Miles McBride entered the 2024-25 season as a potential Sixth Man of the Year candidate coming off a breakout regular season and Playoffs, not to mention the Knicks trading fellow guard Donte DiVincenzo, which opened up a bigger spot for him. It was partially McBride’s ascension that made New York comfortable in moving their second-leading scorer from last year’s postseason, a strong implied trust in his leap and further development.
Unfortunately, this year hasn’t been the follow up fans hoped for. McBride has already dealt with a knee and then a hamstring issue, each sidelining him for five games, hurting his rhythm and nagging him when active.
We’ve seen his three-point shooting, inside finishing, and ball-handling regress in parallel, and he went from playing 26.4 minutes a night in the first 11 games of the season to 22.7 minutes since. He’s shown signs of turning things around in recent games, a positive development for him personally, but especially so for these Knicks.
For all the hype around what McBride could accomplish individually this year, his shaky performance has only emphasized how valuable he is to the team at large. In fact, New York outscores opponents by 4.6 more points per 100 possessions with McBride on the floor vs the bench, even in this “down” season.
That’s a loud signal for a team that, while dominant, still has some glaring weaknesses and isn’t considered among the contenders in the league. If the Knicks want to maximize their potential this season, they’re going to need more Deuce McBride.
The first step is getting more from McBride. His deep shooting is still solid and he’s getting them up at similar volumes, just not connecting at the same rate.
This is especially the case on pull-up threes, a niche but deadly quality only shared by Jalen Brunson on this roster. McBride would punish aggressive closeouts and drop coverages with these, forcing teams to adjust, but he’s now shooting 32 percent on them in 2024-25 compared to 37.2 percent last year and 40 percent in the Playoffs.
McBride’s also fallen off from the corners, where he and the Knicks as a whole love getting looks from. His corner three-point percentage dropped from 45.7 percent last season to 36.8 percent this year, and he’s getting fewer attempts from there as well.
There’s some good news, as McBride’s relied on a now-solid mid-range game amidst his slumps. But perhaps his most alarming dropoff has been at the rim.
McBride is only connecting on 46.7 percent of his field goals within three feet of the rim, a huge departure from his 67.9 percent finishing rate last season. There isn’t much in the film or numbers to suggest he’s doing anything different with his rim attacks and cuts, the ball is just rolling off a ton, with his lower body injuries likely playing a role.
The hope is more healthy reps builds back McBride’s rhythm and he bounces back, but the Knicks can help in that process. Not only do they need more from McBride, they need to play and trust him more.
McBride himself cited increased opportunity as a major reason behind his recent outburst against the Chicago Bulls, in which he scored a season-high 23 points and compiled six boards in his lone start of the season. More minutes are likely to come with improved play, but the Knicks may be able to accelerate the latter with the former.
Other teams’ sixth men like Payton Pritchard, Malik Beasley, and De’Andre Hunter average 28+ minutes a night, and yet the starved-of-depth, two-wings-in-top-five-MPG Knicks can’t find McBride over 23 a game? He’s seen a small bump in the last ten games as his shot has improved, but they’ve left plenty on the table.
Throwing him in for more minutes is a base-level solution, but they should also deploy him with Brunson more. That looks gives the Knicks two creators in one lineup, and should open up better opportunities for McBride playing off their best player.
McBride isn’t just a good player the Knicks need to be great, but a weapon they could deploy creatively if they chose to. Replacing Josh Hart in the starting five with McBride allows for a true five-out lineup without losing much defensively, yet the Knicks have only experimented with this configuration for 36 minutes this season.
Pairing McBride with Precious Achiuwa in place of Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns has given us flashes of some of the best defense this squad has played all season, but only for spot minutes.
As was evident during the trade deadline, this Knicks team doesn’t have great flexibility to improve on their roster, and it will only get marginally better come the offseason. New York will have to grow with the roster it has, and perhaps the biggest x-factor in that has been, and will continue to be McBride.
Read the full article here