Sometimes, the best ability in the sport of basketball is availability. For New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson, this has been an attribute seen few and far between throughout his tenure.
Sadly, in 2025-26, this remains his biggest flaw.
Since entering the league back in 2018, the big man has consistently wowed fans and pundits alike with his eye-popping athleticism and naturally elite rim-protecting and board-gobbling skills.
For his career, per 100 possessions, he averages a whopping 16.1 rebounds (7.6 coming on the offensive end), 3.8 blocks, and a defensive rating of 107.
Unfortunately, Robinson has only been able to flash these top-notch talents in 342 of a potential total of 565 regular season games, equatting to roughly 40 percent of games that he's missed.
Knicks objectively better when Mitchell Robinson is healthy, which is rare
Through 11 games played this year, Robinson has only managed to suit up for five of them, where they've gone 3-2.
Though this Knicks team has still managed to establish itself as the juggernauts of the Eastern Conference with him revolving in and out of the rotation, it's evident that they are a much better squad when he's been active.
Robinson leads New York in a slew of key on/off statistics, including, but not limited to, offensive rating (134.3), net rating (24.0), and rebound percentage (58.9).
On top of this, with him in tow, the ball club ranks in the 98 percentile in point differential (+21.2) and the 100 percentile in both points per 100 possessions (137.6) and offensive rebound percentage (47.9), per Cleaning the Glass.
After playing through a 2024-25 season where he saw just 17 games of action and missing all of training camp and preseason this year due to a left ankle injury (the very same one that required surgery two summers ago), the Knicks have eased Robinson into the rotation rather slowly and methodically during these early stages of the campaign.
Though on the one hand, this approach is certainly logical from a risk evasion standpoint, in order for New York to reach their full potential as a complete unit, they're going to need their supposed franchise pivot to play more than 16.6 minutes a night.
Fortunately, coach Mike Brown recently revealed that the big man can "go longer with his minutes now than before," and that his usage within the lineup is "on the rise."
Until the Knicks get to a point where they can actually roll out and depend on Mitchell to log close to core-player minutes, however, they will remain held back from their fullest potential.