Mikal Bridges is basically a starter in name only at the moment. 

His minutes and production both resemble a bench player so far this season. It’s really only his inclusion in the pregame introductions that represents his status as a starter. 

But Knicks coach Mike Brown is not yet ready to make a change. 

“Mikal is a starter, so it’s not a question of that,” Brown said. “Like a lot of players, they’ve had their good moments and their not-so-good moments. Mikal has a proven track record of playing at a pretty high level as a starter in this league. So for me to make a quote-unquote panic decision and change it, right now we’re [11] games in or whatever we are, I’m not feeling it.” 

Bridges played just 17 minutes in the Knicks’ 115-107 loss to the Cavs Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden and only recorded two points. He was on the bench for the entirety of the fourth quarter. 

For the season, Bridges is averaging 24.4 minutes per game — notably fewer than Landry Shamet’s 25.9 minutes per game despite Shamet coming off the bench eight of the Knicks’ 11 games. 

Bridges’ offensive struggles to start the year have resulted in Brown increasingly opting to go with Shamet or Miles McBride on the court, particularly to close games. Shamet and McBride have played 69 and 43 fourth-quarter minutes this year, respectively, compared to Bridges’ 41. Bridges’ 5.9 points per game are eighth most on the team, and he is shooting a woeful 32.9 percent from the field and 26.5 percent from 3-point range. 

He has scored just four total points in fourth quarters this year — fewer than bench-warmers Pacôme Dadiet and James Wiseman, who usually only play in garbage time, have produced. It’s half of what Dalton Knecht, who has played in just three games this year, has delivered in fourth quarters. 

Brown’s changing sentiment is telling. He began the year saying that his starting five was entrenched and that everyone else on the roster was fighting for minutes. Then, last week, he said that Shamet is “about as close to being a starter as you can imagine for us.” And after Wednesday’s game, Brown admitted that he feels a need to make room for Shamet and McBride. 

Bridges can usually at least hang his hat on the defensive end, but that’s an area in which Shamet and McBride are thriving as well. Brown has praised their point-of-attack defense and said that their tracking data has shown that Shamet has been their best pick-and-roll defender this season. 

“We got two guys that are playing really well in Landry and Deuce,” Brown said. “So it’s hard. It’s gonna be hard to find minutes at times for Mikal. And maybe even at times for Josh [Hart], because those two guys are playing at a pretty high level. Not just on the offensive end of the floor, but defensively too. … Landry and Deuce have been a big part of what we’ve done defensively. They’re playing at a high level. I gotta keep trying to find ways to get those guys on the floor.” 

The Knicks have certainly been here before with Bridges. He went through significant slumps each of the past two regular seasons before coming up big in the postseason.

Last year, it reached a crescendo during the first round of the playoffs, when the Knicks fell to a 2-1 series deficit to the Hawks. Brown repeatedly sat Bridges in the second halves of those first three games and faced constant questions about replacing him in the starting lineup. 

But Brown held firm with Bridges, who rewarded him by playing a key role in the championship run. 

The Knicks are confident a similar bounce back is looming. 

“No matter what’s going on, with what people are saying or anything, the people in this room have his back night in and night out,” Jalen Brunson said. “We see the work he puts into his game. We see the time that he puts in. When you’re doing the right things day in and day out, things will eventually fall in your favor. So just giving him support, giving him confidence every single day, regardless of what the noise is on the outside. That’s our brother, we’re gonna keep it that way.”