New York Notes: Achiuwa, Brunson, McBride, Thomas, Claxton

Knicks big man Precious Achiuwa made his season debut on Thursday after missing the first 22 games of the season with a hamstring injury. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps first reported (via Twitter) that Achiuwa’s debut was dependent on how warmups went. He ended up playing 12 minutes in a blowout win over Charlotte, finishing with two points and four rebounds.

Achiuwa’s return is a boon for a Knicks team that has had its frontcourt depth depleted by injuries in the early going. Center Mitchell Robinson has yet to play this season as he deals with an ankle issue, which left Jericho Sims and Ariel Hukporti as the team’s only true bigs behind Karl-Anthony Towns until Achiuwa’s return.

The Knicks sit at 14-8, good for fourth in the Eastern Conference. They opened the season 5-6 before beginning to really click and winning nine of their last 11 games. New York made big offseason swings for both Towns and Mikal Bridges, the former coming right before the beginning of the regular season.

Adding Achiuwa should only help the team continue its climb up the standings. A part of the OG Anunoby deal last December, the former Raptor made 18 starts for New York in 2023/24 across his 49 appearances. He averaged 7.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, 0.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game for the Knicks.

According to the New York Post’s Peter Botte, Achiuwa received an ovation in his return.

“[The reception] means a lot to me. Obviously, New York to me is very dear to my heart,” Achiuwa said. “So just being able to go out there and hearing the crowd, it meant a lot to me. … Watching from the sideline has been very tough, but just being out there and knowing that the crowd is behind me throughout the whole process has been very reassuring.”

We have more from New York:

• Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson took a hard hit in New York’s win over Charlotte on Thursday, exiting the game late in the third quarter and not reutrning, according to Newsday’s Steve Popper. It doesn’t sound like anything serious though, as the Knicks were up big late when Brunson returned to the bench and likely held him out for precautionary reasons. He was sporting a wrap on his back/ribs, but said after the game that he felt amazing.
• The three-year, $13MM extension Miles McBride signed approximately one year ago is looking like a bargain for the Knicks. He became integral to the team in the second half of last season, averaging 11.0 PPG while making 36.8% of his three-point attempts in the 2024 playoffs. Through 17 games this season, McBride is averaging career highs of 11.2 PPG and 2.8 APG on a career-best shooting split of .462/.435/.909. In a subscriber-only story, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post explores what the young guard would earn if he were signing a new contract now, positing that the deal would likely be somewhere in the range of $10-12MM annually. The former West Virginia guard expressed no regrets about signing his contract when he did, though. “There are a lot of people that are out here struggling, and I’m having fun,” McBride said. “I’m playing well. I’m on a great team. I’m more than happy.”
• High-scoring Nets guard Cam Thomas has missed the last five games for Brooklyn while he nurses a hamstring injury. According to the New York Post’s Brian Lewis, Thomas is still in the early stages of his recovery and there’s no timetable yet for his return. “I’m just doing whatever the performance team has me doing. It’s still early,” Thomas said. “I’m just doing whatever they have me doing, just a little bit here and there. But it’s all right.”
• Nets center Nic Claxton — who signed to a four-year, $100MM extension last offseason — fluctuated between the bench and starting unit in the first 14 games of the season while dealing with a back injury. Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily questions whether there’s any reason to worry about Claxton, who averaged just 8.5 points per game in those first games of the season. “I think in professional sports, especially in this league, a lot of these guys play with bumps and bruises. What we need them is to believe that they’re good to go,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And if we feel like a guy is not confident, we’re gonna let them make the decisions, I think that’s fair. If you play and you are afraid to get hurt, guess what? You’re going to get hurt. So we don’t want that for Nic or anybody in our group.” Claxton’s numbers are his lowest since becoming a starter and Kaplan suggests that he isn’t playing with the same level of explosiveness.
• On the other hand, Lewis posits that Claxton is rounding into form after averaging 12.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks in his last three games (all starts). “Yeah, I’m getting there, for sure. It’s taking a while, but I’m getting there,” the Nets center said.