ESPN.com · Apr 1, 2023
Nets' Mikal Bridges on pace for 83 games, and GM says it's 'refreshing'
NEW YORK -- Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges is on the verge of completing a statistically perfect season that makes analytics pushers shudder and teammates smile all at once.
Bridges, who started the 2022-23 NBA season with the Phoenix Suns before a midseason trade to the Nets, is on track to play 83 games this regular season, which would make him the first player to do so since Josh Smith in 2014-15 (Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets). It is an exceedingly rare accomplishment given the fact each team has only 82 games scheduled in a season, and doing so would require a player to be traded midseason to a team that has played one fewer game than his previous team.