Mitchell Robinson is on a load-management program mapped out for him not only by the New York Knicks’ training staff, but also his agent. Is it a pure coincidence the folks over at Wasserman are involved with his day-to-day availability in a contract year? Who’s to say, really?
Head coach Mike Brown recently made some interesting comments when asked about the plan Robinson is currently on. “[Knicks VP of Sports Medicine Casey Smith] is the one who dictates it, along with Mitch and doctors and Mitch’s agent,” he explained ahead of New York’s victory over the Dallas Mavericks, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “So whatever they tell me, I’m just recycling what Casey says to Mitch, but I try to communicate with Mitch as much as possible.”
This is by no means damning stuff. Players’ agents and outside doctors are involved in the treatment of injuries all the time. Still, it is somewhat mysterious—mostly because, as Bondy notes, Brown has so far been deferring to Smith on matters of Robinson’s health, and just suddenly threw Robinson’s agents into the fold.
Add this to number of Mitchell Robinson mysteries piling up
To be honest, the Robinson situation is bizarre enough without this latest wrinkle. While the Knicks have been up front that they are trying to keep him fresh for the playoffs, Brown has also hinted at ramping up his minutes.
That ramp-up has yet to come. Robinson has cleared 20 minutes once this season. It also isn’t entirely clear what, specifically, he’s managing.
We all know that he missed most of last year due to ankle surgery. But New York isn’t always attributing his absences to that ankle. The pattern of “management” is likewise opaque. Robinson played in the Knicks’ first three preseason games, only to miss their final two, and then sit out the first four games of the regular-season schedule. That goes beyond simply not playing both ends of back-to-backs.
Whether the team was operating out of an abundance of caution to start the year or Robinson tweaked his ankle, we can’t be sure. And relative to how this entire process is unfolding, we may never know.
Robinson’s free agency and future with the Knicks looms large here
There is a chance that Robinson’s agents, who are listed as Thad Foucher and Joe Smith, have played an active role in determining his availability ever since he hired them in 2020. But because this is the first we’re really hearing about it, you can’t help but wonder whether his impending free agency is playing a role.
Going on 28 years old, Robinson should be poised to cash in on his offensive rebounding and general defensive value. Especially when you consider how much more common dual-big frontcourts have come.
At the same time, free-agency spending has been curtailed over the past few years. And even if teams have money to burn, they’ll hesitate to invest in someone who’s missed more than two-thirds of his current squad’s games since 2023-24.
That the Knicks clearly do not feel comfortable extending Robinson is a red flag unto itself. It could also be why the big man’s agents are getting involved. They aren’t just thinking about April, May, and maybe June. They are thinking about the rest of Robinson’s career, and optimizing his earning potential.
Whatever’s happening here, it does seem like everyone is on the same page. At the very least, Brown and the rest of the organization are aware of how Robinson and his camp are approaching the season.
This is where the dearth of transparency with which the Knicks have always operated comes back to haunt them. It won’t matter if this load-management program pays off, and Robinson is both available and playing better defense when it matters most. But if something goes awry, or if Mitch never regains the defensive form for which he’s known, people are going to have questions.
Heck, given the ambiguous goings-on at this moment, they should have them already.