Knicks’ Miles McBride will do whatever it takes to play after Jalen Brunson trade
ByZach Braziller
July 11, 2022 10:54pm
Updated
Richard Jefferson tries hand as ref during Knicks-Blazers Summer League gamemenu
LAS VEGAS — Miles McBride isn’t concerned about his role, that the signing of Jalen Brunson could limit his opportunities.
The young point guard has one singular focus: Earn playing time.
“Doing whatever I can to be on the floor [is my mindset],” he said. “If that means making shots, bringing the ball up, finding the open man, playing defense, I’m doing anything I can to be on the floor.”
The addition of Brunson and return of Derrick Rose likely leaves McBride, the Knicks’ second-round pick a year ago who only appeared in 40 games, as the third-string point guard. But his self-belief hasn’t changed.
“Confidence can’t waver, not in this league,” said the former West Virginia star, who had 16 points, four assists and three steals in the Knicks’ 88-77 loss to the Trail Blazers on Monday night. “If that happens, then you’re going to be stuck in the mud. So I’m trying to stay as confident as I can.”
McBride has performed well in the Knicks’ three summer league games, averaging 14.0 points, 6.5 assists and 2.0 steals and has committed just three turnovers. He’s also hit seven of 20 3-point attempts, an important aspect of his development.
Miles McBrideNBAE via Getty ImagesMcBride, though, isn’t interested in putting up numbers in Las Vegas. His focus is on one thing.
“To win, honestly,” he said. “That’s my only personal goal.”
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Knicks players have raved about the job done by summer league head coach Dice Yoshimoto, who is an assistant with the NBA Knicks. Like head coach Tom Thibodeau, his focus is on the defensive end and playing with intensity. The Knicks didn’t allow more than 88 points in any of their three games and held the Bulls without a made field-goal attempt for the first 7:05 of their 101-69 win on Saturday night. They dominated the Trail Blazers at the start on Sunday, too, holding them without a point over the first 4:19 of the contest, but came apart later on in the second game of a back-to-back.
“He’s always stopping practice, making corrections,” Jericho Sims said. “It definitely helps having him out here.”
This is the second year in a row Yoshimoto has coached the Knicks’ summer league team. A Division III basketball player at Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., he earned a master’s degree in education at Fordham and previously worked under Thibodeau with the Bulls, where he was the team’s head video coordinator.
“It’s great to have a guy like Coach Thibs to mentor me,” Yoshimoto said. “He tells me his job is to tell me the game as he sees it, and I’ll watch the film as well. We’ll talk about it and see how we can get better.”
A few weeks ago, Sims and Feron Hunt made a trip to Dallas to work out with Julius Randle, who took in the Knicks’ first summer league game.
“It was cool,” Sims said. “He wanted me to come down so I said, ‘Hey, he’s a big-time player, why not get close to him, build that relationship?’”
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The Knicks announced the trade with the Pistons that sent Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks, two second-round picks and cash to Detroit in exchange for a second-round pick and the draft rights to Nikola Radicevic. The 28-year-old, 6-foot-5 Serbian was taken in the second round (57th overall) in the 2015 draft by the Nuggets and later traded to the Pistons. They have still yet to announce the signings of Brunson and center Isaiah Hartenstein, or the re-signing of Mitchell Robinson. Hartenstein was in attendance for Sunday’s game, but wasn’t made available for comment.
