The Knicks on Tuesday announced the signing of veteran guard Shake Milton after he received a buyout from the Detroit Pistons. Milton started this season with the Minnesota Timberwolves before being traded ahead of the deadline to Detroit, where after playing four games in Detroit was bought out of his contract, making him a free agent to sign with any team.
The timing of the Milton signing is practically perfect for a Knicks team that has been banged up by injuries as of late. On top of already missing Julius Randle and OG Anunoby for the past several weeks, Jalen Brunson sustained what the Knicks said is a knee contusion less than a minute into New York's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Tom Thibodeau said the tests on Brunson's knee were negative, and as of the latest injury report he's being listed as questionable for the Knicks' Tuesday night game against the Atlanta Hawks.
If Brunson is out Tuesday night, and if he also needs to sit out a game or two more, Milton gives the Knicks some insurance while their All-Star guard is sidelined.
While Milton wasn't a steady rotation player in either stops with the Timberwolves or the short-lived stint with the Pistons, he was a valuable role player for the 76ers for five seasons. He's a versatile defender with good size, and despite a down shooting season this year he's a career 45.1% shooter from the field and 35.7% from 3-point range.
When the Knicks become fully healthy it will be interesting to see where Milton's minutes fits into all this, as most of those backup guard minutes already go to Alec Burks and Miles McBride. Burks has struggled to shoot the ball since arriving to the Knicks in the Pistons trade at the deadline, so perhaps when he's having an off night Milton can fill in. But regardless of how the minutes are divvied up, adding Milton just adds to the Knicks depth as they try to prepare for a deep run in the postseason.
