Knicks’ Mikal Bridges still trying to get comfortable with his role as he returns to Phoenix

PHOENIX

Mikal Bridges has been with the Knicks for a season and a half now, and if we’re counting games — given that he doesn’t ever miss one — that’s 100 games last season between the regular season and the postseason and another 37 games this season entering Friday.

And still, he doesn’t seem quite at home, not as much as he does when he’s making his way through the back corridors of Mortgage Matchup Center.

Bridges began his career in Phoenix, even if the arena had a different name and the coach was different and nearly all of the players were, too.

“Yeah, man, being drafted here and being here for so long, being embraced by the culture here and the fans and everybody, yeah, it’s always amazing coming back here,” Bridges said after the Knicks’ morning shootaround. “It always feels like home. No matter how many times I come out here or when I come out here.”

He spent the first 4 1/2 seasons of his career here before a trade to the Nets  changed his role. After being moved from the Nets to the Knicks in a trade that remains a subject of debate among the fan base, Bridges is in a role similar  to the one he had in Phoenix before the Nets needed him to serve as a star.

But again, he doesn’t quite feel at home as much as he did in Phoenix.

It’s not that it’s home. He was raised in Philadelphia, and when he was traded from the Suns, he sold his home, cutting ties.

Bridges spent much of last season trying to find his place while serving as a secondary option behind Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. Whether it was the cost to bring him to the Knicks or his play, he was a target of fans and never seemed comfortable.

That seemed to change in the postseason when he delivered a pair of defensive gems to help the Knicks knock out the defending champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

But if he finally fit then, when the Knicks made a coaching change, he found himself starting over this season. Mike Brown’s system offensively seemed to fit him as well as anyone, taking advantage of his tireless cutting and movement. But while his role may be similar to what it was with the Suns, his comfort level has not quite been the same.

“I think it’s a little mixed,” Bridges said. “I think offensively when I was in Phoenix, it was kind of a no-brainer, the movement. I think we’re still figuring out what we’re doing here offensively because it’s still a new system. But yeah, you could say that.”

Brown coached against Bridges then, and what he saw certainly was something  he wanted when he inherited him on the roster in New York.

“He was a guy here who shot the ball well, moved well without the basketball, got out in transition,” Brown said. “Obviously, defended a lot of times at the point of the opponent’s attack. But he’d really get in the passing lanes, and those are things we definitely rely on him to do for us.”

Bridges entered Friday night’s game averaging 16.0 points, his lowest since his days in Phoenix. But in his last season in Phoenix, perhaps his most noteworthy achievement was earning a spot as a first-team All-Defensive Team selection and finishing second for Defensive Player of the Year to Boston’s Marcus Smart.

The Knicks recently have struggled  defensively — notably in the four-game losing streak that ended with a win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday — and Bridges has not been the defensive player that he has been in the past. And that, as he pairs with OG Anunoby, might be what the Knicks need more than anything.

It was the steals in Boston that earned him the trust and finally made him feel at home in New York last season. Maybe a return to the All-Defensive form would do that more than the All-Star berth that Brown has lobbied for for him.

Notes & quotes: Josh Hart has traveled with the Knicks on this four-game western trip, but Brown said he was uncertain if he will make his return during the trip after suffering a sprained right ankle on  Christmas Day. “I don’t know,” he said. “I know he’s progressing every single day. He’s doing controlled scrimmaging right now. So we’ll see, but he’s definitely getting close.”

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.