The Knicks surprised some fans on Friday morning when they signed former Laker, Dalton Knecht. While people have spent the past few weeks speculating about potential trades involving Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Tyler Kolek, and Pacome Dadiet, the first official move of the campaign was one that involved none of those guys.
But it does bring up some interesting questions surrounding Miles McBride and his growingly uncertain future in the Big Apple.
Dalton Knecht could make it easier for Knicks to trade Miles McBride
The backup guard and Knecht aren't even in the same stratosphere when it comes to their value and talent. Knecht is arguably a similarly skilled shooter. But outside of that, McBride is just a much better player.
He's a significantly better defender, is a much smarter player, and makes enough connective plays that help the team out even when his shot isn't going in. I've been as vocal as anybody about just how pivotal McBride is to this team and why the team should absolutely play the year out with him even if it means losing him for nothing.
But is that what the Knicks are thinking? While I'd like to say yes, I'm just not convinced that's the case.
The Knicks and McBride seem to like each other. Yet, barring a major trade, it's just currently improbable that the Knicks can offer McBride anything even remotely close to what he wants and deserves once his current contract is up.
New York's front office has spent this entire offseason living two lives. They've used much of the last few months trying to maintain as much of their core for a repeat chance, while still trying to set their roster up for as much flexibility. Ultimately, something has to give.
While it's only been a handful of preseason games, plus one regular season game, this what makes Knecht's arrival and McBride's sudden decrease in playing time so notable.
If the team thinks that they need an upgrade at the center and or wing positions off the bench, McBride is the only Knick that can truly get them anything of value. And that's where Knecht's acquisition could come into play.
The third-year wing, despite being a significant downgrade from McBride, does have the shooting to help minimize the loss of McBride to a degree. Obviously the defense and ball movement would suffer. But what if the Knicks believe that the downgrade there would also partially be made up with an upgrade at either the backup wing or center positions? Would that be enough to entice the Knicks to trade McBride?
Knecht did play 34% of his rookie-year minutes at shooting guard, and that figure climbed to 48% of his minutes last year. The Knicks could theoretically run a second unit of Jose Alvarado, Landry Shamet, Knecht, plus whoever they theoretically trade McBride for (be it a forward or center) and a fifth player to round out the lineup.
Again, it's a downgrade and not worth it for really any reason outside of extracting "value" and asset management. But with McBride playing less than 15 minutes in the season opener—something he did only four times last season—maybe the writing is already on the wall and this move is just further proof of that.
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