The New York Knicks have a playoff difference-maker in Mitchell Robinson, the longest-tenured player on their roster. He's been held out of back-to-backs thus far this season, which head coach Mike Brown says is part of the team's plan to set the center up for a healthy postseason run. After playing in Tuesday's home game against the Sacramento Kings, Robinson is set to miss Wednesday's road tilt against the Toronto Raptors.
Knicks' Robinson injury management is confusing fans
The Kings came into Tuesday night's game with a 12-35 record. In recent weeks, the Knicks have certainly not played like they're above dropping games to inferior opponents. Their home loss to a depleted Mavericks squad on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was the nadir of a brutal eleven-game stretch, during which the Knicks only won twice.
After beating Sacramento, in large part due to Robinson's defensive contributions, the Knicks are 28-18 through their first 46 games of the season. The Raptors, the team New York is traveling north to face on Wednesday night, are right behind them at 29-19. A win could put Toronto back in third place in the Eastern Conference and carry significant weight into a potential late-season battle for playoff seeding. Why isn't Robinson playing then?
It could be the combination of the timing and locations of these games. Tuesday night's action against the Kings took place at home, while the game against the Raptors is on the road and tips off just 24 hours later. The team may have preferred to treat and prepare Robinson for play in-house, as opposed to having the medical team take this particular show on the road.
Playoffs are everything for Brown's Knicks
Regardless of the reasoning, it's important for the Knicks that this all works out. There's no way for the staff to guarantee that Robinson won't get injured, but they're clearly controlling as much as they can in hopes of optimizing the odds of that happening.
Robinson missed 116 total games from 2023-25, approximately 70% of the regular season action in that span. When he was available in the postseason, he changed the landscape of the series for the Knicks. This is most infamously summarized by the social media quote-graphic made with Jarrett Allen's comments regarding the brightness of the lights at Madison Square Garden.
Getting him to the playoffs healthy is clearly a priority for the team. Their plan to make it happen certainly has its costs, with Robinson set to miss a game that could have real influence on the Knicks' eventual playoff seeding on Wednesday. Regardless of what seed the Knicks are, though, they'll need Robinson around to make a real run. Hopefully for all parties involved, this helps make it happen.