One Knicks Trade Target Who Would Make Moving Miles McBride Worth It

In Miles McBride’s rookie year, the Knicks were a losing team. A year later, they improved by 10 wins and advanced to the second round. His third year they won 50 games, his fourth they reached their first conference finals in 25 years and last year he helped them win their first title in 53.

If the Knicks want to do right by him, sooner or later they’ll trade him to quite possibly the worst team in the league.

An unrestricted free agent next summer, this year is the last on the three-year, $13 million deal McBride signed in 2023. He’s a fan favorite, with Knicks fans making famous the “Deuce!” chant whenever he lets loose from three at home and on the road. He’s established himself as a defender and a floor spacer worth four times what he’s been making. And he’ll never get what he deserves in New York.

Last year McBride set career highs in points per game, made threes and three-point percentage (41.3%). But the number most relevant entering his walk year is his 26.3 minutes per game. Now, despite all that, he may mean more to the Knicks’ title hopes in a trade than off the bench.

Crowded space

At the moment, there are nine guards on the roster (10 if you include Josh Hart, who’s essentially all five positions in one player). In last year’s playoffs, seven were regular, meaningful contributors: Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Hart, McBride, Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson. Every one of them is back in 2027, plus new competition in Bruce Brown, Ochai Agbaji and John Konchar. The Knicks aren’t built for McBride to get much more of a role than he had last year.

But the Bucks are.

After a decade of winning, the team parted ways with Giannis Antetokounmpo and are in the early days of rebuilding. While they have an intriguing mix of names in their backcourt already, they also have enough question marks that nothing is set in stone.

Bucks as a potential Knicks trade partner

Brayden Burries is a highly touted rookie, but still a rookie. Kevin Porter Jr. is coming off arthroscopic knee surgery. Gary Trent Jr. is under the microscope as the league investigates what walks and talks and quacks an awful lot like cap circumvention after signing for about 20 times what any other team would have paid him.

McBride is a pro, a two-way player and a proven winner. On the few nights the Bucks are winning and need defense and clutch shooting down the stretch, McBride could play with or in place of Tyler Herro. With a bigger role and bigger numbers, Milwaukee could even flip him midseason for something more forward-looking.

And the Bucks have a player the Knicks can be more certain than most is qualified to be the third center in New York—a player, like McBride, whom they took in the second round of the 2022 draft.

Knicks should trade Miles McBride if Jericho Sims is available

Jericho Sims spent the better part of four seasons backing up Mitchell Robinson, Nerlens Noel, Isaiah Hartenstein and Karl-Anthony Towns. He’s a 6-foot-10, 250-pound solid rebounder who, similar to Robinson, doesn’t try to color outside the margins. Sims only shoots shots he can make, and all he can make are dunks. Not as exciting as Towns or Andre Drummond letting launch from deep, but highly efficient in small doses.

Sims is a known quantity in the organization and the locker room. He’s mostly a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option, though given the rough outlines of his skills align with Robinson’s, it’d seem he could sometimes partner alongside KAT, too. And best of all for the eternally cap-strained Knicks: Sims makes about a million dollars less than McBride. There isn't another player in the league who offers the certainty and affordability of Sims.

There’d be something poetic about the two draft classmates being traded for one another. For the Bucks, it’d be a higher-upside bet: Sims is an expiring contract with limited upside; McBride is an expiring contract with more. For the Knicks, it’s got nothing to do with poetry. McBride is a beloved player and will always be a part of their history.

But business is business, and New York’s in the business of better balancing its roster. A McBride-for-Sims deal is good business for all four parties.

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