Mitchell Robinson’s streak of mysterious load-management absences to start the season appears to be on the verge of ending.
According to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, the 27-year-old big man returned to New York Knicks practice on Thursday. That suggests he will suit up for Friday’s NBA Cup Group Stage matchup with the Chicago Bulls after missing the first four games with a left ankle issue.
People reading between the lines already saw this coming. Robinson would not have traveled with the Knicks for their three-game road trip if they weren’t hoping he could play. As SNY’s Ian Begley notes, getting him back on the court during this stretch may have always been the master plan:
Knicks brought C Mitchell Robinson on current road trip with thought that he could play. Tomorrow at CHI is last game on trip https://t.co/5U8Nd26meH
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) October 30, 2025
Of course, while we now seem to know when Robinson will make his regular-season debut, we still don’t have a concrete hold on why it has taken this long in the first place.
Mitchell Robinson’s absence is shrouded in mystery
Ever the champions of obfuscation, the Knicks have offered little to no explanation on the severity of Robinson’s issue. He has simply been listed as out due to “left ankle injury management.”
That alone evokes panic. Robinson missed most of last year while recovering from left ankle surgery, and is far from a billboard for durability. Dating back to 2022-23, he has not missed 120 of the Knicks’ past 168 regular-season games. That’s more than 70 percent of the schedule.
On the flip side, New York could be operating out of an over-abundance of caution for the same reasons. It has not shied away from the fact that Robinson’s workload will be managed throughout the season. Perhaps this is the team’s way of buying him extra time.
If we’re being brutally honest, the over-abundance-of-caution logic is farfetched. Robinson appeared in three preseason games before entering ankle-injury management. It doesn’t make sense to begin holding him out once the results start to matter unless something is actually wrong. Especially when Guerschon Yabusele has already missed time, and when Karl-Anthony Towns is attempting to play through a quad strain.
The Knicks are now on a fact-finding mission
Regardless of why he missed the start of the season, Robinson’s return offers the Knicks an opportunity to gain a better feel for how the roster will operate. He is expected to start alongside Towns, and Brown’s commitment to futzing and fiddling with the opening lineup suggests the big man’s absence won’t deter him from emphasizing the dual-big combo.
Speaking of which: We may finally get a chance to see said dual-big lineup! Last season, Towns and Robinson tallied just 212 minutes together, the vast majority of which came in the playoffs. During that time, the Knicks outscored opponents by an impressive plus-8.9 points per possessions, while maintaining an elite offensive rating.
It remains to be seen if this will sustain across a larger sample. New York is attempting to reinvent itself on offense, and struggling to do so. A Robinson-Towns frontcourt doesn’t really align with Brown’s vision for ball and body movement, speed, and a high volume of threes.
Playing them together is nevertheless worth a shot. If nothing else, Robinson brings much-needed depth to an already banged up frontline. Whether the Knicks can count on him being a rotation staple is a separate matter.
Robinson will tantalize with his defense, including in space, and offensive rebounding. But his impact has never once been debatable. His availability is what’s forever in question. So while the Knicks can exhale once he returns, if history is any indication, their relief won’t last long.