Miles McBride is having himself quite a start to the 2024-25 NBA season for the New York Knicks.
Knicks’ Miles McBride is off to a wildly efficient start to the year
McBride is averaging a solid 14.7 points per game through the Knicks’ first three contests thus far. But it’s how he’s getting his points that is eye-popping. The West Virginia product is shooting 65.4 percent from the field and 61.5 percent from three-point range. There are a couple of other backcourt bench players in the league like Buddy Hield (Golden State Warriors), Payton Pritchard (Boston Celtics), and Ochai Agbaji (Toronto Raptors) who are scoring at video game levels.
McBride can be the Knicks’ first Sixth Man of the Year since 2013
The Knicks’ Sixth Man is doing so at a greater rate than them all. James L. Edwards III of the New York Times presented a mind-boggling nugget about McBride’s efficacy from the floor that not only jumps out, but also forecasts him to potentially be the first player since J.R. Smith in 2013 to come away with the Sixth Man of the Year award come season’s end:
“This season (again, small sample size), McBride is the only player in the entire NBA to take at least five pull-up jumpers and not miss. He can score in various ways off the dribble, and when you look at the history of sixth-man winners, his archetype is the common thread among the vast majority of them,” Edwards III wrote.
Regarding McBride’s heightened confidence, Edwards III included this quote from the fourth-year off guard:
“From the front office down to the coaching staff and my teammates, there has been a lot of belief in me,” McBride said. “It gives me a lot of confidence to go out there and do what I do.”
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The Knicks need McBride’s versatile scoring
McBride is proving that last season was not a fluke. Now that he’s comfortable rising up off the dribble and knocking down jump shots, he indeed fits the mold of prior second-unit stars who took home the award, including Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford, and Jordan Clarkson. However, his pesky on-ball defense takes things to another level.
Whether or not he takes home the award, the Knicks will need him to be able to find his own shot in a variety of ways to maximize their championship outlook. If the first three games of the year say anything, it’s that he can do so. He has an efficient track record to back him up.
