WASHINGTON — After a brutal shooting performance and a difficult entire preseason beyond the arc, Mikal Bridges admitted he tinkered with his shooting form to get back to comfort at Villanova.
“Since I’ve been in the league, I’ve been trying to get back to how I was in college,” Bridges said. “So it's been going on every day for seven years.”
Bridges has an unconventional streak to his form that he said he picked up after turning pro in 2018. However, he obviously changed his form again before this season, but it didn't work in pre-season.
In Friday's final preseason loss to the Wizards, Bridges missed all 10 of his 3-point attempts, converting just 11 percent in four games played.
“When I got out of college, I adjusted it a little bit, and then my second year in the league I got in some trouble and I’ve been trying to bounce back from that ever since,” Bridges said. He is a 38 percent career shooter in the NBA, despite having issues with his shooting form in college. “So I'm just trying to get it right. That's pretty much it.”
He wasn't the only Knicks rookie to struggle with treys.
Karl-Anthony Towns went 0-of-5 on Friday, hitting just 17 percent (4-of-23) from 3-point range in the preseason.
That's a far cry from Towns' career efficiency from long range (40 percent), which puts him among the best in center history.
“The shots just aren't falling and I'm OK with that, so I'm going to keep hitting them,” Towns said before scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in the Knicks' 118-117 loss to the Wizards in the preseason. . “I will continue to do what I can to help the team win.”
The Knicks finished the preseason with a 3-1 record, with Jalen Brunson the top producer averaging 21 points in just 23 minutes.
He had no problems with his shot or form.
But the Knicks, whose rookies were rested and whose biggest upgrade of the season should be in shooting, knocked down just 30 percent of their treys overall.
“The game tells you what to do. If you're open, you have to shoot,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Of course, even if we don't have great shots, our offense is scoring a lot of points. Our defense should be better.”
Thibodeau expects the Knicks to be a team that can shoot a lot of 3-pointers, but he expects they will need to convert more than they did in the preseason.
“[Friday] He scored 36 points last night. I hope the numbers will go up a little bit more,” the coach said. “But we got to the line a lot (38 free throw attempts). And again, shot value is important, so the layup is obviously trying to get as many shots as possible. Easy. An open three…The problem is that everyone understands the value of a shot. You know certain things from the game's math: If your opponent scores 20 points and you score 10 points, that's it. It's going to be tough to beat. Ideally, we'll have high volume and be at the lowest level of league average in terms of percentages.”
Bridges would like to see the kinks in his form ironed out.
“Let's clean up our mistakes now and get ready for an 82-game season,” Bridges said.
