New York Knicks backup point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride is starting to blossom into a strong rotation piece for Tom Thibodeau. He played a couple of career games as the Knicks returned to winning ways, having won four of their last five games.
McBride made his third consecutive start Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets, where he played all 48 minutes and scored 26 points on 9-16 shooting and 6-12 from three. It was the second time in the last three games that he scored more than 20 points, as he scored a career-high 29 points against the Golden State Warriors last Monday and held Stephen Curry to just 4-13 from beyond the arc.
During that same span, McBride sat on the bench for a total of just five minutes. His brother Trey jokingly commented on X about the sudden jump in minutes Miles has received from Thibodeau this season.
Thibodeau’s confidence in the 23-year-old guard has evidently increased tenfold. With injuries to OG Anunoby and Julius Randle, the Knicks have been looking for a way to make up for the loss of cap space. Before Monday, Thibodeau had decided to start Precious Achiuwa and Isaiah Hartenstein in the frontcourt with the injured roster, but that created a hole for perimeter scoring.
So far, the switch from Achiuwa to McBride has brought back the improved spacing, and while it’s a smaller lineup than they’d ideally like to run, it’s worked to this point and led to some huge wins as the season winds down.