After the New York Knicks' NBA Cup win on Tuesday, the entire team was exhausted. Their reward, aside from the prize money, was a stretch of three games in four nights. It began with their win over the Spurs and culminated with their Friday night loss to the 76ers, but there were lessons to be learned from Thursday's eventful win over the Pacers. Jalen Brunson's clutch heroics certainly saved the night. But head coach Mike Brown playing center Ariel Hukporti 27 minutes? That jumps off of the box score like the 23-year-old big man does, when going up for an alley-oop.
Hukporti was Brown's "next man up" in Indiana
With both Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson out against Indiana, it's no surprise that Guerschon Yabusele saw an uptick in minutes. He didn't play in the Cup championship but got 11 minutes of burn against the Pacers, making just one of five shots in that time.
Brown said preseason that both Towns and Yabusele would need more time than other players to adjust to his system, because they had to learn how to play both power forward and center for him. The coach, however, seemingly views Yabusele as more of a "4" than a "5" in his system. This showed on Thursday when he went to Hukporti in Towns and Robinson's absences.
The second-year center started, playing 27 minutes. He scored just four points but pulled down five rebounds and assisted on three scores, the third of came with about four minutes left when the center found an open OG Anunoby for a key 3-pointer.
Mitchell Robinson's contract puts spotlight on Hukporti
Robinson is the Knicks' longest-tenured player. The organization drafted the big man from Louisiana in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft. The center's defensive force has been the biggest constant for New York in these last seven seasons and change, despite his injury troubles being just as consistent.
His contract, however, expires after this season. The Knicks, under team president Leon Rose, have seldom let players "walk" in free agency. Avoiding that outcome at the end of Robinson's deal would require knowing before the trade deadline that they can afford to extend him and that he is amenable to those terms – or a trade.
With New York looking to contend for a championship and rim-protecting, offensive-rebounding stalwarts increasingly en vogue across the NBA, moving Robinson simply to avoid his unrestricted free agency has never presented as a worthwhile option. If the team decides that it's their best course of action ahead of the 2026 offseason, their level of trust in Hukporti will be integral to any of those discussions.
Do they have Robinson's potential replacement already in the building? Or would dealing their fan-favorite center require some additional planning before any moves are made?