McBride set for first real playoff minutes

Miles McBride played his way into becoming a regular contributor to the Knicks this season, but the third-year combo guard should get his first true taste of NBA playoff action as a rotation player in the coming weeks.

McBride averaged 10.6 points and nearly 25 minutes per game over 50 appearances (14 starts) following the Dec. 30 trade of RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Raptors. He was signed to what now looks like a bargain-rate contract extension — three years, $13 million — on the day of the trade.

“I have a lot of confidence in Deuce just because I see him every day, I see what he puts into it, and the sky’s the limit for him,” Tom Thibodeau said Tuesday. “He’s never satisfied. He knows the game. He wants to get better. He’s learning every day. He’s a sponge. He’s around good people.”

The former second-round pick finished the season shooting a team-best 41.0 percent from 3-point range, up dramatically from the 28.2 percent efficiency he’d posted amid sporadic playing time in his first two NBA seasons.

“I think it will be great,” McBride said recently about his expected first steady playoff action. “I think I’m a gritty player, I can knock down shots, I can be an outlet for a guy like Jalen [Brunson], and then defensively I’m able to guard up [in size] or guard down.”

The 6-foot-2 McBride logged a scant total of 21 minutes over seven appearances in two rounds of the postseason last year, but he has earned his role as the team’s first guard off the bench over veteran trade-deadline import Alec Burks.

“I take what I learned last year from the little bit I did play, and just watching the team go out there, and we were able to get one playoff-series win,” McBride said. “This year, I’m just bringing a fresh mindset and will do what I’ve been doing the whole year.

“Just the environment, the intensity, I think just understanding ... that every game is important in the sense that it can shift so fast. In the regular season you can win or lose a few, but it almost goes back to March Madness in college, like when you lose, you really feel that and you’re thinking what can we do to survive? So I like that survival mentality.”