NY Knicks: Getting Miles McBride point guard reps seems necessary

As the NY Knicks continue to lose games and get increasingly encouraging performances from their young players, you can’t help but feel one player has been a little left out of the equation.

That player is rookie point guard Miles McBride.

NY Knicks: Why not give Miles McBride a shot?

I get how a lot of these “Play the kids” articles can seem almost like fanfiction — that the way fans talk about them is that every young player is a superstar in the making. Yet, with the way this NY Knicks season has gone and the way things have shaped out lately, it feels as though someone like Miles McBride should have plenty of opportunity to take on some of the team’s point guard role.

Derrick Rose has been sidelined for awhile now. Kemba Walker has been shutdown for the season. Even though he wasn’t getting point guard minutes, Quentin Grimes is out with injury.

It’s frustrating to see what’s happening with Alec Burks, who is starting at the point guard spot. While I can see some of the thinking behind it — Burks is a good ball-handler and shooter, and really, RJ Barrett and Julius Randle are doing most of the initiating — he really doesn’t bring the any sort of penetration or quickness that you would want at that guard spot.

It’s led to heavy criticism of Burks, who is still a really good player, but has been miscast in his starting point role.

We all know how dominant Miles McBride has been in the G League but I think we don’t always emphasize just how crazy his numbers are.

Miles McBride in his 4 games in the G-League this year:

• 29.5 Points Per Game
• 10.3 Assists Per Game
• 6.3 Rebounds Per Game
• 50% 3-point FG
• 47% FG

As a 21-year-old doing this, he’s cleary too good for the G-League.

And this isn’t to say that you just slot him in at 30 minutes per game as the Knicks the starter. We’ve had such little sample size to go by, but when McBride actually saw significant minutes over the course of a few games back in December when the team had multiple players out due to COVID protocals, he showed he can play.

It seemed like he was struggling to score, but he was certainly a competitive defender and solid playmaker. And he’s a rookie with a ton of room to grow!

Something else that gets lost in the conversation around Deuce — he was a projected first rounder by a lot of people! Honestly, I saw him projected as a late 1st round pick way more frequently than I did an early 2nd round pick.

Between simply needing to develop someone like McBride and needing to get better point guard player, giving him playing time at point guard seems to make sense no matter which way you look at it.