Mitchell Robinson's departure in free agency was always going to be painful for the New York Knicks, even after winning the 2026 NBA Championship. The fact that the center left for the Boston Celtics, though, added insult to injury.
The reality remains that New York will move on without their previously longest-tenured player, looking to become the first team in nine years to successfully defend their title. It may not have been the preference of Leon Rose's front office, but their signing of Andre Drummond (and attempted go at Moussa Cissé) make the path forward quite clear.
The Knicks, however, are quickly learning just how hard it is to replace a starting-caliber player, even if they come off of the bench. It's not surprising that they want a third center, regardless of the quality of their first and second-stringers. The reports surfacing surrounding their initial targets having been guys like Yves Missi and Moussa Diabate, though, reveal the true challenge of replacing Robinson. Especially because of Karl-Anthony Towns' penchant for foul trouble, you really can't do it with just one player.
Andre Drummond doesn't end Knicks' quest to replace Mitchell Robinson
In February of the 2025-26 regular season, Towns laid out just how valuable Robinson was to the Knicks quite clearly. The center unveiled what many Knick faithful already considered an obvious truth: that Robinson was capable of more than his role in orange and blue entailed.
"I don’t want to say I’m a starter and he’s a backup. That’s not right. He can be a starter on any other team," the star center told reporters at Madison Square Garden.
Just because someone can, though, doesn't mean that they should — and Robinson's willingness to star in his role as a backup center, even if not in title, helped win him a championship ring. Now, he'll join a team in the Celtics that won one as recently as 2024. Head coach Joe Mazzulla is a huge fan of Robinson's game, even though he instructed his players to foul him so often that he recently felt the need to apologize.
The Knicks, on the other hand, must continue their search for talent to replenish their center room. The Dallas Mavericks matched their offer sheet for Cissé in less than 24 hours, keeping any potential fruits of that signing for themselves.
There are other options on the market, but none are necessarily appealing for a team with a literal NBA Championship-level standard. New York got to that point by consistently making the most of their circumstances, though, and remaining patient and shrewd in the face of pressure and adversity.
While winning the title should have earned them the right to rise above having to face this particular challenge, it stands in front of them regardless. They have until the 2027 trade deadline to prove they can surmount it.
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