Mike Brown coached towards Miles McBride prior to now.
He already knew “Deuce” was a tough-nosed guard who performs each side of the ball and competes each second he’s on the ground. He additionally knew McBride might rating in bunches.
After which Brown stopped himself. There was one thing he didn’t know coming from Sacramento to New York.
“I take it back,” he mentioned. “I didn’t know he could shoot it as well as he did, as well as he does.”
100 minutes later, the Knicks tipped off towards the Toronto Raptors — and McBride wasted no time proving his new head coach proper. He outscored Toronto, 12–10, by himself to open the sport, drilling 4 of his first 5 threes in an unconscious first quarter.
“He’s a high level shooter. Also, his work ethic is really high. So those two things are something I learned being around him,” Brown continued. “But coaching against him, you know he’s tough and can defend. He can shoot, again — not as good as I thought he could, as I know he can now.”
McBride is having fun with the most effective season of his profession in Brown’s first yr in New York. His 11.4 factors per sport by 16 contests would set a brand new profession excessive, as would the 43.3% he’s hitting from three — on by far the very best quantity he’s ever taken. At greater than six makes an attempt per sport, he’s the sixth-most environment friendly shooter within the league amongst gamers hoisting as many triples an evening.
“I expect to make shots,” McBride mentioned after his first-quarter eruption shifted the tone early towards Toronto. “My teammates did a great job of find me. I just wanted to shoot it with confidence.”
The Backyard crowd has confidence in him, too. Each time a 3 leaves his fingers, the “Deuce” chants begin rumbling — mushy on a miss, explosive on a make. McBride hears them, however solely after the ball drops by.
“Usually after it goes in the net,” he mentioned. “That’s when I start listening a little bit. But whoever started [the chant], shout out to them.”
But for McBride, that is enterprise as common. Nothing new for a participant who already owns one 40% taking pictures season. And whereas Brown admits he didn’t notice Deuce was this good of a shooter, McBride has all the time identified.
“Honestly?” he mentioned after considering it over for a beat. “[I haven’t done] anything different than I’ve done my whole life.”
HART TALK TEAM’S IDENTITY
Josh Hart pushed again on the concept the Knicks have shifted their offensive id in latest video games to lean extra closely on Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Cities’ particular person strengths.
“Nah, I don’t think so. We haven’t tried to,” Hart mentioned after Sunday’s victory over the Raptors. “Sometimes the game dictates what needs to happen and we don’t fight that. We’ve tried to play our style as much as we can and if the game dictates we try to go to that. But we’re comfortable with playing fast and executing.”
That’s not how opposing coaches see it.
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic grew to become the second straight opponent to say the Knicks have adjusted their model of play because the season has progressed.
“[The] first 10 or 12 games, 15 games — whatever it was — they were running more. And now it looks like they’re settling into more personnel and how they’re playing more to the strengths of their players, trying at the same time to implement ball movement and body movement,” Rajakovic mentioned earlier than tipoff on Sunday. “Obviously they are a very talented team, a lot of great players. So it’s the right thing to concentrate on the strengths of those guys and let them be who they are.”
Rajakovic echoed almost phrase for phrase what Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers mentioned two nights earlier: the Knicks are taking part in extra Brunson-Cities pick-and-roll and fewer of the pure freelance, pace-and-space offense that outlined their early-season id.
“They’re not playing the same as they played earlier in the year,” Rivers mentioned. “Earlier in the year, they were all drive-and-kick, very few pick-and-rolls. Now they’ve gone back to the Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll which makes a lot of sense. And yet they’re still trying to move the ball and play downhill and play draw-and-kick basketball, but I think the biggest change they have made since we played them is they have definitely added more pick-and-rolls since than they had when we played them the first game.”
NEW LINEUP
Cities addressed the Knicks’ new beginning lineup after Sunday’s win over the Raptors. Brown not too long ago shifted Hart into the beginning group instead of Mitchell Robinson, a transfer that has paid speedy dividends. Robinson responded with 15 rebounds — seven on the offensive glass — in simply 17 minutes, and the Knicks at the moment are 4–0 since Hart joined the starters.
“It’s just a different lineup. Mitch in the starting lineup, Josh Hart in the starting lineup, we feel comfortable going out there every night that we have a chance to win,” mentioned Cities. “And it’s because of the work we put in in practice and on our games individually in our free time. Josh has done a great job of playing recently, and he’s been fantastic all year, but any one of us could be in the starting lineup and feel like we can contribute and impact winning. So that just speaks to our locker room.”
