Change is hard. And it was a season of sudden changes for the Nets and Mikal Bridges.

The Nets went from January title talk to February rebuilding, all with two words no franchise wants to hear from a star: Trade me.

Bridges went from the desert to the East Coast, from a contender to a rebuild, from a complementary piece to having to carry an offense. And he did it overnight.

How successful the Nets’ transformation is will largely depend on how they help ease Bridges through his.

“For us it was tough, just trying to figure it out,” Bridges said. “I think we just handled it pretty well and nobody really complained. Every time somebody had a question or tried to figure out something, it was always for the greater good, just trying to find out what’s right for the team. … Obviously it’s not fun, and change ain’t fun.”

For the Nets, the change was seismic.

They surely were thinking title after winning 18 of 20 games to climb within half a game of the league’s best record on Jan. 8. But Kevin Durant hurt his knee that night in Miami, and they saw their championship window slam shut when he followed Kyrie Irving in demanding a trade the next month.

The deal that sent Durant to Phoenix brought back Bridges and Cam Johnson along with a suite of draft picks.

For Bridges, the change likely wasn’t much easier. The 26-year-old was plucked from an enviable situation playing beside and learning from All-Star guards Chris Paul and Devin Booker.

The Suns had been the only NBA team he had ever known, and — discounting his rookie campaign — success the only outcome he’d tasted. Bridges started in the NBA Finals in 2021, and the Suns steamrolled to a league-best 64-18 record last season.

Bridges led the Suns to a win in Brooklyn on Feb. 7, and found out just hours later that he would become a Net. It was a shock he had little time to process.

“Just a challenge, getting traded and obviously role changing and stuff like that, [to] be prepared for it — just challenges aren’t easy,” Bridges said. “And to be able to go through them and learn from them, it’s always great just because it’s going to make you better.

“…And even though it obviously didn’t go as planned…we just all bonded and that’s the biggest thing.”

Almost none of this season went as planned, for the Nets or for Bridges.

But Bridges also proved far more capable than even the Nets could have expected, exceeding even the highest bar GM Sean Marks could have set.

Averaging a career-high 17.2 points at the time of the trade, Bridges upped that to 26.1 over 27 games — or 27.2 over 26, if you discount a four-second cameo in the meaningless regular-season finale — for the Nets.

It’s given the Nets confidence he has at least a chance to develop into an All-Star and that rarest of things in the league — an elite No. 1 scorer.

Considering Ben Simmons is a long way from his All-Star form, and on his best day never was an elite scorer, it would be a huge leap forward for the Nets.

“Mikal [has] proven to a lot of people that his role can continue to get better and better and bigger and bigger,” Marks said. “So I’d be pretty silly to limit him and say he cannot be something. A few people have had their eyes opened to what he can do.

“But now that the ball’s in his hands in those key crucial moments of games, can he step up? Can he be that guy that we can rely on in big moments?

“We saw this year where he came in and immediately was a crowd favorite [that] you could get behind him. It’s just the way he played, how he played, and he didn’t shy away from those moments either.”

From the time Bridges made his Nets debut on Feb. 11, he was a top-20 scorer in the league. And most encouragingly, he maintained his efficiency despite taking on a higher usage rate, going from a No. 3 option to a No. 1, and facing opponents’ best defenders. But fatigue down the stretch and constant blitzes and double-teams in the playoffs eventually caught up to him.

Privately, Jacque Vaughn and members of the Nets front office have acknowledged playmaking and using his newfound gravity to punish double-teams will be the next steps in Bridges’ development into an All-Star. Their task will be finding a supporting scorer and adequate help on offense.

“It’s just continuing to get better and work on things,” Bridges said. “…The thing about me is I’m just always trying to get better every year. I mean, that’s the biggest thing, and trying to be the best player I can be when it’s all said and done. There’s always room to grow, and this summer just learning things and adding more things to that routine.”

Those who know him best, from his mother, Tyneeha, to his father, Jack, to Johnson, who is Bridges’ best friend in the NBA, have told The Post that year-round work ethic is what enabled Bridges to take those strides this season — and, the Nets hope, next season.

“That stuff was accomplished over the summer for the most part,” Johnson said. “People, I don’t think they fully realize that what he was able to do in his time here wasn’t just he woke up one morning and was better than he was before.

“One, he was very effective in Phoenix. But two, there were hours and hours and hours of offseason work on every shot you saw him shoot, every move you saw him make. We were working on those moves all summer for multiple summers. That growth does come in the offseason.

“Now, when you get a chance to showcase it, you’ve got to be prepared. It’s where preparation meets opportunity, and Mikal’s a prime example of someone who’s ready to take advantage of that opportunity, and I’m super proud of him.”

In the end, a lack of player availability — whether it was due to injury, suspension, personal leave or anything else — ultimately sabotaged the failed Nets superteam.

It’s not lost on the Nets’ coaches and front office that Bridges hasn’t missed a game since his junior year in high school, and is the first player in 31 years to lead the league in minutes for consecutive seasons.

“Preparation and opportunity,” Johnson said. “The dude is an every-day guy: shows up every day, competes every day, works to be better every day. He doesn’t take a day off. He doesn’t take a game off. He doesn’t take a practice off. He’s there. So, that’s one of the things I’ve appreciated about playing with him the most is that he’s one of the most dependable teammates I’ve ever had just in terms of you know what you’re going to get from him.”

No one can question Bridges’ work ethic. His workload is another matter.

Through Bridges’ first 22 games as a Net, he averaged 27.5 points on uber-efficient .505/.434/.911 shooting splits.

But in his final five games of the regular season, those numbers slumped to 20.4 points on .354/.139/.818 shooting.

And Bridges’ shooting efficiency dropped in every game of the first-round playoff sweep at the hands of the 76ers: from 12-of-18 (.667) to 6-of-15 (.400) to 9-of-26 (.346) to 6-of-18 (.333). After Bridges led the league in minutes as well as in miles run, per tracking metrics, the fatigue was clear.

The solution?

“I don’t know. It just goes with just taking care of my body as much as I can and learned over the years how to do that pretty well,” Bridges said with a shrug. “But that’s the biggest thing in the summer, just getting in really good shape and staying in shape and doing a little bit more.

“…But no, I’ve got nothing wrong with it. I’d rather have it this way than not playing at all, so I’d tell you that. It’s a good problem to have.”