{"id":124973,"date":"2025-02-21T14:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T19:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=124973"},"modified":"2025-02-21T14:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T19:01:07","slug":"deuce-mcbride-knicks-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/21\/deuce-mcbride-knicks-starter\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Emergency Starter Comes Through Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks returned from the All-Star break with more than just basketball on their minds. A team still missing OG Anunoby<\/a> and Mitchell Robinson<\/a> was also without Josh Hart<\/a> in their first game back vs. the Chicago Bulls. Most of the Knicks’ injuries<\/a> had been to their bench this season, so it felt weird to tip off without two of their starters. Fortunately for Tom Thibodeau, he had a starter-quality player who’s been itching for an increased role. When given the chance, Miles ‘Deuce’ McBride<\/a> did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

Knicks Emergency Starter Comes Through Again<\/h2>\n

Although the Knicks were heavily favored to beat the now-tanking Bulls, they’ve had trouble with this group in 2024-25. Chicago had already beaten them twice this season, and once again gave New York a tough test. After grabbing an 11-point lead late in the second quarter, Chicago battled back, taking NY down to the wire. It took a Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> second-half masterpiece and a Jalen Brunson<\/a> game-tying shot just to get the game to overtime. However, the real hero was McBride in his first start of the campaign.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old sixth-man stepped into Hart’s spot seamlessly last night, dropping 23 points on 9 of 19 shooting and 5 for 12 from deep. He also added six rebounds, three assists, and three steals, giving New York a great overall contribution. It was McBride’s first start of the year, but he’s no stranger to delivering when called upon.<\/p>\n

Deuce McBride Was Incredible as a Starter in 2023-24<\/strong><\/h3>\n

With the Knicks being ravaged by injuries last season, McBride was thrust into the starting lineup and didn’t disappoint. In 16 starts (including two in the playoffs<\/a>), the West Virginia product averaged 18 points and 3.9 assists on 61.9% true shooting in 42.6 minutes per game. His transformation from a broken shooter to a deadeye marksman has been remarkable to watch, and he was even more accurate in those starts, knocking down threes at a 41.9% clip.<\/p>\n

Oftentimes in 2023-24, some of New York’s best lineup combinations had McBride on the floor instead of a traditional starter. The same has been true at times in 2024-25 for a few reasons. He makes up for his lack of size on the defensive end with his intensity and lightning quickness. We shouldn’t forget that for all the deserved praise Mikal Bridges<\/a>, Precious Achiuwa<\/a>, Anunoby, and Robinson get for their defense<\/a>, McBride is possibly the team’s best on-ball defender.<\/p>\n

Offensively, replacing a guy like Hart drastically improves NY’s spacing because of his knockdown shooting. McBride has grown into an extremely confident shooter, rising up with ease over taller defenders both on the catch and off the dribble. Obviously, he cannot emulate the playmaking of Hart, or the mid-range mastery of Bridges, but McBride brings his own unique skillset to the table that fits very well with this Knicks team. Leon Rose got the steal of the century signing him to a three-year, $13M deal<\/a> through 2026-27. It’s perhaps the best contract in the sport for one of its most underrated players.<\/p>\n

Should Deuce McBride be Considered as a Permanent Starter?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The natural reaction to a performance like this is to wonder whether McBride should be elevated from his sixth-man role into the starting lineup. There are two reasons to think about it: better spacing and on-ball defense. While those are certainly good points, I’d stick with the grouping Thibodeau has used all season. Don’t overthink it: New York’s starting five has been one of the best lineups in the NBA this year, boasting a 5.4 net rating in a staggering 806 minutes<\/a>. There’s no reason to disrupt continuity at this juncture.<\/p>\n

However, McBride must see an increased role down the stretch. He’s played just 23.7 minutes a night this year. That number needs to be closer to 30 for the remainder of the regular season. Not only is the team better on both ends when Deuce is on the floor for extended periods, but it will keep Brunson and Bridges fresh for the postseason. Tom Thibodeau loves Deuce McBride, and so does the fanbase. There’s no reason he shouldn’t get more playing time in the final 27 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks returned from the All-Star break with more than just basketball on their minds. A team still missing OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson was also without Josh Hart in their first game back vs. the Chicago Bulls. Most of the Knicks’ injuries had been to their bench this season, so it felt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5412,"featured_media":124998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12],"tags":[1004,4389],"class_list":["post-124973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","tag-josh-hart","tag-miles-mcbride"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124973"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124999,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124973\/revisions\/124999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}