Knicks’ emergent guard credits HC Tom Thibodeau for his breakout season

Knicks: Miles McBride evolved into an elite 3-and-D role-player thanks to Tom Thibodeau

When it comes to McBride, Thibodeau positioned the young two-way star to thrive in the Knicks’ rotation. Ample playing time was made available in part due to a bevy of injuries that rocked the team midseason, but the former two-time NBA Coach of the Year could have pulled back on McBride’s minutes after the team acquired Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks at the Feb. 8 trade deadline.

Instead, Thibodeau stuck with the emergent guard, to much avail. McBride went from seeing seven minutes a night through their first 38 games, scoring a mere 3.3 points per game, to starting in 14 of their final 43 contests behind 11.1 points and 2.2 nightly assists while connecting on 40 percent of his 5.2 three-point attempts in 26.8 minutes of action.

Thibodeau led the Knicks to a 50-win season despite several injuries & roster moves

McBride also accentuated the foundation that “Thibs” laid for the team, and that can’t be glossed over in the slightest. The Knicks’ play-caller lost his 2024 All-Star power forward Julius Randle for the year with a dislocated shoulder on Jan. 27, saw his starting center and the league’s offensive rebounding leader Mitchell Robinson miss 51 games because of an ankle injury, among several other ailments that plagued the rotation.

No matter, he did not precede his reputation of running his players into the ground and instilled confidence in the bulk of his depth chart while dealing with a midseason roster shakeup. Players like McBride, Donte DiVincenzo, Precious Achiuwa, and most notably Isaiah Hartenstein all experienced career-defining years with Thibodeau’s coaching a major catalyst of that.

Even though New York could not advance to their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000 this spring, the Knicks (50-32) came away with their third 50-win season in that 24-year period.

Knicks have arguably the deepest contending team heading into 2024-25

As for their foundation heading into next season, the Knicks legitimately have 12 championship-quality pieces they can field in 2024-25, giving them one of the deepest NBA rosters that produce at an elite level on both ends. Thibodeau recently came out and declared that he is happy coaching in New York, so he’ll continue to build on that groundwork next year and help McBride and the rest of his guys improve as they chase a championship.