Miles McBride is in the final stages of his rehab from sports hernia surgery.
McBride has been scrimmaging with some of the Knicks’ younger players and coaches recently. Before Tuesday’s game, McBride was seen on the court doing his traditional pre-game warm-up routine.
All of these signs point to McBride returning to the court in the coming days.
The Knicks have nine regular season games left in the season. Their next game is in Charlotte on Thursday, the first of a four-game trip that concludes in Memphis next Wednesday.
McBride joined the team on its recent West Coast trip. I’d assume he is with them on this upcoming trip.
Whether he returns during the road trip or shortly thereafter, you should see McBride back on the court very soon.
He has been out since Jan. 28. At the time, he was sidelined with an ankle injury. McBride then underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia shortly after the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
For the most part, the Knicks have played well in McBride’s absence. They are 20-7 since Jan. 28. Landry Shamet, Mohamed Diawara and Jordan Clarkson are among a group of players who have filled the void with McBride out.
But there is no doubt that they are a better team when he’s healthy. Before he got hurt, McBride was averaging 13 points, 2.8 assists, 2.6 rebounds and one steal per game while hitting 42 percent of his threes.
KAT CALL
At the suggestion of assistant coach Rick Brunson, Brown went with a smaller lineup in the fourth quarter against New Orleans. Thanks to Jalen Brunson’s brilliance and that smaller alignment, the Knicks overpowered the Pelicans in the fourth on Tuesday. Karl-Anthony Towns played five minutes in the quarter and did most of his damage earlier in the game. He finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds. It was his 51st double-double this season. That is the most in the NBA. If Towns has looked more comfortable on offense lately, there’s a reason for that.
Brown has made some adjustments to his offense to help Towns on that end of the floor.
“I had to adjust to him…and that’s what a season’s about,” Brown said after Tuesday’s game. “We’re not playing the same way offensively as we did to start the year. So I had to make some adjustments to try to figure out how I can get him involved a little bit better, get him to feel a little more comfortable and it’s showing a little bit. He’s obviously put in the work but … it’s a two-way street and it’s good to see him playing at the level he’s playing at right now.”
When asked about the adjustments, Brown shared some specific details.
“When he is at the four spot, we’ve really simplified it so that he doesn’t have to think as much. And when he doesn’t have to think as much, he can just react,” Brown said.
He added that some of the offensive tweaks were implemented to put Towns in his preferred spots on the floor.
“He loves being at the top of the floor; he’s not always there, but we’ve added a couple more things that put him there with appropriate space,” Brown said. “And then we found a post-up and an iso situation for him that is pretty good from a spacing standpoint in how he likes to operate. Those things, we didn’t have at the beginning of the year for him. So again, he’s made adjustments, he’s kept working, he continues to work, but as the head coach, I have to make adjustments, too. Especially with him being one of our two best players.”
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