Thursday night was Miles McBride's coming out party.
The rookie logged a career-high 35:49 on the floor in the Knicks' 116-103 win over the Houston Rockets. Along with stout defense, he dropped 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, dished out nine assists, and had four steals.
After a brief demotion to the G League, McBride now has a role with key Knicks like RJ Barrett and Obi Toppin in COVID-19 protocol, and in his last two games, he's surely taken advantage of the chance.
"The coaches and the vets have just been encouraging me, just like ‘stay ready, your opportunity is gonna come. It’s a long year,’" McBride said after Thursday's game. "That’s what I try to do and just continue to keep a positive attitude.”
Not only have they given him words of encouragement, but they have taken notice of the work the 21-year-old has put in.
“You look at his development and he’s a strong two-way player,” Tom Thibodeau said. “He plays with great energy on both sides of the ball and can guard multiple positions. He’s unselfish. He sprays it out. If you sag off him, he’s going to shoot it. He can make it and can finish.”
Immauel Quickley's 24 points were a game-high, but even he had nothing but praise for the 36th pick of the 2021 NBA Draft.
"Deuce had a lot of confidence, and we had a lot of confidence in him as well," Quickley said. "He works really hard and he was ready when his name was called, so it’s a credit to him being ready. We trust him, and he did a great job playing with energy, effort, and just playing hard. Credit to him.”
McBride had played 69 minutes this year - 56 of them have come in the last two games.
“I felt like I could continue to impact winning, and I guess Thibs did, too," said McBride. “Honestly, every time I step on the court, I just want to impact winning. If that means on the defensive end, I’m always gonna bring it, and offensively, I’m just gonna read what the game gives me.”
If there's one thing McBride takes pride in, it's his defense.
“I feel like it’s just buried in my DNA – just be an absolute monster on DNA.”
It's a two-game sample size, but McBride has put up legit numbers so far, and he's confident his work ethic will keep him in the rotation, even when the Knicks do get healthy.
“I’ve been conditioning, been working hard, I think my body is pretty in shape, considering the amount of minutes I played today without really having played before that," McBride said, "so I think I can keep it going, but it’s a long year – it’s a lot different than college. I’m just trying to continue to improve.”
