Why the Knicks Should Trade a 26-Year-Old Point Guard During the 26-27 Season
After 53 seasons, the New York Knicks head into the 26-27 season trying to defend last year's NBA Championship. New York’s confidence is at an all-time high. Even though they lost key pieces from their championship run in guys such as Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti, the Knicks signed veterans and role players to fill that void, such as Andre Drummond and, most recently, John Konchar, as well as 2023 NBA Champion Bruce Brown to a training camp contract. During the Knicks’ championship run, 26-year-old point guard Miles McBride’s name was thrown around as potential trade bait. The former West Virginia Mountaineers contract is up at the end of the 26-27 season, and he’ll be looking to get paid. Losing Robinson to the Boston Celtics was a disastrous feat for New York, and with big names and big contracts on the team, they may look to move McBride before a large contract extension is expected by the 26-year-old guard.
New York has big-name stars in Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. These five core players nearly take up 195 million in salary this season. The next highest-paid player for the Knicks is Landry Shamet, who re-signed with the Knicks this past offseason on a four-year 24 million deal and is making almost five million this year. At 26-year-old, coming off an NBA Championship run for a team that hasn’t won in 50+ years, McBride is going to want to be paid in the summer of 2027. Whether New York keeps him throughout the season or not, this contract will be something to keep in mind as the season begins in a month. However, the Knicks should strongly consider trading the former West Virginia Mountaineers guard sometime in the new year.
Trading McBride for potential younger assets or picks for the future can help restore the Knicks once this team’s current run is done. The entire city of New York is in hopes that Brunson, Towns, and Anunoby can continue being the strength that holds the Knicks for years to come, but the franchise also needs to think about the future. Getting some younger assets behind the leaders of this NBA Championship team could inspire more hope for Knicks basketball for years to come if New York acquires the right talent. Before the championship run, the Knicks were known for their comical trades, but changed all that when they got Brunson, Towns, Anunoby, Bridges, and Hart via trade and won it all. New York needs to make sure that if they trade McBride, the assets they’re trading for are worth it. If they trade the 26-year-old and the players the Knicks receive aren’t valuable to the team, New York could be in a panic. Yet, the city panicked before when the team fired coach Tom Thibodeau and replaced him with Mike Brown, and look at how that turned out.
Besides just getting younger talent, you have to look at age. McBride missed half the season and was out indefinitely at one point due to repairing a core muscle injury. While the 26-year-old recorded a career-high in points and three-point percentage, he looked almost lifeless in the 2026 NBA Finals. The former West Virginia Mountaineers guard put up 11 points in a total of 66 minutes through five games of the NBA Finals. New York cannot rely on McBride if that continues or a slump occurs again in a big-time playoff situation. Even though he scored 20 or more points in six games during the 25-26 season, there were multiple times throughout the season and playoffs where he couldn’t score a single basket at all.
A trade surrounding McBride would give more minutes to someone like Tyler Kolek, who in his second NBA season made a jump from the year prior, improving in every major statistical category. On December 23rd, Kolek nearly recorded a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, and three steals in 31 minutes of action during a 115-104 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. A few games before, against the Indiana Pacers, the 25-year-old dropped 16 points and dished out 11 assists in a 114-113 win. Having Kolek see an increased role in a McBride trade could be huge for New York going forward.
