Josh Hart was traded for one first-round pick.

Mikal Bridges, the player spotlighted for Friday’s interborough rivalry game, cost the Knicks five.

And while it wasn’t an encouraging start for Bridges in Manhattan, his teammate brought a measured perspective to a debate about the blockbuster.

“I just think he’s five times better than me,” Hart joked. “But no, the thing about these trades – especially trades like this – you can’t judge them right now. You have five first round picks, no one has any idea what those first rounds will be, what they will look like, who is available. So I don’t think there is any pressure.”

Hart is absolutely right about delaying an evaluation.

But that won’t stop early concerns about Bridges’ struggles in the first few weeks of this campaign, a storyline that became increasingly important on Friday with Karl-Anthony Towns (knee contusion) and Miles McBride (illness) both absent.

The Knicks needed something bigger and better from their starting backcourt of Bridges and Jalen Brunson.

“I think he did a good job. I think (Bruggen) can do better. I think we can all be better,” Hart said. “I think we’ve had some frustration at times trying to figure things out. But we know it’s going to take time. None of us thought it would be an easy, seamless transition and that we would be battling Cleveland to remain undefeated. No. We knew it would take time.”

When the transaction was first revealed in June, the initial reaction was broad, but certainly not unanimous: “How could the Nets do this? How could they give up their best player to their rival? How could they help the Knicks win a championship?

About five months later, the answer remains the same, but with perhaps a greater appreciation of Brooklyn’s logic: They got a lot of draft picks.

There are so many picks that the Knicks only have one of their own first-rounders until 2030.

And the peak of Nets catching – at least the short-term peak – may already have shifted.

The Knicks sent the Nets four of their unprotected first-round draft picks for 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, along with a pick swap in 2028.

The protected top-4 pick comes courtesy of the Bucks, which is suddenly more intriguing given the problems of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 4-8 roster.

In other words, it could be as high as the No. 5 pick for the Nets, and currently has the feel of a lottery pick.

Bridges, meanwhile, had been largely disappointing heading into Friday’s game.

He adjusted his shooting form and hit only 30 percent of his treys – failing everywhere except the corner.

More worrying, however, was Bridges’ defense.

He was promoted to elite wing stopper, but was at the bottom of the advanced defensive statistics before facing his former team.

“There are some things we are good at defensively, but there are also things we need to get better at,” coach Tom Thibodeau said after briefly explaining the trading philosophy. “It was clear that we felt he was a good fit for us. He’s been a good player in the league for a long time, so we liked the fit.”

Knicks guard Cam Payne, who was also a teammate with Bridges in Phoenix, agreed it was a defensive adjustment.

“I think so, because we have so many defenders,” he said. “So sometimes he’s not on the ball all the time. Sometimes he steps off the man because we have so many guys playing defense. I don’t necessarily think he has a problem with it. I think he’s doing fine. If he had to turn it off, I know he’ll be fine. I know he doesn’t emphasize it.’

Hart labeled the team’s overall defense as “ass.”

But he also knows there’s time — for the Knicks, Bridges, conclusions about a five-pick blockbuster and a struggling conference.

“We’re trying to find it,” Hart said. “And sometimes when you try to find it, it doesn’t come as quickly as you want it to. You can get frustrated and those frustrations affect your energy levels, things like that. We just have to understand that ultimately we won’t be the best in game 10 or game 12. That’s not the goal. The goal is to be the best team we can be in the last game of the season. Hopefully that will be in June, of course. We can’t get too frustrated about it. We know it will take time. The advantage, at least at the moment, the advantage of the East is that we have been at fault in the first eleven games and I think we are fourth in the standings. So East got beat up a little early. I think that’s the advantage for us.”