New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson will have surgery this week on his left ankle, the team said Monday.
The operation will take place at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery and he will be re-evaluated in 8-10 weeks.
He was hurt in Friday’s 133-123 loss at Boston and already had been ruled out for Monday’s game against Toronto.
Robinson, 25, is averaging 6.2 points on 59.2 percent shooting with a team-high 10.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 21 games (all starts) this season.
The 7-footer has career averages of 8.1 points and 8.0 rebounds in 310 games (196 starts) since New York drafted him in the second round in 2018.
Don’t like “Re-evaluated in 8-10 weeks,” as that sure sounds like he’s going to miss a good deal more than just 8-10 weeks, right?
Luckily, the Knicks have one of the best backup centers in the NBA. Less luckily, they don’t really have a third string center that gets used at all.
Last year, Mitchell Robinson started 58 games for the Knicks. They were 35-23 in those games. They lost his first game back from his first absence, when he was eased back playing off of the bench. They were 12-11 in the games he didn’t play at all. His second stretch of missed games came during the period when the Knicks acquired Josh Hart, and Hart-mania was in full effect, so obviously, they are not doomed without Mitch, but they’re a much better team with him than without him.
So hopefully they pull together in his absence and make up for his loss by playing extra hard on defense!
36 replies on “ESPN.com: Knicks center Mitchell Robinson to have ankle surgery”
BOO
I would much rather see this than 12 mins of Jericho Sims.
Look on the bright side, our FT% should be higher and no one will play Hack-a-Hart. No more line drive FTs for awhile.
I think Sims is going to look a lot better in a backup C role than a backup PF role.
i mean .. we have a minutes crunch at the wing…. donte and grimes can both get minutes that they’re used to… same with IQ… we have very good rebounders in hart and randle… and there’s plenty of matchups where the other team is going small in their second unit.. most of our guys are very used to playing up and down from prior stops… seems like a no brainer move…
it’d be nice if we had more 6ft 7 or 8 guys than 6ft 3 and 4 guys but i think it’ll be just fine…. if donte was signed as injury insurance… this is also the kind of injury you should be accounting for and having him help towards… especially when you could generally expect mitch to miss a bunch of games as a baseline based on his history…
so hopefully there was a plan… and that the plan was to play small for a period… not holding my breath tho….
Taj Gibson was just seen entering a local gym with a basketball. 😉
By the way, the fact that Mitch played on this ankle for a whole half is very concerning. How are you not more conservative about stuff like ankles?
Nerlens Noel is available.
He presumably knows the system and could still give us elite defensive minutes if he can stay healthy. The offense is… um… well… let’s not talk about his offense.
Macri’s newsletter said Mitch’s ankle was bothering him for a while. So it’s not just that half either.
Why not? He’s only 29, he can make a free throw and his TS% with us was higher than Mitch’s is this year…
Only reasons I could think of is they want to call-up Roby to the big leagues (really a 2-way to replace Peanuts, Jr) or Thibs will threaten to quit if it isn’t Taj.
As a side note, Thibs might make Sims the nominal starter which he did last year
Didn’t want to be the first to say it but, yes, of course.
If Sims was actually playable that would be nice. Alas.
Even more concerning, then. Yeesh, dudes, you know that you can punt a few regular season games, ya know?
I wouldn’t mind Noel on a vet minimum deal. It sounds like they’re going to be without Mitch for quite a while, so they probably should look to a longer term replacement than just Sims.
Noel just in time for Christmas sounds perfect.
Yeah, I’m just skeptical they’ll go over Sims’s head unless he really bombs and then there’s no reason to get Noel barring another injury.
Not just with Mitch, but I’m also disappointed that we had to sustain a near-miss with Brunson turning his ankle in garbage time against the Celtics. There was no reason to keep him in with the game decided, and Thibs’ player management along these lines has been consistently terrible for a goddam decade. Why can’t he learn?
Count me in on wanting to see some Randle minutes at center instead of scraping the bottom of our “true center” depth chart.
Boy, “redundant” signings sure have their way of becoming essential pretty quickly huh?
The signing of DDV (which I supported fwiw) has contributed significantly to Grimes’ descent from good player/valuable asset to steaming pile of hot garbage with negligible trade value. So I’m not sure what makes you think now is the time for a victory dance. The likelihood that Thibs responds to this crisis by playing three small guards together is close to zero.
Cole Aldrich available?
Did DDV put a curse on Grimes or something?
Grimes didn’t lose his starting spot during camp to him. So not sure how DDV is to blame. If Grimes psyche is frank level fragile that he can’t handle some healthy competition, is he really the valuable asset we think he is?
Just sayin….
Reposting this from the last thread.
For a good coach, Thibs has some really stupid ideas.
Thanks TC, i wasn’t aware that there was a new thread.
LOL
Isn’t this what thibs did last year when Mitch was hurt?
Having another competent big would be a lot better than having another competent SG. If Toronto hits the boards this time like they did the last time, but against smaller lineups this time, we are in trouble.
Sims may suck in drop coverage but rebounding isn’t really a concern
Thibs is fully committed to only having three guys who play any kind of offense on the court at the same time
I don’t mind Sims. He plays with a lot of energy and we aren’t losing a ton on offense because Mitch doesn’t do any scoring anyway. But if we go with an even smaller lineup like Randle at C, IMO defense and rebounding will become an issue tonight against these longer athletic players on the Raptors. They gave us problems with Mitch there.
The idea that DDV’s place on the roster psyched Quentin Grimes out of being a good NBA player seems…half-baked. Grimes’ starting job was never questioned and if he didn’t suck his role wouldn’t have changed one iota. If he can’t deal with the pressure that comes with *checks notes* having additional good players on the roster, he might not be cut out for this NBA thing.
Quickley out tonight and Sims starting. Things could get weird!
Wait. I thought I was starting.
9 games played out of 20 and only in garbage time (2.8 mpg), but he starts tonight.
If I’d really write what I think about it I’d get a lawsuit…
Thibs’ rigidity really is something else. Isaiah Hartenstein is our backup center, and thus he is eternally our backup center. If Sims gets injured I can only assume Taj would start over iHart.
O/U on Fournier minutes tonight?
Anyone know what Jorts Harrellson is up to? … edit: wikipedia to the rescue : Fukushima Firebonds
Game thread is up!