Josh Hart and Miles McBride: The Key to the Knicks Right Now | JJ Redick and Tim Legler

Josh Hart and Miles McBride: The Key to the Knicks Right Now | JJ Redick and Tim Legler

Uh so Julius Randall got injured on January 27th against the Miami Heat since then uh the Knicks are 13- 11 they’ve had some other injuries OG was out of the lineup for a long time came back for a while now he’s back out of the lineup they have currently won five

Of their last six games they’re sitting in fourth place still just one game back of Cleveland for third place which I believe me I think would be uh uh very advantageous to avoid Boston in the second round uh they are a game up in the L column on Fifth Place Orlando um

Just in a in a good spot right now and Jaylen Brunson of course is going to get the headlines for this team Jaylen Brunson has had an All-Star season he certainly is in contention for an all-nba spot he’s had a fantastic season there’s probably a little bit of buzz on

Him for the MVP all that stuff Jaylen Brunson gets the headlines and I have talked a lot about Isaiah hartenstein and his role and how good he has been for the New York Knicks so I’m going to give some love to a couple guys that I frankly just have not praised this year

And they deserve it because they’ve been awesome first of all is Miles McBride miles McBride just to contextualize what he’s doing right now for the New York Knicks in November he played four and a half minutes a game in October he played even less 4.3 minutes a game in December

He played 6.6 minutes a game they they started playing him in January that’s when the Knicks defense just really took off average about 15 minutes a game February he’s up to 23 minutes a game March he’s up to 32 minutes a game over 10 games in March I just just think

About that for a second though a guy who was essentially not in the rotation and is now being asked to play 30 and by the way played 48 the other night 30 some minutes A Night to keep your playoff seating alive to keep your momentum going and he has responded he’s shooting

45% from three in the month of March 42% from three for the season after shooting 25% his rookie year and 29% his second season now some of that of course Tim you know this cuz we we live this at different times in our career when you

Are not a constant in the rotation when you don’t when you don’t know night to night what your minutes are going to be and how your shots are going to look it’s very difficult in the NBA it’s very difficult in the NBA to shoot a good percentage when you are not

In Rhythm and he has been in Rhythm since January and he shot the out of the ball and I tell you why this is so important because with all these injuries what has happened is guy like Dante Dante d vinchenzo a guy like Josh Hart who I’m going to get

To in a second they have been overextended a little bit in terms of their role they’ve been overextended in their minutes and at times especially late in the shot clock they get overextended in terms of their offensive role with all these injuries bogdanovich and Alec Burks who have came over at the

Trade deadline they just haven’t shot well bogdanovich is at 37% from the field 34% % from three Burks is 32% from the field 30% from three and I know this because I lived it it’s very hard to get traded in the middle of the season and

And have sort of the same efficiency on a different team with different teammates different plays all that stuff McBride has been so important to the functionality of this team on both sides of the basketball in particular his shooting as it’s just it’s like wow I

Mean I remember going to I’ve been to a bunch of Knicks games this year obviously watched them play a bunch I’ve called their games and all of a sudden it felt a couple months ago you’re like oh wow this guy is coming in with this level of energy this level of defensive

Tenacity and he’s going to shoot over 40% from three for this team that’s a GameChanger that is an absolute game Cher it’s kept them in the hunt for home court and it’s certainly earned him a right to be in a playoff rotation uh everything you said is uh so true I love

The stuff about how difficult it is to have any semblance of Rhythm whatsoever when you’re a shooter scorer and you have played as sporadically as he has played to be able to kick it into this gear when he’s absolutely needed to because of just ABS the numbers dictated it they

Don’t have enough bodies to play these minutes and he’s had five games in March where he played 44 minutes or more I mean you nobody in the NBA plays those kind of minutes anymore except Josh Hart miles bride they’re the only two guys in the league that play these kind of

Minutes um when you’re thinking about constantly preservation it’s you know 38 is where guys are capped out a lot of times so he’s out there every minute because they have nobody else they don’t have a choice they have to go there and man as he responded and I think look

He’s taken advantage of the fact that when you go into now playing against the Knicks it’s definitely not going to be the first name that you’re going to be talking about when you talk about Scouting Report like you’re really trying to deal with Jaylen Brunson and he’s taking advantage of some

Opportunities where teams didn’t play him aggressively early in the game this guy can flat out string together shots so he has found his rhythm and we’ll see now what happens as he starts to be a little bit more of a focal point defensively but you’re 100% right like

Where would the Knicks be it’s crazy as it sounds without miles McBride right now with everything they have dealt with and a guy just answering the call when they had to have it from him in a year in which he has been sporadic at best or an afterthought for their rotation you

Now get the opportunity you come in and capitalize it capitalize on it to this extent and now going forward look they’re going to get guys back and we’ll see how that affects everything but you now have a guy that Tom tibo is gonna have faith in and confidence in yeah

There it is there it is right there right that’s the difference now you’ve got another guy that you’re not going to hesitate to go to even in important moments in in a playoff series that’s what he has established for himself now with this run that he’s had over the course of of

March uh and of course you said where would they be without miles MCB where would they be without Josh Hart Josh Hart Josh you still can’t shoot you still can’t shoot but that’s okay because you do everything else so damn well you know I I I talked

About Divan chenzo being a little overextended at times I think with with just Brunson as the primary option you know on the offensive end Josh Hart you could certainly talk about that in terms of you know his shooting numbers uh and of course his minutes they’ve really

Built up but look this a guy who didn’t have any triple doubles in his career he’s had five triple doubles over the last 20 20 20 some games in February he averaged over 10 rebounds a game 5.2 assists in March he’s averaging almost 12 rebounds a game and 5.4 assists I I

Always will remember this conversation I had with BJ Armstrong my rookie year he was talking about Dwight Howard we were at dinner after one of the games I wasn’t playing playing a lot we was just kind of talking about the NBA and he we were talking about Dwight and he said

What one of the reasons Dwight is so valuable and so good is because he rebounds outside of his area now Dwight was 611 with the wingspan and all the strength in the world crazy hops all that stuff Josh Hart is under 66 in terms of players under 66 that rebound

Like him it’s only Brandon paj jimsky of the Golden State Warriors Josh Hart at his size and he’s an athlete but he’s not an Uber athlete and he’s strong and he’s quick but he’s not Uber strong or Uber quick he rebounds outside of his area as well as any guard I’ve seen he

Pursues the basketball he he gets rebounds in traffic long rebounds he ends up with basketballs that he has no business ending up with and I think what’s important here is the Knicks have taken on this identity they have have embraced this gritty culture and of course it starts with tibs and and JB

And all that like but they have a group now with a real identity and I don’t think there’s anybody on this team that has embodied it more than Josh Hart and I’ll say this you know that stretch that stretch with Randall out 13- 11 as I mentioned their offense hasn’t been

Great they’re bottom third offensively but they’ve been a top 10 defense they’ve been one of the best teams all season in terms of creating Second Chance points in offense rebounds this is a group that has just embraced the gritty they’ve embraced toughness and Josh Hart embodies that as well as

Anyone and I sit here and watch him and I still still can’t believe the rebounding numbers that I’m looking at you got JJ in the history of this league or certainly in the last 20 years let’s just take it in the modern era there’s only one other guard that you can even

Look at to look at these kind of rebounding numbers for this long a period of time he’s averaging almost 11 rebounds a game for a 25 game stretch the only other guy to do that Westbrook in his prime when he was in Oklahoma City and he was getting double digit

Rebounds every night and averaging to triple double but Josh Harts had games where it was like 17 boards 19 rebounds in a game for a guy as you mentioned that’s basically our height maybe just a little bit taller than you and I yeah what what’s amazing about him and you

Talk about rebounding outside of his area the other thing that he does do is the way he goes up with his back on a bigger player where the ball goes up he’s you know he’s he’s technically sound he’s he’s not just going and running and jumping after balls because

He’s not big enough or athletic enough to do that so he does it more like you would doing a drill like he’s going to get his back on a guy hold him there but some of these guys are you know six8 and up ball comes off it goes up both guys

Jump the guy behind him is going up vertically so he’s not going to foul him over the back both of their hands get to the ball basically at the same time Josh Hart ends up with every single one of those every one of them he’s got obviously got great strength in his

Hands he’s got you know they’re just they glue like when he gets his fingertips on a ball it’s his but the fact that he comes out with these tough rebounds and what that means to your team defense when you can play a a smaller lineup which they do at times

And you’re not giving up as much on the glass as you’re expecting to because of what you’re getting out of your two guard I I just wish he could get those shooting percentages up JJ just a little bit we’re going to work on we’re going to work on the shot this summer

Tim man from the three brother I mean I don’t get it because you look I I know he wasn’t a big time deep shooter in college either but he was a very good scorer he was more like a slasher attacker mid-range guy but you would think this many years now in the league

He’s 29 years old you would think now like he would understand like this is what I have to do and look maybe for some guys like that line at that level is a is almost like a psychological barrier and there have been other players that were that were like that

Like great from 18 feet and in you put him out there 23 24 feet it it just there’s something about that shot that does not feel natural to them to his credit he doesn’t take as many as he could in this era ofb because he knows that’s not son of comfortable

Shot he has found other ways to impact the game as a winner that most guards in this this league would not be able to do with those shooting percentages and I’m not trying to like knock him for his shooting percentages I’m saying that’s the kind of impact he’s having

Defensively on the boards and and and you know just leaving skin on the floor nobody’s on the floor more than Josh Hart in the course of the game going after loose balls he does so many things to help you wi despite the fact that he was really struggled and had a really

Really bad year shooting the basketball

In this clip from this week’s Old Man and the Three Things, JJ Redick and Tim Legler break down and praise the performances of Josh Hart and Miles McBride over the last few weeks and how important they’ve been in keeping the New York Knicks in the playoff hunt.

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