Miles McBride has become one of those players every good team wants and every good team has trouble squeezing into the rotation. The Knicks know he can help. The problem is that knowing it and carving out the minutes are two different things.
Jalen Brunson sits at the top of the guard depth chart, and everything behind him is crowded. McBride is in the mix with Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet, and Tyler Kolek, a group with different strengths but the same basic problem: they all need a slice of the same limited pie.
What makes McBride so valuable is easy to see once the game gets nasty. He can pick up the ball, fight through screens, and keep an opponent from getting comfortable early in the possession. That kind of defense mattered on a championship team, and it will matter again when the Knicks run into the best guards on their schedule.
The Knicks also should not be waiting for an injury to figure out where he belongs. They have enough shooting and enough ballhandling around him to use his defensive edge intentionally, especially with Brunson needing help against bigger guards.
That is why October should bring a real McBride plan, not another night-to-night minute shuffle. A deep roster only helps if the roles are clear, and right now the danger is that depth turns into a holding pattern while everyone waits for the rotation to sort itself out.
McBride does not have to start to be important. He just needs a steady set of matchups and the right lineup around him so he can pressure the ball without being asked to carry the whole offense.
The Knicks have the pieces. The staff has to make the rotation fit.
In Other News...
Knicks May Have Finally Found A Way To Ease Jalen Brunsons Burden
Jalen Brunson has carried a massive share of the Knicks offense since arriving in 2022, and that workload has been one of the defining facts of his time in New York. The challenge for the Knicks has been simple enough to state and hard enough to solve: how do you keep their primary creator fresh without stripping away the control he gives the half-court attack?
The recent playoffs offered a potential answer, with Karl-Anthony Towns helping to shoulder more of the offensive initiation and giving Brunson more chances to work off the ball. That shift let Brunson score more from spot-ups and other off-ball situations, and it gave New York a useful blueprint for easing his burden heading into next season without needing to remake the roster. [Read more 🡒]
OG Anunoby Made One Thing Clear After The Knicks Title Run
The Knicks championship run ended with the kind of signature moment teams remember for years, and OG Anunoby provided it when New York stormed back from a 29-point hole to take Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals on his game-winning put-back. A night later, the Knicks finished the job in Game 5 and closed out the San Antonio Spurs in five games, leaving the franchise with its first title in a long while and Anunoby at the center of one of the defining plays of the postseason.
As much as he is still taking in what the run meant, Anunoby has already made his next priority clear: getting ready for the season ahead. For a Knicks team that just reached the mountaintop, that mindset matters, because the celebration can fade quickly once the target shifts from winning the championship to trying to stay there. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Face A Deuce McBride Decision With Bigger Trade Implications
The Knicks long-term planning around Deuce McBride has turned into a pretty practical roster question this summer. An extension for the young guard would not just lock in a useful backcourt piece, it could also preserve his trade eligibility before the next deadline, giving the front office a little more flexibility if the season pushes them toward another move.
There is some real appeal in doing it now because the right kind of deal could make McBride more valuable around the league by giving another team cost certainty. New York would still have to thread the contract details carefully, but with McBrides current market value and contract expectations, a reasonable extension appears to be on the table while leaving the bigger decision for later. [Read more 🡒]