 Suns pick swap, 2027 Suns first-rounder and a first-rounder and swap in 2029 to the Houston Rockets in exchange their own 2025 pick swap and 2026 first-round from the James Harden trade.

Wojnarowski reports Houston did the above trade with the intention of making a big play for Suns star Kevin Durant or “be aggressive on deals elsewhere.”

I think the Knicks looked at the Celtics and said if we wanna truly compete for a ring now is the time to push in all the chips we have.

— Jerry Ferrara (@jerryferrara) June 26, 2024

The Knicks are going to be absolutely awesome.

— Chris Vernon (@ChrisVernonShow) June 26, 2024

The Knicks championship window has officially opened.

— KnicksMuse (@KnicksMuse) June 26, 2024

While the Suns reportedly have no desire to part ways with Durant and plan to run it back with their current group, it’s believed that could change.

It marks New York’s big all in-move after sitting on a mountain of assets in recent years amid links to several superstars including Donovan Mitchell. Despite this, New York is reportedly still keen to re-sign free agent OG Anunoby.

Bridges, 27, averaged 19.6 points last season, shooting 43 per cent from the field including 37 per cent from downtown.

The Nets meanwhile commit to a proper rebuild in a move that figures to put Aussie Ben Simmons into a bigger role along with the likes of Nic Claxton, Cam Thomas and Cameron Johnson.

The Aussie is on an expiring US $40 million deal and himself could be used as a trade chip.

Forbes Sports’ Evan Sidery noted the organisation could look to offload Simmons’ gargantuan contract to secure even more draft capital.

The Nets now have the opportunity to explore utilizing Ben Simmons’ massive $40.3 million expiring contract to take on unwanted salary in exchange for more draft capital.

Simmons has only played in 57 games for Brooklyn over the past three seasons. pic.twitter.com/qFh26242s0

— Evan Sidery (@esidery) June 26, 2024

It’s the second big trade domino to fall this NBA off-season after Josh Giddey and Alex Caruso were traded last week.

The involved players seemed to be excited.

After the trade was leaked Tuesday, Hart tweeted, “YOOOOO @mikal_bridges FINALLY HIT MY LINE!!!!!” and “YO WE F—KIN LIT.”

Brunson kept it simple with an “omg” tweet.

Bridges added, “this is crazy lol.”

Earlier this season, Bridges was a guest on Brunson and Hart’s podcast, ‘The Roommates Show,’ and the conversation was steered by Hart to the Knicks’ immense popularity compared to the Nets’.

“No matter how big the Nets get, that’s Knicks city,” Hart said. “I was in L.A. No matter how good the Clippers are going to be, L.A. is always going to be Lakers. ….”

Bridges mostly nodded along, looking annoyed at the reality of generational fandom in New York. Hart then said the “vibes got to be tough” in Brooklyn given the fan dynamic, and asked if Bridges ever looked across the river to play.

That was Bridges’ chance to emphatically declare his allegiance to the Nets and defend their fans, and he instead made a joke about looking at Brooklyn from across the river because he lives in Manhattan.

That was followed by awkward silence, and, months later, a trade to the Knicks.

Originally published as Brooklyn Nets make bombshell trade, Ben Simmons’ contract floated