Knicks Morning News (2025.12.10)

I am very reluctantly giving in to the phony pageantry of the Cup, if for no other reason that it’s good publicity for our long beleaguered franchise. Maybe they should hold the games in the Sphere! But honestly, anything is better than the nonsense that has become All-Star weekend. The old heads here all remember when that game was legit, with the best players in the world playing all out to win. At least the games here will be in that spirit.

During Mitch’s rookie year I had enormous hopes for him. He’s definitely had his moments, but at the end of the day, he has never lived up to the promise he showed back then. He’s been great value on his deal, even with the injuries, but now I think it’s time to move on. The minutes restrictions, situational restrictions, and physical decline are all not consistent with championship aspirations.

I’ve been critical of KAT but he played a good defensive game last night. Just an outlier or a sign of things to come?

“There’s one thing that needs to happen for Mitch. He needs to start shooting underhanded.”

I don’t think he has it in him to do any better that way, it would only be more embarrassing with the same result.

There are ways to teach arc on FTS, like putting a plexiglass panel or some other obstruction in a place where he has to put arc on the ball to shoot over it but can still see the rim. Or do role play…become the ball by getting on a cherry picker and looking down at the basket from above.

If he’s unable to internalize the concept of arc, he’s more of a novelty act than anything else. There is zero excuse for whatever the fuck he is doing right now. He’s shooting 20% and it’s not surprising!!!!

“i will be inconsolable if i hear scalabrine refer to the misses robinson strategy”

LOLOL opposing teams should blare that song on the PA system whenever he gets fouled.

“height probably does hurt free throw shooting to some extent”

Be that as it may, I have hypothesized that it’s more about strength than height. It seems that the unusually strong bigs have issues with the relative smallness and lightness of the ball. I know that shooting FTs with a volleyball always seemed harder for me than a basketball, and even with a 28.5 ball, although the smaller circumference of the ball relative to the rim sort of mitigated that.

“Actually just saw the highlight where he clanked it off the front rim, got his own rebound, and passed to Jalen for the trey. I’d trade one for three any day!”

I actually wonder if it’s a strategy….sort of like when teams miss on purpose when down 2 with little time left…can you imagine if Mitch actually mastered hitting the exact spot on the back of the rim that kicked the ball back out to him, while all of his teammates ran to the 3pt line instead of contesting the rebound? He could call it the Hack-you-right back-a-Mitch.

“Mitchell Robinson makes less than the MLE and we have won multiple playoff series no one denies we wouldn’t have won without him. The free throw shooting is incredibly annoying, especially because he was decent as a rookie! But I don’t think novelty acts swing playoff series.”

The assumption here that if we didn’t have Mitch we would have lost those series seems to be grounded in the notion that there wouldn’t have been a replacement for him that helped us win in other ways.

There is also the inconvenient truth that depending on Mitch has actually cost us a playoff series or two.

2021 vs. Atlanta: unavailable due to injury
2023 vs. Miami: largely ineffective, series dominated by Bam and smaller lineups
2024 vs. Indiana: reinjured foot (Thanks Joel!), terrible in limited minutes
2025 vs. Indiana: not a factor, particularly against Indy’s backups

Between being injury-prone, defensively diminished, the hack-a-Mitch strategy becoming more of a thing, Huk showing some potential, and the availability of decent analogs later in drafts, I’m ready to move on from the OReb freak show. If he turns it around and becomes the guy we all hoped he would become in this years playoffs, I’ll be ready to eat crow.

Houston has the 2nd best offense in the league and it’s largely because “they’re using 2 Mitchell Robinsons in their rotation between Adams & Capella. Their Oreb% is 6.5 points higher than 2nd place, the same difference between 2nd and 20th. Mitch is worth it for the offensive rebounding alone.”

No teams employ hack-a-Steve or hack-a-Clint. Both have higher BPMs than Mitch. They also have higher TS% and lower TOV% on higher usage.

The only caveat is that Mitch is (as usual) recovering from an injury and may round into form as the season goes on. His minutes have increased lately, so there is at least some cause for optimism. But this version of Mitch is not very promising, nor is his history of injury recovery. It’s almost like a less extreme/expensive version of the false hope of KP.

marechal, good post!

alecto, I don’t think it’s as much height-related because of what ptmilo suggested, i.e there is significant selection bias for 7-footers, as shorter players are unlikely to make it to the NBA if they can’t shoot FTs. There are very few examples of players under 6’6″ who had long, fruitful NBA careers despite being 50% or below FT shooters. If you can dominate the paint and the glass, meaning score at point blank range, rebound, and block shots, teams will be happy to overlook your FT shooting, or lack of shooting from outside the paint in general.

In fact, it should theoretically be easier for tall guys to shoot FTs, just as it would likely be easier for shorter player to shoot on a 9-foot rim.

I don’t hate Stearns for not signing Pete to that 5-year deal. I will definitely miss Pete and always have a place in my heart for what he did as a Met, particularly in 2024. I’m glad that he’s not going to a hated rival.

Huk (who is 23, on a minimum deal, healthy, and improving) is not yet 80% of a healthy Mitch, who only exists theoretically.

I’m not really understanding the idea that using Mitch’s bird rights to retain him on a reasonable deal

here’s the issue…can you both “retain him” and “retain him on a reasonable deal”? First, what is a reasonable deal, actually? Keeping in mind, of course, that he is unrestricted.

“Notably absent were any qualifiers like “if he costs $XM AAV” or “if the opportunity to acquire someone better somehow materializes.” If that’s what you meant, I apologize for not being able to read your mind.”

Actually you didn’t need to read my mind, since the exerpt I referenced was made like 20 posts before you responded. But sure, let’s use the “asset-neutral” threshhold you coined back in the “move on from Julius Randle” days.

Now are you suggesting that there couldn’t possibly be an “asset-neutral” or better trade out there for Mitch (including as part of a bigger package)? Maybe that’s true, but my point is that Leon should be on the phone continuously to find out.

“To put a finer point on it, letting Mitch walk and giving his roster spot to someone more “reliable” is nearly guaranteed to lower our ceiling, even if it wins us the odd additional regular season game here and there.”

Not nearly as much as a hobbled or unavailable Mitch lowers our ceiling.

“There is no one on the scrap heap who can do what Mitch does defensively and on the offensive glass when he’s healthy and conditioned. Yes, the latter part of that sentence has become an enormous qualifier. If it wasn’t, we’d be talking about whether or not we should max him.”

In case you didn’t mean that as a joke, let me definitively say that no team ever would consider maxing the healthiest version of Mitch that ever walked onto the court. Nor would any reasonably intelligent Knickerblogger. But the larger point is that there should be very little confidence that the “healthy, well-conditioned” version of Mitch will ever be a reality again, especially after a long season and a grueling playoff run.

“Personally, given that everyone in the league will be staring up at OKC until the sun explodes, I’ll take the upside play.”

That’s a choice. Another is to bet on the upside of a healthy young C, either currently on the roster, or on someone else’s roster, or in the draft, along with whatever interesting you can do with being a bit further below the second apron. Or with a long, athletic defensive wing that fills some of the rebounding/shot-blocking void, plus whatever else the allure of his “healthy, well-conditioned” self might bring back in a pre-deadline trade with some team that’s desperate for what he brings.

Just to be clear, Mitch is not the only player I would prefer to move on from….KAT is first and foremost in my mind in that regard.

I also have no problem with folks believing in Mitch more than I do, or liking his game more than I do, or being less concerned about his FT shooting or lack of playmaking, dribbling, or shooting. Just like I have no problem with folks being more forgiving of KAT’s shortcomings than I am. To each their own.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask that we assume that a) all of us root just as hard for anyone wearing the jersey to be their best selves so long as they are on the team, and b) any theoretical transactions we discuss should involve getting back more/better than what is sent out as a minimum requirement, unless it is specifically stated otherwise. There can be reasonable differences regarding the outgoing and incoming values, but that’s different than saying “dump him for nothing” as it was suggested that I said.