Miles McBride Is Knicks’ Biggest Preseason Letdown So Far

Let's get one thing out of the way: Miles McBride is a really good basketball player. The Knicks are better with him despite the consistent trade rumors. He's on an extremely team-friendly deal and there isn't a team that would love to have him or a player with his combination of point-of-attack defense and three-point shooting.

It's also important to clarify that fans should have all the confidence that he'll be a pivotal contributor to the Knicks' success once again. But with those facts come expectations. And he just has not lived up those expectations so far.

Two preseason games in, he's only played 13.7 mpg, which is a small sample size. But in said small sample size, McBride hasn't been impressive. He's actually looked somewhat bad, at least offensively.

Entering his sixth NBA season and fourth season as a consistent rotation piece, fans expect McBride to be if not his usual self, but even better. Especially after a disappointing offensive performance in the Finals (and playoffs overall) where his shooting inefficiency and lack of a reliable handle really hampered him, it would be nice to see McBride shake that poor form off.

Miles McBride's Slow Start Is Has Been a Disappoingment for the Knicks

Adding to the anticipation around McBride to begin this season was the recent revelation that he was still dealing with an injury during the playoffs. Being fully healthy and having a full offseason to work on weaknesses that were exposed set him up to start the preseason off on a better note.

So far, he's failed to deliver; not just on the improvements, but even when compared to his past standards.

In the Knicks' first two preseason games, McBride is averaging just 3.0 ppg while shooting 18.2% from the field and 11.1% from three. For a player whose offensive value comes mainly from his outside shooting, this has been a concerning continuing of a trend that began post-injury return.

Even more, his lack of creation and inability to create his own shots elsewhere has been on display once again.

After an unsatisfactory practice, Mike Brown had a message for the entire Knicks training camp:

“The starters, they gon’ play. Everybody else in the gym, you’re fighting to make the team or for minutes. This has nothing to do with last year’s team. Every day is a competition.” pic.twitter.com/T4WaMtEXyW
— Knicks Fan TV 🏀🎥📺🏁 (@KnicksFanTv) October 7, 2026

McBride at least has been good defensively as usual. And physically, he looks spry again, which may be just as important as anything else. The consensus should be that his shot will eventually fall. But seeing him only attempt two two-point attempts and have just three assists in over 27 minutes is a sign that McBride may never improve in those areas.

In the grand scheme, that's okay. The Knicks have plenty of talent and don't necessarily need McBride to become a ball handler. The backup guard is plenty good enough as is. He's proven that year over year and he should do the same this season.

For all we know, he could come out against the Timberwolves on Monday, go 4-6 from three and everyone will act like these two games didn't happen. For now, though, he has been the most disappointing Knick.

If you want to look at it in a positive light, it does speak to how well some of the other players have been playing. Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Landry Shamet, and Andre Drummond have looked good in both games, and Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mohamed Diawara and Tyler Kolek have had their moments in at least one of the games as well.

It'd be great to see McBride truly take over one of the remaining exhibitions as he enters the year as the leading sixth man. Otherwise, he might just be passed up by Shamet, who has a much more secure long-term future with the team.

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