Knicks’ Plan for Mitchell Robinson Return to Lineup Revealed

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Mitchell Robinson #23 of the New York Knicks

Certainly, the Knicks are treading carefully when it comes to center Mitchell Robinson, whose injury history is dodgy at best. Last year, remember, Robinson dealt with ankle injuries throughout most of the season in 2024-25, playing only 17 games on the season before the playoffs began and he appears in 18 games. Robinson played only 31 games the previous year.

So far, Robinson has made 22 appearances on the season for the Knicks, in 33 games. But this week, after Mitchell had played in a run of five straight games, the Knicks gave him Monday off against the Pelicans for load management and then, surprisingly, sat Robinson for the big New Year’s Eve clash vs. the Spurs.

And he is going to sit again, veteran New York Post writer Stefan Bondy notes.

As he wrote on Twitter/X, “NEWS: The plan is for Mitchell Robinson to play in one of the upcoming back-to-back games, a league source tells The Post, either Friday vs Hawks or Saturday vs. Sixers. His two DNPS this week were part of a planned rest because of grueling schedule, a league source says.”

Knicks Need Mitchell Robinson, Injuries and All

Robinson is averaging a career-low 4.5 points this season, but is racking up 8.7 rebounds per game despite playing just 18.5 minutes.  Robinson’s individual rebound rate of 21.7% is the best in the NBA and that makes his situation both understandable and incredibly frustrating–the Knicks need Robinson, but must treat him very delicately if they hope to have him healthy for the playoffs, which is of the utmost importance.

They’ll also need to keep him on board through the trade deadline in the next five weeks, though his contract–he has one year left on a four-year, $60 million contract, at $13 million–is eminently tradeable. The Knicks could certainly look for another big guy, but they’re not going to get one who can be as effective as Robinson.

When he is healthy, that is.

GettyNew York Knicks coach Mike Brown

Rebounding Critical for Knicks

Knicks coach Mike Brown talked about his impressions of Robinson here in his first year with the team. The load management aspect is frustrating, but Robinson’s ability when on the floor makes it worthwhile.

“Seeing it up close and personal like this,” Brown said. “With a lot of guys, you see them from afar and think certain things about them like, ‘He’s this type of player or that type of player. He has this type of attitude, personality.’ But then you get around them and actually see how effective they are in certain areas, even when you don’t think they should be — at least not that effective — you’re just like, ‘Wow!’

“You just can’t teach that. You can talk about technique and playing hard and all the stuff you want, but there’s just some stuff that players have that you can’t teach. I wish I could say I was his rebounding coach, but I’m not.”

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney