The New York Knicks’ plan to put Mitchell Robinson on a load-management program throughout the season is an unfortunate yet entirely necessary development. Upon further consideration, though, it might not be that unfortunate. Resting him allows the Knicks to field more five-out lineups in his absence.
More specifically, it unlocks additional reps for the Deuce McBride-plus-the-starters look for which fans have been feening.
Pepper in the fact that giving Robinson nights off increases the likelihood he’s full-go for the playoffs, and this may actually be one of those rare instances in which a complicated, if less than ideal, development is actually a blessing in disguise.
The Knicks are positioned to indulge two different styles
Throughout most of last season, fans and even media members wanted to see more of McBride alongside Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns. They didn’t get it.
Across both the regular season and playoffs, the McBride-plus-core-starters lineup totaled just 103 possessions together. That comes out to around 1.1 percent of the Knicks’ court time. Which…bleck.
Everyone also yearned to see dual-big units with Towns and Robinson. The latter's recovery from offseason ankle injury delayed the chance to experiment, but when it finally arrived, then-head coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t test it out nearly enough.
Just under 16 percent of Robinson’s total regular-season possessions came alongside Towns. By the time Thibs was ready to roll out the pairing in more volume, it was the middle of the playoffs, and too late.
New York is now positioned to deliver more of both lineups. Robinson appears to be the opening-night fifth starter, which slots him alongside Towns for, at the very least, the initial few minutes of the first and third quarters.
Meanwhile, on the nights in which Robinon rests, head coach Mike Brown can elevate McBride to the starting lineup. That caters to both the five-out and Deuce-plus-Core Four desires among the fanbase.
Mike Brown is the wild card in all of this…
All of this presumes that the Knicks default to McBride in the starting five when Robinson isn’t ready to rock. They might not.
Brown has shown an affinity for consistent rotations near the top of the roster. He might not want to disrupt the flow of bringing McBride off the bench for the games in which Robinson isn’t playing.
Instead, he could give the nod to Ariel Hukporti to preserve the two-center look, and also not mess with the bench rotation one iota. He could also decide McBride’s shooting and defense is too important to the second unit and insert a higher-volume reserve he deems less integral. Guerschon Yabusele, Jordan Clarkson, maybe Landry Shamet and/or Garrison Mathews, and even Josh Hart could all be options here.
Favoring one of the aforementioned placeholder starters won’t sit right with everyone. That’s okay. But so is not starting McBride when Robinson doesn’t play. The Knicks will have opportunities to drop him in alongside Brunson, Towns, Anunoby, and Bridges throughout the rest of the game.
Starting that way would be preferable, and may even be the right answer when Robinson’s available. This early into the Mike Brown era, though, all that matters is the Knicks seem ready to do what they didn’t last year: test out dual-big and Deuce-plus-the-starters lineups.