Knicks must finally accept a harsh Mitchell Robinson reality

Nobody can question what Peak Mitchell Robinson means to the New York Knicks. Whether Peak Mitchell Robinson will ever be more than a temporary visitor, though, is a different story.

New York came into this season eyes wide open. It understands that its best defensive big man is a bubble-wrap candidate. Robinson is on a maintenance plan that includes limited minutes, sitting out one end of back-to-backs, and other nights off. 

This approach is all in service of keeping the 27-year-old as fresh and available as possible for the playoffs. It may also have something to do with his upcoming foray into unrestricted next summer. 

Jumping through these hoops can be frustrating—particularly when the Knicks’ other primary bigs, Karl-Anthony Towns and Guerschon Yabusele, aren’t exactly setting the world on fire. Towns continues to spit out pockets of greatness, but remains maddeningly inconsistent. Yabusele has been borderline unplayable for stretches of the season. 

Navigating all of these obstacles is well worth the trouble and headaches if New York’s Robinson approach pans out. So far, it’s not. And we have to start wondering whether it ever will.

Mitchell Robinson does not look like himself

To be sure, Mitchell Robinson continues to do plenty of Mitchell Robinson things. The Knicks are cleaning up the offensive glass when he’s on the floor, and opponents are shooting waaay worse inside 14 feet during these stretches, too.

Still, the flashes of Peak Mitchell Robinson are getting fewer and further between. You know the version of Mitch we’re talking about, the one who is not just a rebounder and paint deterrent, but who holds his own when being pulled out to the perimeter, and covers six-out-of-five players on certain half-court possessions.

That version of Mitch continues to make cameos here and there. He dominated in New York’s Nov. 30 victory over the Toronto Raptors. But that player is no longer a default. Not right now.

Opponents are more inclined to try attacking him on the perimeter. The percentage of time he has spent guarding primary ball-handlers is nearly doubled from last season, and he’s never defended on-ball overall more often, according to BBall Index. Some of that can be attributed to the Knicks’ defensive system under Mike Brown. But just because it may be by design doesn’t mean it’s working.

On most nights, Robinson just looks…slower. The Boston Celtics had success in their Tuesday night win over New York ripping him away from the basket, and going at him. They also forced Brown into some tough decisions by intentionally fouling him in the first quarter. 

That’s another issue Robinson poses. More teams will seek to intentionally foul him in the postseason. Stomaching that approach is one thing when he looks like a dominant defensive force, and is shooting around 50 percent from the charity stripe. It’s another when he’s neither dominating defensively a lion’s share of the time, and connecting on under 20 percent of his free throws. 

The Knicks must monitor Robinson’s inconsistency

We can only play the “It’s still early” and “He’s working his way back” cards for so long. One-quarter of the season is in the books. Robinson has missed more than one-third of the games, and cleared the 20-minute threshold just once. 

If the Knicks are going to meticulously manage his minutes and overarching workload, they need him to dominate during the majority of the stretches in which he plays. He’s not doing that—not often enough. Too many nights see him look gassed, a certifiable mystery given how few minutes he plays.

Just like the rest of the team, Robinson also looks like he needs OG Anunoby to simplify his life. The Knicks aren’t operating out of an abundance of caution with him in exchange for that kind of dependence on someone else. Heck, Robinson himself is supposed to be that someone.

Perhaps his ankle issues to begin the season were more serious than we were led to believe (not that we were giving a ton of info in the first place). Perhaps Peak Mitchell Robinson will become more of a staple in time. Perhaps he’ll even start to play more minutes.

Or maybe, if not more likely, the Knicks must come to terms with Peak Mitchell Robinson appearing only on certain nights, and those appearances being unpredictable—no matter how hard they try to keep him fresh.