Why the Nets believe Mikal Bridges is the answer to their failed superteam experiment

IT'S A LITTLE after 1 o'clock in the morning on Thursday, Feb. 9, and Mikal Bridges, the talented swingman from the Phoenix Suns, is awake inside the Four Seasons hotel in Atlanta. The trade deadline is 14 hours away.

For months, Bridges has known that if the Suns swung a deal with the Brooklyn Nets for superstar Kevin Durant, he would likely be in it. His phone buzzes. It's Phoenix guard Damion Lee on FaceTime. He breaks the news that Bridges, Cameron Johnson, Jae Crowder and a haul of first-round draft picks are headed to Brooklyn.

«I looked it up on Twitter,» Bridges told ESPN. «And then my agents called and then Cam called.»

Johnson is Bridges' best friend on the Suns. The pair had grown so close since Johnson entered the league in 2019, a year after Bridges, that Suns center DeAndre Ayton nicknamed them «Twins» because they do almost everything together.

«I call him first,» Johnson told ESPN. «And he answers. He's like, 'Bro!' I'm like, 'I'm on the 16th floor. Come up to the 16th floor.'»

The deal certainly doesn't come as a shock to Bridges or Johnson. There had been so many rumors, for so many months, that the teammates had started making jokes about the situation.

The news begins to filter through the Suns' roster. Across the 16th floor, Suns forward Ish Wainright pokes his head out of his room. Then guard Saben Lee. Then Damion Lee.

«I'm in the hallway, and this is like 1 a.m., so everybody's in T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops,» Johnson said. «Everybody's ready for bed, and now everybody's in the hallway. And then he comes through the elevator, so we're already all in the hallway.»

As the Twins process the news, they do so as members of the Suns' front office try desperately to reach coach Monty Williams, who