The Brooklyn Nets officially began their rebuild last week when they traded Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for forward Bojan Bogdanovic and as many as five first-round picks. However, the trade wasn’t officially completed because the Knicks did not send away enough salary, until New York found someone to part with more than a week later.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium on Thursday, the Knicks will be signing guard Shake Milton to a three-year, $9 million deal before trading him to the Nets to complete the Bridges trade. Charania also notes that Brooklyn will be sending forward Keita Bates-Diop to New York as part of the deal.
Fred Katz of The Athletic later added that the Knicks will also be sending forward Mamadi Diakite in order to avoid being capped at the first apron as stated by the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Charania reported towards the end of June that Bates-Diop opted in to his $2.65 player option for this season.
So, in addition to Bogdanovic and the first-round picks, the Nets will also be receiving Milton and Diakite, two players that could either be flipped for more assets or could get playing time on a Brooklyn team that is clearly in rebuild mode. How much playing time either of the new incoming players will receive is still left to be determined, but it looks like the Bridges trade should be complete at this point.
Sources: The Knicks are signing-and-trading Shake Milton as part of Mikal Bridges/Bojan Bogdanovic trade to the Nets, who will also send Keita Bates-Diop to New York. Milton will sign a three-year, $9 million contract, with over minimum in year one and two non-guaranteed years.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 4, 2024
In addition … The Knicks will also add Mamadi Diakite to the Mikal Bridges trade, league sources said. Knicks have to add salary to the deal in order to avoid being capped at the first apron. https://t.co/hHABkS07nE
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) July 4, 2024
Mamadi Diakite’s $2.3 million salary is non-guaranteed. It’ll be partially guaranteed to around 50% of that amount to make this trade work.
Keita Bates-Diop doesn’t count towards salary matching from the Knicks end since he’s on a minimum salary.
Bojan, Shake, Diakite for Mikal… https://t.co/4Qc6xSulIf
— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) July 4, 2024
