Knicks Notes: Bridges, Byer, Hart, Shamet, Robinson

Traded from Brooklyn to New York during the summer, Knicks forward Michael Bridges has had to adjust to new roles on both sides of the ball this season, which Chris Herring writes for ESPN.com.

On offense, Bridges handles the ball significantly less than he did with Netswith his touchdowns down to nearly 20% and his usage rate easily the lowest it has been since his last full season in Phoenix. At the other end of the court, he has often operated as a point-of-attack defender on guards rather than being assigned to bigger wings, meaning he spends more time chasing smaller players around on screens.

“Teams would try to attack him because it was a different place for him; especially early,” a Western Conference scout told Herring. “If you got past him at the start, you could force all kinds of aggressive rotations because the team was still getting used to having (Karl-Anthony) Cities at the edge. And the collective trust didn’t look like it was there.”

While Bridges’ transition remains a work in progress, his offensive numbers have bounced back after an up-and-down start. Since the start of December, he has averaged 20.0 points per game. game on .523/.385/.757 shooting. He faces his old team on Tuesday in the Knicks’ first visit to Brooklyn this season.

“It will just be good to be back” Bridges said Monday, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. “Seeing my teammates and the coaching staff that was there for a couple of months before I got traded. Seeing the staff and everybody. Good energy.”

Here’s more on the Knicks:

• Towns, who missed a couple of games because of a bone chip in his right thumb, was back in action Monday against Atlanta. Josh Hart was also active after initially being listed as questionable due to cervical compression, which he said had been bothering him for a while and worsened on Friday, according to Bondy. Towns’ injury appeared to affect his shooting — his 27.8% shooting from the field (5-of-18 shooting) was his worst of the season — but both players made it through the contest without setbacks. They are listed as probable to play Brooklyn on Tuesday. tweets Bondy.
• Head coach Tom Thibodeau expanded its rotation from eight players to nine on Monday, with Landry Shamet earns 10 minutes off the bench after a few DNP CDs, writes Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Bridges was the biggest beneficiary of the move, logging just 27 minutes, well below his season average (a league-high 38.7 MPG). “That’s nice, man,” Bridges said, according to Bondy. “We have a lot of players, 1 to 15. So that’s good.”
• Mitchell Robinsonwho said a few days ago that he was down to 268 pounds, said on Monday that he is now at 265, according to Bondythat suggests the big man’s weight is notable because of his struggles with fitness and conditioning coming off injuries. According to Begley, he hasn’t heard anything that contradicts the “internal hope/belief” that Robinson could return to action in early to mid-February.