Team: New York Knicks · Status: standard contract · Position: PG/SG · Season age: 26 · Experience: entering sixth NBA season · Role: first guard reserve · As of: 2026-07-18
2026-27 median projection
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 | 23.0 | .425 | .800 | 2.3 | 10.2 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
Nine-cat: top 180-260, with low-turnover threes value. Points: C, mostly a streamer. Dynasty: 5.8/10 because age and contract are better than his crowded immediate role.
Role and evidence
McBride averaged 12.0 points, 2.7 threes, 2.6 assists, 0.9 steals, and only 0.8 turnovers in 26.3 minutes across 41 games in 2025-26, shooting .423/.787 (Hashtag Basketball). A return to 23 healthy minutes supports standard-league streaming, not a full-season lock.
He required pelvic/core-muscle surgery and was still listed out on the official February 23 NBA injury report, then returned for the championship run and made seven threes in the closeout win over Philadelphia (NBA Starting 5, May 11). That proves availability, not a fully restored regular-season workload.
Role branches
- Ceiling: Brunson or a wing misses time, McBride reaches 28-30 minutes, and 2.8 threes plus a steal produce top-120 category value.
- Median: first guard off the bench, splitting creation with Alvarado and shooting with Shamet.
- Floor: the core injury recurs or Brown favors Alvarado's point-of-attack pressure; 16-18 minutes and waiver-only value.
Market and confidence
Hashtag's July analyst dynasty list ranked him 251st, while the July 18 keeper crowd placed him 490th—an unusually large liquidity warning. Role confidence is medium, health medium-low, threes/turnovers high, and steals medium.
Career record
Pre-NBA: West Virginia, two seasons. As a freshman in 2019-20 he came off the bench for 22.2 minutes and 9.5 points on .402/.304/.747 with 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists, making the Big 12 All-Freshman team. The sophomore jump was the real one: 34.2 minutes, 15.9 points, 4.8 assists, 3.9 rebounds, 1.9 steals on .431/.414/.813 in 29 games, earning second-team All-Big 12. The 41.4 percent three-point season at high volume plus the steal rate is the scouting profile he has spent five NBA years growing back into. Draft: 2021, second round, 36th overall, Oklahoma City; traded on draft night to New York with Rokas Jokubaitis for Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 21 | NYK | 40 | 9.3 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.4 | .296 | .667 | 0.1 |
| 2022-23 | 22 | NYK | 64 | 11.9 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.6 | .358 | .667 | 0.4 |
| 2023-24 | 23 | NYK | 68 | 19.5 | 8.3 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.6 | .452 | .860 | 0.4 |
| 2024-25 | 24 | NYK | 64 | 24.9 | 9.5 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | .406 | .813 | 0.6 |
| 2025-26 | 25 | NYK | 41 | 26.3 | 12.0 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 2.7 | .423 | .787 | 0.8 |
| Career | 277 | 18.5 | 7.1 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.4 | .409 | .781 | 0.5 |
Fantasy history: Season-end nine-category ranks are not verifiable from the sources available here, so no year-by-year finish is claimed. The shape is unambiguous from the lines themselves: the first two seasons were unrosterable, 2023-24 was a late-season streamer whose 1.6 threes on .452/.860 with 0.4 turnovers played up in percentage-sensitive formats, and 2024-25 and 2025-26 were the first genuinely rosterable years. His category profile is unusually lopsided — threes, free-throw percentage and a near-zero turnover count are elite per-minute contributions, while rebounds, assists and blocks are dead weight. That skew makes him far more valuable in nine-cat than in points leagues, where 0.8 turnovers are worth nothing and 2.4 rebounds cost him. The 2.7 threes in 2025-26 on 26.3 minutes is the single most transferable number in his profile.
Durability: 40 games (2021-22, rookie DNP-CDs rather than injury), 64, 68, 64, then 41 in 2025-26. The 2025-26 shortfall is fully explained: he last played January 27 against Sacramento, missed several games under left-ankle injury management, then had sports hernia (core muscle) surgery on February 6 with a 6-8 week timeline that ruled him out for effectively the rest of the regular season. He was scrimmaging by late March and returned for the playoff run, playing through acknowledged residual pain. He was still on the official injury report as late as February 23. Before this he had no significant injury history — four straight seasons of 64-plus games. The core-muscle repair is the one real question mark, and sports hernia recurrence rates are non-trivial for guards who change direction constantly.
Trajectory: Five straight seasons of minutes growth (9.3 to 11.9 to 19.5 to 24.9 to 26.3) with production rising faster than the minutes — points per 36 went from roughly 8.5 as a rookie to about 16.4 in 2025-26, so this is skill development rather than opportunity alone. The specific improvement is the three-point shot: 0.4 makes to 2.7 makes in four years, with the volume finally catching up to the 41.4 percent efficiency he flashed at West Virginia. Assists have never scaled the way a lead guard's would, which is the tell that he is a spot-up-plus-defense role player rather than a creator, and it caps his standalone upside no matter how many minutes arrive. At 26 he is at the peak of the curve, so 2026-27 should be his best rate season if healthy — the projection risk is entirely games played and minutes, not decline. The forecast that matters is whether the core repair holds through a full 82 and whether New York's guard depth lets him near 28 minutes; the per-minute production is proven.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · StatMuse season-by-season · Wikipedia (college stats, awards, draft-night trade) · Yahoo Sports on the core muscle surgery timeline
Open questions
- Is McBride unrestricted for camp after core-muscle surgery?
- Does he lead the reserve guards in minutes, or does Brown use a nightly hot-hand distribution?