Rival teams expressing interest in Deuce McBride

This past season, the Knicks had a very nice point guard situation where Jalen Brunson blossomed into a star and became one of the faces of the franchise, while Immanuel Quickley turned himself into a Sixth Man of the Year finalist and second-year defensive stand out Deuce McBride provided some quality minutes whenever he was called upon. Brunson, unlike a lot of the roster, seems close to untouchable, but the same cannot be said about the two point guards sitting behind him on the depth chart.

Quickley, who was rumored to be on the trading block early last season, is considered a highly valuable asset for the Knicks, given his strong season, upside, and age. The Knicks would love to keep him, but he may have played himself out of New York last season. If the Knicks do end up acquiring a star, there’s a decent chance that Quickley will be one of the pieces heading out. And then there’s McBride, who hadn’t seen his name come up in rumors often, but that is no longer the case. While he is nowhere near the player or asset that Quickley is, McBride, who averaged 3.5 PPG and 1.1 APG last season, is known around the league as a good defender, and SNY’s Ian Begley reported that rival teams have expressed interest in the third-string point guard due to his talent and relatively cheap contract.

There are still no reports on which teams are interested, what they’d be willing to give up, and just how serious they are, but this does give the Knicks another asset that they can use to move into tonight’s draft or to improve their team by filling in a hole elsewhere. And while New York, would likely prefer to keep McBride, trading him away does make some sense, especially if they were to keep Quickley since they have weaknesses elsewhere that they need to address. They could likely bring Rokas Jokubaitis over from Spain to fill in for the loss of McBride. Given his upside, he could have on offense with a few more years and his high-level point-of-attack defense, I’d love to see McBride stay on the team, but the Knicks currently have a bit of a log jam at the point guard position so fans shouldn’t be surprised if he were to be shipped off.