JJ Redick Calls Miles McBride Knicks' 'Gamechanger'
If things pan out the way metropolitan basketball fans are hoping, JJ Redick, part of the new triumvirate for ESPN/ABC's top broadcasting group, will be narrating a lot of New York Knicks basketball this spring/summer.
The Knicks (43-28) are surging as the NBA reaches the final portions of the 2023-24 regular season, having won six of their last seven as they attempt to secure homecourt advantage for the opening round of the coming postseason, a privilege the franchise hasn't earned in over a decade. Redick believes that the Knicks will inch closer toward the honor if they continue to place offensive trust in Miles McBride, a reserve backcourt man whose recent offensive surge has paved the way to a successful March.
"McBride has been so important to the functionality of this team on both sides of the basketball, in particular, his shooting," Redick said on his renowned podcast "The Old Man and The Three." "I’ve called their games and all of a sudden, it felt like a couple of months ago, you’re like ‘Oh wow! This guy is coming in with this level of energy, this level of defensive tenacity and he’s going to shoot over 40% from three for this team.’ That’s a game changer. That is an absolute game changer.”
A third-year man out of West Virginia, McBride played sparingly over the first two-plus months of the season but earned a promotion once the Knicks shipped off Immanuel Quickley to Toronto. McBride built a name of himself as a sterling defender but contributions to the more recognizable portions of the box score have made the Knicks a force to be reckoned with despite numerous injuries.
Miles' March has seen him average 12.2 points in 11 appearances, which have seen him shoot over 42 percent from three-point range. These final weeks have seen McBride thrown into the starting lineup upon OG Anunoby's resumed medical sabbatical: in four starts, McBride has accumulated 79 points on over 54 percent from the field overall. That includes a full 48-minute effort in Saturday's 105-93 win over the Brooklyn Nets, one that saw him earn 26 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
To Redick's point, the Knicks struggled from deep in last year's playoff run, to the point where they were the only team among the 16 contestants to shoot less than 30 percent with an extra point on the line. Redick was particluarly impressed by McBride's difference-making considering the fact he was often a "DNP-CD" in the early portions of the year: from opening night through Christmas, McBride averaged less than five minutes a game, appearing in only 18 in that span.
"Just think about that for a second: a guy who was essentially not in the rotation is now being asked to play 30 minutes a night to keep your playoff seeding alive, to keep your momentum going and he has responded," Redick said. "When you are not a constant in the rotation, when you don’t know every night what your minutes are going to be, and how your shots are going to look, it’s very difficult in the NBA to shoot a good percentage when you are not in rhythm. He has been in rhythm since January.”
McBride will more than likely return to the starting lineup on Wednesday night when the Knicks return to action against Quickley and the Toronto Raptors (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).