The New York Knicks may have pulled off a slew of highly strategic signings this offseason, but arguably overshadowing all of them is the one they couldn't make.
Mere weeks after helping the club take home their first NBA Championship in 53 years, beloved big man Mitchell Robinson inked a brand new three-year, $47.4 million deal with the Celtics in free agency.
Now, while seeing him join a direct division rival certainly stings, in fairness to Mitch, the Knicks were simply unable to pay up for his services due to owner James Dolan's demands for the front office not to have the payroll enter into the second apron, leaving him with no choice but to take the best offer he could on the open market.
Still, the thought of him donning the green and white is somewhat stomach-churning, especially after spending eight seasons repping the orange and blue.
And while the season has yet to tip off, Boston already seems to be unintentionally reminding the Knicks of what they lost in Robinson through their recent social media activity.
Knicks lost premier roll man in Robinson, and Celtics are flaunting it
With training camps across the association officially open, teams are actively putting in early work for the upcoming campaign. At the same time, their social teams are, too.
The Celtics X account recently dropped some practice footage, with a particular clip showing Robinson flushing down a dunk after playing the roll man in a P&R set with trainers.
Though it may just be one clip, it serves as an unfortunate reminder of the kind of dominant presence Mitch was for the Knicks in the pick-and-roll.
Last season perfectly exemplified his exceptional play in this area, as he ranked in the 99.6 percentile as the roll man in such plays, and produced 1.70 points per possession, the second-best mark in the entire league.
His expertise would only become more crucial during their title run in the playoffs, where the Knicks absolutely crushed this area of play, particularly for the roll men, averaging the third-most points per possession with 1.24.
Hopefully, New York can find a way to make up for this loss of production with guys like Karl-Anthony Towns (ranked seventh in points-per-game as a roll man) and Andre Drummond now filling out the primary center depth, but, clearly, it won't be as second-nature as it was when Mitch was in tow.
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