Nets season was ‘really tough’ personally for Mikal Bridges

Mikal Bridges is the face of the Nets’ franchise. But with the season over and self-reflection starting, he’s seeing a lot of room for improvement.

And it’s more about between the ears than on the court, more about his mentality than ability.

“It was really tough just personally. I got a couple gray hairs. Wanting to win and compete and being frustrated on a lot of things. Being frustrated at myself. You just gotta go through it sometimes,” Bridges said. “You have expectations, you have goals and sometimes you don’t reach those goals. Life has a funny way of humbling you. But it’s always for the greater good.”

Bridges averaged 19.6 points on 43.6 percent shooting, a scoring career-high but still disappointing after the raised All-Star expectations.

He had poured in a shocking 26.1 points on 47.5 percent shooting after arriving at the trade deadline last year, but couldn’t replicate that form and became a target after losses.

“It’s not him, specifically. It’s a team-wide thing. It’s across the board, where production wasn’t in the same spot, and our team identity and execution wasn’t where it should be,” Cam Johnson said. “And because of how he played at the end of the last season, everybody went, ‘Look at him’ and had their questions and suspicions. But at the end of the day, I’m proud of him.”

As much scrutiny as Bridges’ ironman workload has come under, he said his issue was more mental than physical.

“I was just too mental on myself, on wanting to win so bad and being so frustrated on things, it kinda took away from everything,” Bridges said. “I play the game with joy. That’s always how I played. And when I’ve got people asking me and talking to me about, ‘You don’t look the same’ and that’s strictly off my emotions, that means something. That means that I’m not there how I want to be.”

Bridges had a similar conversation with his mother during the season.

He also admitted that his headspace wasn’t right following a Dec. 27 loss to the Bucks (when the Nets got fined for essentially punting the game) and a 12-game span when they suffered 10 defeats.

“The Milwaukee game and losing on that road trip, that was tough. I think that was a part of it. That didn’t help. For the players, I know that I was pretty hurt from that, I was pretty pissed off about that situation,” Bridges said. “That’s just part of it. I think I’ve failed at that part mentally. I was doing pretty good mentally, but I didn’t do a pretty good job of that this year. I let my emotions get to me.

“For me, it’s for the greater good. I know what my purpose is. I want to win, be in the playoffs, stuff like that. I get really super frustrated. … It’s not in a selfish way, I just want to win. I definitely have to be better. That’s another thing I’m taking [from] this year with the goals and when things get tough, you might get hit with an uppercut and how are we going to react to that? … So when any little thing didn’t look right or went wrong, it ticked me off even more. Just being better mentally.”