Few would deny that Mikal Bridges wound up in the perfect situation after seeing how he quickly ascended to the Brooklyn Nets' No. 1 option last season. For the 26-year-old, though, there were a lot of emotions to process after being dealt by the Phoenix Suns for Kevin Durant ahead of the trade deadline.

The move was not exactly a blindside, given that the superstar had already been linked to Phoenix during the previous offseason, but learning that he would have a new NBA home was nevertheless a surreal experience for the former first-round pick out of Villanova.

“[It was] Tough, really tough,” Bridges said on the Podcast P with Paul George, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment. “In the summer KD [Kevin Durant] said he wanted to go to Phoenix. So it was kind of in the back of my head cause you know, we're not dumb like if you want to come here, you know, I was going and Cam Johnson knew we was going.”

The Nets received a considerable trade package for Durant, which included Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and a slew of draft picks. Replacing one of the best scorers in NBA history is really an unfathomable task, but considering the franchise was imploding in that moment, this was as good a consolation prize that Brooklyn was likely to get under these circumstances.

Before the two-way wing was officially shipped out, he had been frequently engaging in jokes about having to ‘pack his bags” and even referred to Brooklyn as his “home.” The basketball gods could only be pushed so far, apparently. He explained as much in an NSFW recount of the days leading up to the blockbuster trade.

“Even when I got to Brooklyn that day before, when we was about to play him, I was f*****g around like in the gym like this is my home, this is my home and I get f*****g traded two days later,” Bridges said. “So it's like some karma on my a** for that one. But yeah, literally f*****g around dapping up the guys that work there like I'm gonna see you, bro.”

However, difficult it was enduring trade speculation and uncertainty about his future, the two-time national champion wasted little time in landing on his feet with the Nets. He has gone from a top 3-and-D guy to a star almost over night.

The organization still has a long way to go in recovering from the traumatic Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden experiment, but Bridges' rise is making that job much more manageable than it should be.