Miles McBride’s Knicks Minutes Seem Vulnerable After Free Agency

With a crowded backcourt and overlapping skills, it will be on Miles McBride to earn and keep his rotation spot.

Jan 17, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Miles McBride (2) during the second half against the Phoenix Suns at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Knicks’ roster has hardly changed over free agency, yet returning much of last year’s roster could mean some players’ minutes are impacted.

In particular, Miles McBride currently looks like a Knick who is going to have to play at a high level to earn big minutes on this roster.

Miles McBride’s “combo guard” status could hurt his minutes

The Knicks, in general, lean a little small. Jalen Brunson starts at point guard, of course, with either Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges as the nominal “two.” With those three on the roster, backcourt minutes will be hard to come by.

But in an offseason where the Knicks re-signed Jose Alvarado, Landry Shamet, and Jordan Clarkson, there is no shortage of reserves who could be turned to as well.

McBride has long been thought off as a wing in a guard’s body. He is not a natural PG, and he is a little small to be a full-time two guard, especially with smaller players like Brunson and Alvarado surrounding him.

That leaves McBride as something of a combo guard, but the roster now has more natural backup fits.

Alvarado is a true PG, with better handles and vision than McBride. Five years into his career, “Deuce” doesn’t have the ball-handling skills to be used as an initiator.

Meanwhile, Shamet is a natural shooting guard: taller than McBride and a better movement shooter. Shamet was arguably the Knicks’ best point of attack defender last season. While McBride is no slouch in either the shooting or defensive departments, it’s not as if the Knicks lose something if they turn to Shamet rather than McBride.

This isn’t to say McBride isn’t going to get minutes at all. He’ll walk into training camp with an assured rotation spot. And, it’s worth noting, that he offers some advantages over both Alvarado and Shamet: he’s bigger, stronger, and a better shooter than Alvarado and perhaps equally as accurate of a shooter as Shamet, but with a higher release point and deeper range.

However, with Alvarado and Shamet occupying more clear-cut positional fits, it may squeeze McBride’s minutes, especially with Mike Brown being prone to giving different bench guys opportunities.

McBride’s poor postseason showed rotation minutes can be tightened

One takeaway from the 2025-26 season was that Brown’s rotations are not set in stone and players can fall in and out the rotation.

This seemingly happened to McBride during the postseason. McBride averaged 19 minutes per game over the first three rounds and topped 20 minutes seven times in 14 games. During that stretch, he averaged seven points per game on 43% from deep.

In the Finals, however, McBride went cold from the field. He averaged just nine minutes per contest over the final three contests as he shot a combined 0-for-8 in those appearances.

In a recent interview with Knicks Film School, McBride said he played in pain in the postseason and was not fully recovered from the sports hernia surgery that cost him much of February and March. That slow recovery could explain McBride’s relatively lackluster postseason. 

But his reduced minutes in the Finals also shows that Brown won’t ride with him no matter what.

The Finals, of course, are a different beast than the regular season. They're an all-in moment where coaches press whatever buttons are needed to win. Brown has also shown that he will use the regular season to experiment and keep starters’ minutes low. 

Nonetheless, during last year’s regular season, Brown also pulled players he thought were ineffective. Alvarado himself was out of the rotation for the final months of the regular season before reemerging in the playoffs.

With players like Clarkson and Tyler Kolek also vying for backcourt minutes, if McBride offers Brown any reason to give someone else a look, it could lead to reduced minutes.

All of this is to say that with capable guards around him and Brown’s willingness to reduce minutes or pull players from the rotation entirely, it will be on McBride to play well and keep his minutes.

If McBride slumps from deep, doesn’t add the dribble-drive game he’s teased, and doesn’t defend up to his abilities, it’s possible that he could go from a sub who sees over 25 minutes per game to a player fighting who falls into the teens.