The New York Knicks have been overreliant on a struggling starting lineup since the beginning of the 2024-25 season. One solution could be starting Mitchell Robinson over Josh Hart, which helps balance the strengths and weaknesses of the entire roster.
Hart's ancillary ball-handling ability with the reserves helps mitigate their struggles to create offense when Brunson is on the bench; Robinson's presence with the starters stops opposing defenses from guarding Hart with their center.
Robinson helped strengthen that case with his performance against the Chicago Bulls on Friday night, dropping 17 points, 11 rebounds, two steals, and a block on 7-7 shooting.
Robinson shines with double-double amid perfect shooting night
In 23 minutes against a Bulls team with a debatably defensively-fortified front court, Robinson showed just how dominant he can be on the court. The longest-tenured Knick even sunk 3-4 shots from the charity stripe, bringing his average to 40.6% on the season.
The Bulls certainly can't offer the kind of defensive tests that Robinson will face in the postseason, whether in the form of Cleveland's Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen or the burgeoning young center in Detroit, in Jalen Duren. But for Robinson, "getting right" against a less formidable opponent could wind up being the perfect playoff ramp up.
The regular season is no longer about proving dominance on a nightly basis for the center, who still holds the NBA's record for highest field-goal percentage in a single season (74.9 in 2019-20). It's about anchoring the Knicks' defense while maintaining his health.
New York's load management plan for the big man this season involves Robinson playing just one leg of every back-to-back in the team's schedule. The rest helps his body deal with the stress caused by the grind of an 82-game season, which had just caused him to miss 116 regular season games from 2023-25 with various injuries. But that makes it hard to lean on him as an every-night starter.
Once the playoffs start, it's time to put Robinson in the starting lineup
The Knicks are going to need the center in the worst way in playoff settings, where the court shrinks and physical defensive presences are at a premium.
Through Friday, the five-man group of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns has played 494 minutes: the third-most in the NBA. While the group wins their fourth-quarter minutes, they consistently lose their shifts to start games. Last season, the group played more minutes than any other in the league by over 200 minutes to middling returns.
Robinson giving the rest of the starting group a better blend of strengths and weaknesses isn't an indictment on Hart. New York will need both players to feature in several wins, each, if they're going to make a deep playoff run. But the numbers say that continuing to start games with one over the other isn't helping. It makes sense to switch that up once the postseason begins.