The New York Knicks have a Mitchell Robinson problem

There was a lot of excitement surrounding New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson this offseason. After a foot injury ended his 2020-21 campaign, he made headlines by gaining weight in order to hold his own against stockier centers in the post. Entering a contract year, many expected him to have a breakout season and anchor another elite defense.

The New York Knicks starting center has underwhelmed

After a little over a quarter of the way into the 2021-22 season, that is unfortunately not the case. Robinson is averaging 6.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game. He’s shooting 78% from the field, but he’s only taking a career-low 3.6 shots per contest.

Robinson’s weight gain has sapped the otherworldly athleticism that he displayed when he was in his first two seasons and is a major reason why his scoring is so low. He isn’t able to get as high off the ground for his alley-oop opportunities, and they often get broken up as a result.

Robinson averaged 15.0 points per-36 minutes as a sophomore compared to just 9.8 points per-36 minutes this year. He’s slowly becoming a non-factor on offense, which makes life harder for shot creators such as Julius Randle and RJ Barrett.

Defenses aren’t worried about Robinson anymore, so they can freely double-team Randle and Barrett on their drives to the basket.

Another skill that has seemingly been diminished by the weight gain is his offensive rebounding, which used to be a major strength. Robinson often used his superior athletic ability to simply out-jump other centers for second and third chances. However, he’s currently averaging a career-low 4.2 offensive rebounds per-36 minutes.

What makes matters worse is that Robinson is still getting dominated in the post by larger centers despite his weight gain. In the Knicks’ blowout loss against the Denver Nuggets, Nikola Jokic shot 11-12 inside of the arc with the majority of his buckets coming against Robinson.

He’s also struggled with his agility, often getting burned by stretch 5s who take advantage of Robinson’s reduced athleticism in pick & pop scenarios. In the Knicks’ close loss to Chicago, Bulls center Nikola Vucevic went 5-9 from three with Robinson often contesting way too late.

With his defense growing poorer and his offensive role diminishing, it’s not hard to see why Robinson currently has the worst plus/minus per 100 possessions of any Knicks rotation player. The only other former rotation player with a worse mark was Kemba Walker, who was benched last week.

It doesn’t help to see that the same mental lapses are there for the 23-year old to go along with his struggling play. In another close loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Robinson puzzlingly didn’t attempt to rebound a ball that was then thrown down by James Harden for a momentum-shifting putback dunk.

Randle and Barrett have both struggled mightily this season and need to improve, but Robinson has failed to reach expectations just as much as the team’s two leading scorers have. While the two top guns are in shooting slumps and need to mesh better with the rest of the team, Robinson’s problems lie deeper.

He hasn’t adjusted to the added weight and it has significantly reduced his impact on the court while also negatively impacting his fellow starters. While there is a chance he takes advantage of his increased size, it’s a pretty large risk considering he’ll be entering unrestricted free agency next summer.

It would make sense for Team President Leon Rose to look for a potential trade to upgrade the center position. One such target could be Pacers big Myles Turner, the NBA’s leading shot-blocker and a 41% three-point shooter. With Indiana struggling, it’s increasingly likely that they’ll blow the current roster up by the trade deadline.

It’s worth noting that the Knicks reportedly tried to trade for Turner this past summer. Given Robinson’s struggles, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see them attempt to acquire him again while using Robinson and a first-round pick or two as compensation.

With Kemba Walker already removed from the rotation, it’s clear that head coach Tom Thibodeau isn’t playing around and will make large changes in order to get the team back on track. If Robinson doesn’t get back on track himself, he could be the next one to go.