As he enters his eight pro season, all spent with the New York Knicks, the clock on seven-foot center Mitchell Robinson is nearing midnight.
The former second-round pick missed the Knicks’ first four games of the season recovering from offseason ankle surgery. He debuted on October 31 against the Chicago Bulls, albeit on a minutes restriction, and still pulled down 11 rebounds in 20 minutes.
Cut to New York’s next game (Also against Chicago) on November 2, and Robinson managed five rebounds in 13 minutes before exiting with an injured foot.
And in other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still very, very, VERY dead.
This has been par for the course ever since the Knicks drafted Robinson back in 2018. An ongoing storm of lower body injuries have prevented him from ever playing a full season. The closest he’s come is playing 72 games in the 2021-22 season, New York’s only non-playoff season under Tom Thibodeau. It was enough for the Knicks to hand him a new four-year, $60 million contract.
It was also the last season in which Mitchell Robinson appeared in at least 60 games.
Meanwhile, the Knicks are right back where they’ve been for a while now. Leaning too much on Robinson’s health while otherwise being too thin in the frontcourt. No disrespect to star big man Karl-Anthony Towns, but he’s not a great defender and is probably better suited at power forward.
Who does that leave at center? Ariel Hukporti? Maybe move Towns back to the 5 and have Josh Hart play out of position like he did all of last season, but he’s playing through his own injury troubles. Trey Jemison III has the size at 6-foot-10, 270 pounds, but coach Mike Brown wasn’t using him much even when Robinson was hurt the first time.
Leon Rose, Gersson Rosas, and the rest of the Knicks front office? Kindly pick up the red courtesy phone because, once again, the Knicks are looking for help in the paint. Maybe letting Isaiah Hartenstein walk in free agency to go win a ring with the Oklahoma City Thunder wasn’t the smartest move? He can hit the market this summer, but he’ll command a hefty raise from his current three-year, $87 million deal with OKC.
The rest of the free agent market isn’t particularly inspiring. Potential targets like Zach Collins and DeAndre Ayton can defend, except Collins is just as injury-prone and Ayton isn’t far behind. The former No. 1 overall pick has never played in more than 70 games since his rookie year back in 2018-19.
This means that the Knicks need to find their next effective center the old-fashioned way. That would be next year’s NBA Draft. Except the Knicks aren’t tanking this season, not after making the East Finals a year ago. What’s more, this year’s expected draft class appears very guard and wing-heavy. New York could always trade up, but that seems unlikely.
That’s a problem for another time but for now, the Knicks need to maybe start phasing Robinson out of the picture. He’s already gotten injured again while already on a load management plan. Plus a minutes restriction. At what point do we just admit that Mitchell Robinson is more like a weird Marcus Camby-Greg Oden hybrid than he is Ben Wallace?
In fact, that might be the saddest part of all of this. The lost potential. My championing Mitchell Robinson as a future Defensive Player of the Year feels a lifetime ago. He’s still averaged 11.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per 36 minutes. Robinson’s career high in minutes peaked at 27.5 per game in 2020-21.
Mitchell Robinson could have been great. He could have been a Knicks all-timer. When he’s healthy, he rocks the rim with surprise dunks and plays absolutely merciless defense.
But unfortunately, those days are over. The best the Knicks can do is try to get what they can out of Robinson and deal him for modest draft capital in February.
Then, it’s back to the drawing board to try and fill the Patrick Ewing-sized void at center.
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