Knicks’ Mikal Bridges trade good move for win-now team

Here’s the thing: the Knicks are no longer in position to wait for Giannis Antetokounmpo’s patience to run out in Milwaukee. They are no longer in a place where it makes sense to throw assets after older players like Kevin Durant or Paul George, no matter how much gas is left in the tank.

Joel Embiid? If that was an assumed option at the start of this year it can’t be any more, not after he spent another year plagued by injury, not after he expended as much energy becoming Public Enemy No. 1 in the playoffs as he did trying to eliminate the Knicks in them.

The Knicks are no longer working on spec. They are no longer about tomorrow, next year, three years from now. Everything they do now, better or worse, is for now. The Knicks are going for it. And on Tuesday, the picture of going for it officially became Mikal Bridges, imported from the Nets for Bojan Bogdanovic and a boatload of draft picks. It’s a steep haul for a player with a high ceiling coming off a disappointing season. It also makes all the sense in the world.

The Knicks are a team whose success is based on chemistry. That has been Leon Rose’s careful calibration the last few years, ever since he signed Jalen Brunson to kick-start them into contention. He’s had all these picks in his pocket, waiting for a chance to strike, and was determined to make sure the fit was right. That meant saying no to Donovan Mitchell. It meant allowing Dejounte Murray to go to Atlanta. It meant never getting involved with the Damian Lillard sweepstakes last year.

They weren’t fits. Josh Hart was. Donte DiVincenzo was. OG Anunoby was. And Bridges is. There were some who lament the exodus of so many draft picks, but draft picks — especially for good teams, who pick in the mid and low 20s — are decidedly unknown commodities. You can tell me two or three who rose from there to become All-Stars; I’ll give you a couple of dozen who are playing in Europe four years later.

We know what Bridges is. And we know how he plays on good teams, as evidenced by his blossoming in Phoenix and the way he played upon first arriving in Brooklyn before the Nets blew up.