If and when the New York Knicks make a trade to increase their flexibility ahead of the regular season, it is not going to include Deuce McBride.
In his latest dispatch over at SNY, insider Ian Begley writes that he would be “surprised” if the 25-year-old gets moved to drum up the team’s breathing room beneath the second apron. He adds that “key stakeholders” inside the organization view McBride as essential, and that interest from “opposing teams” is actually what’s fueling his entry into the rumor mill.
Nobody should need to hear it, but this isn’t just the right stance by New York. It’s the only possible one.
McBride is more valuable to the Knicks than most think
Cost-controlled players who can crack the rotation of a championship contender are hard to find. McBride arms the Knicks with one of the exceptions.
He is earning $4.3 million this season, and around $4 million in 2026-27. That is, on average, under 2.6 percent of the salary cap.
New York cannot afford to punt on that bargain. It’s already toeing a fine line beneath the second apron, which is how McBride’s name wandered into the speculation factory at all. These same margins only get tougher to straddle next year, when Mikal Bridges’ extension kicks in, and with Mitchell Robinson potentially on a new deal.
It would be one thing if McBride were a fringe rotation player. He is the exact opposite. He remains the team’s best defender at the point of attack, and his improved jumper paves the way for five-out lineups that can’t be guarded. There is a stronger case to start him over Robinson and Josh Hart than to trade him.
New York’s next move isn’t worth sacrificing McBride
This is not an attempt to paint McBride as untouchable. But let’s also not lose sight of what the Knicks are trying to do here.
Any 11th-hour roster shuffling will be done in service of creating the room required to sign both Malcolm Brogdon and Landry Shamet. You don’t give up the sixth- or seventh-best player on your team to bag an extra veteran who, apparently, isn’t valued enough to have landed a guaranteed deal from another suitor.
Tyler Kolek or Pacome Dadiet make way more sense to ship out if the Knicks travel down this veteran-contract rabbit hole. And while that decision is not without downside itself, the alternative is far worse.
Moving McBride for anything less than a king’s-ransom overpay from another team would be an error of epic proportions. Fortunately for the Knicks, they seem to know it.