Mikal Bridges' stock has steadily risen within NBA circles since joining the Brooklyn Nets at last year's trade deadline.

The 27-year-old quickly cemented himself within the inner circle of the NBA's rising stars upon his trade, averaging 27.7 points on 47/38/89 shooting splits in 31 games (playoffs included) with Brooklyn. He continued building that star momentum during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, emerging as Team USA's second-best player behind only Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards.

Both performances landed Bridges the 33rd spot on ESPN's Top 100 rankings for the 2023-24 season, placing him firmly in fringe All-Star territory.

“Already valuable for his defense and spot-up shooting, Bridges added shot creation — which accelerated after he was traded to Brooklyn. Already averaging a career-high 17.2 PPG in Phoenix, Bridges pushed that to 26.1 with the Nets, which would have ranked 16th in the NBA,” Kevin Pelton wrote. “While Bridges played well in Brooklyn, the missing piece was maintaining his shot creation down the stretch. In 36 clutch minutes (score within five in the last five minutes of regulation or OT) after the trade, Bridges scored 11 points on 2-of-9 shooting, per NBA Advanced Stats.”

Head coach Jacque Vaughn said at Media Day that he would “put a lot more on Bridges' plate” this season. That could be considered a euphemism for “expect him to close out clutch games.”

Pelton's statistic shows Bridges' inefficiency in the clutch late last year, but his low volume in those moments was more surprising. Bridges attempted just nine of Brooklyn's 60 clutch shots after joining the team, compared to 22 for Spencer Dinwiddie. The Nets ranked 28th in clutch offense during that span, shooting 40 percent as a team and posting a 4-7 record in clutch games.

Bridges' low usage in the clutch could largely be attributed to his inexperience as a ball-handler, as he averaged just 2.7 assists per game during his initial stint with Brooklyn. Vaughn was open about his late-game trust in Dinwiddie, who ranked fifth in the NBA with 9.1 assists after joining the team. The coach and general manager Sean Marks are banking on a leap from Bridges as a closer in 2023-24.

“I think he’s proven to a lot of people that his role can continue to get better and better and bigger and bigger, so I think I would be pretty silly to be up here and limit him and say he cannot be something,” Marks said of Bridges after Brooklyn's first-round sweep. “I think that a few people have had their eyes open to what he can do. But now, when the ball’s in his hands in those key crucial moments of games, can he step up? Can he be that guy that we can rely on in big moments?”

“I definitely would not limit him and say he could only be this for us.”

While Mikal Bridges often took a backseat late in games, his leap as an on-ball scorer was a resounding win for a Nets team that had just traded Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The former lottery pick scored 30 points or more 12 times with Brooklyn after reaching the total just twice in four-and-a-half years with Phoenix.

Bridges routinely scored 25 or more on nights when he struggled from the field, a product of his growing ability to draw fouls. His 6.9 free throws per game with Brooklyn ranked 14th in the NBA. He converted on 89.4 percent of those attempts, the league's second-best percentage during that span among 33 players to average 5.5 or more.

He also became increasingly comfortable taking threes off the dribble to complement his mid-range game, a skill that bodes well for his ceiling as a high-usage scorer. Throughout his last two seasons with Phoenix, Bridges attempted 0.4 pull-up threes per game, converting at a 32.2 percent clip (19-of-59). He more than quadrupled that volume with Brooklyn, shooting 37.5 percent on 1.8 attempts per game.

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In addition to Mikal Bridges' growing repertoire as an on-ball scorer, his malleable skillset has made him attractive to front offices and star players. The Villanova product's defensive capabilities are well-documented throughout his career, with NBA general managers voting him the league's second-best perimeter defender in this year's annual survey.

Further, Bridges' high-level spot-up shooting (39 percent on catch-and-shoot threes in 2022-23) and willingness to move without the ball make him an enticing fit alongside a high-usage star. NBA GMs also voted the Nets forward the league's second-best off-ball mover, trailing only Stephen Curry.

Bridges is under contract for $23.3 million annually for the next three seasons, a deal that projects to be among the best values in the league. The second-year Net is Brooklyn's only player considered off the table in trade negotiations, presenting a future building block as the organization pivots to a new era.

Four of 25 league executives polled by HoopsHype voted Mikal Bridges as the NBA's top breakout candidate in 2023-24. The former Sun's ability to make that kind of leap will be the main factor in Brooklyn's ability to qualify for the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.