Deuce McBride helped by Derrick Rose as he takes the vet's place
Knicks guard Miles McBride against the Detroit Pistons on Nov. 29, 2022. Credit: AP/Carlos Osorio
Deuce McBride was 8 years old when Derrick Rose made his NBA debut and for the last year and a half as he has made his way through the league he has looked to Rose for veteran advice, learning from someone who has done everything he dreams of doing in the NBA.
And now, even as he has tried to absorb those lessons he has been tasked with taking Rose’s place in the Knicks rotation, a situation that could be awkward. But McBride said that Rose has helped ease the transition.
“He handles it very well,” McBride said. “I don’t think he’s the type of guy to get down on himself. We’re all human and at the end of the day we compete. That’s why we’re in this business, in this league. You couldn’t ask for a better vet. He’s handled it well. He’s talked to me. He understands it. It’s the nature of the beast.”
McBride, a second-round pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, doesn’t mimic Rose’s offensive skill set, but arrived in the league as a hard-nosed defender, a trait groomed almost from birth by his father, accentuated by his days as an elite football player at Ohio’s renowned Moeller High School and sharpened by playing for Bob Huggins at West Virginia.
“He’s real long. You look at wingspan, that’s a huge asset for him,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Toughness, anticipation, great feet, strength, all those things. Very, very competitive. High IQ in terms of reading the game. And he’s a multiple-effort guy. He’s going to give you more than one effort on every play.
“I think again a big part of [his progress] is the trial and error of going through games and situations, learning the league. As you go through it now your second, third time around you’re more familiar with the players, the teams, the schemes, what each team is trying to do. He’s a great student of the game. Just the way he works, he’s going to get better and better.”
“Yeah, definitely,” McBride said. “The little tricks I’ve learned, experience I’ve gained just from that one year has been very beneficial to my growth as a player. Last year I was guarding Lance Stephenson on a play, I was supposed to be in help defense and he just grabbed my wrist and I wasn’t able to get there. Little things like that I’m growing to see myself and experience.”
His time has come as he appeared in just 12 of the first 24 games and even those dozen games includes appearances as short as one second. But he believes with this opportunity he will show that he is more than just a defender.
“I think the more experience I get on the court obviously more offense will come,” McBride said. “It’ll be about getting more experience on that end. Obviously I came into the league and my mind has always been on defense first. That’s been in my DNA since my dad put a basketball in my hand, that defense is first. I think the offense will come. I’ve put a lot of work into my game. I’ve shown it enough. Just got to wait for the results to show.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
