3 Mitchell Robinson replacements Knicks should avoid this offseason
1: Robin Lopez – Orlando Magic
At this point, at least every veteran in the NBA has been on the Knicks at least once, right? That goes for Orlando’s Robin Lopez, who started all 82 games for New York in 2015-16 and averaged 10.3 points and 7.3 rebounds.
There’s something about New York and the Lopez brothers. While it’d be nice to have the Knicks’ former version of now 33-year-old Lopez back, seven years have gone by.
After being drafted in 2008, the center’s been on a total of eight teams and that includes four different teams in the last four years. Lopez is currently with Orlando and is averaging 7.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in the 28 games that he’s played in for the Magic.
Lopez is No. 1 on this list because it feels like he’s a player who New York’s front office will definitely have their eyes on if Robinson walks due to his recent “success.” He had a solid season with the Wizards last year, averaging 9 points and 3.8 rebounds in 71 games.
Truth be told, I’d rather see Lopez on the Knicks than Bol or Thompson but like I said previously, I’d like to think that New York knows better than to go after the two former names.
It wouldn’t be awful if Lopez signed with the Knicks but in the past three years he’s started in a total of 23 games. While he could step in and take Robinson’s starting spot, that doesn’t mean that he should.
I’d appreciate it if New York stayed far away from Bol, Thompson, and Lopez. With all due respect, these three players aren’t going to boost the Knicks’ hopes of making it back to the playoffs.
More than anything, we want Robinson to sign an extension but due to financial reasons, that might not happen. It’ll be interesting to see what the front office does if that happens but at the same time, I don’t want to find out. Hopefully, none of this speculation will matter (cough cough pay Robinson).
