Mitchell Robinson, Starting Center?

Tom Thibodeau - maybe? - told us his plans for Robinson's return.

Good morning! Knicks are back in action tonight at home vs Philly. Mitchell Robinson is out, KAT is questionable and OG Anunoby is probable. For Philly, Joel Embiid, Eric Gordon, Kyle Lowry, Jared McCain and Guerschon Yabusele our out, while Quentin Grimes is probable. Come say hi at halftime.

News & Notes

🏀 SNY’s social media team created quite the firestorm yesterday when they sent out a tweet seemingly confirming that Tom Thibodeau plans to start Mitchell Robinson when he comes back from injury. It certainly got the desired response from me, but that was before I went and listened to the whole quote, in which Thibs is responding to a question about the impact of Mitch’s return (and the italicized portion is what was tweeted out):

“I think you have to look at it and say, OK, Mitch was projected to be the starting center on the team, so we've gone fifty-something games without our starting center. Guys have done a really good job stepping in. Could we do better? I always believe we can do better. Mitch is an elite pick & roll defender, an elite rim protecter, he’s an elite offensive rebounder. Those are things that are critical.

So…what the hell to make of this.

Could the plan all along have been to start Mitch when he’s back, and might we see it in short order? It’s certainly possible.

But if that’s the case, why would Thibs even use the word “projected?” Why not just say “Mitch is our starting center and we haven’t had him for fifty-something games”???

It’s been a long time since I used any real brain power trying to parse a Thibodeau nugget, but this one has me stumped. My gut says that he’s leaving both doors open: maybe Mitch eventually starts, but at first he’ll come off the bench, and they’ll see how that goes before making a decision. That’s classic Thibs, who never boxes himself into a corner he can’t get out of.

If Robinson does start, that would almost certainly move Josh Hart to the bench, which opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities for how Thibs might deploy the rotation. At the very least, hearing Thibodeau speak about Mitch in this manner strongly suggests that he’s going to play a significant role moving forward.

Guess we’ll find out soon enough. Much more on the prospect of Mitch starting if and when it becomes a reality.

Wednesday Grab Bag

Today’s newsletter is going to be a bit of a hodge podge, hitting on a few different topics of interest as we await the Knicks returning to action tonight against whatever’s left of the Philadelphia 76ers. We start off with a question from Mike D that will serve as our guiding light:

Was there anything in the film worth noting about the offense? The difference between the first two quarters and the 35-12 run? Or was that just better execution, too? Hart at the end of the first quarter was more concerned with the offense (playing too slow, taking bad shots) leading to bad defense, and I’m wondering if there’s a worthwhile chicken-or-egg convo here. Is the poor offense putting us at a defensive disadvantage, or is the bad defense leading to hanging heads and frustrated offense?

Great question Mike. Before we look at some tape, I want to highlight a stat.