Mitchell Robinson has seen it all as a Knick, from toiling on the league’s worst team to now being the X factor on a contender that has a chance to be the best.
The Knicks’ road to a title — the bar set by ownership — starts with Saturday’s first-round Game 1 against the visiting Hawks. Robinson, the longest-tenured player on the roster, is the only one left from their 2021 first-round loss to the Hawks.
“Yeah, it’s crazy. Was it five years ago when we played them in the playoffs?” Robinson asked rhetorically. “I didn’t get to play in that series. Five years later, here we are with a different team for both sides. It’s going to be amazing, going to be fun. [We’re] going to get after it.”
Robinson missed that gentleman’s sweep at the hands of Atlanta, sidelined by a broken foot. But after being handled cautiously the final six games — averaging 20.7 minutes in three and missing the rest — he’s come through a left ankle injury and lost toenail, healthy for this Hawks rematch.
A pending unrestricted free agent, this could be his Garden swan song. Robinson was a rookie on a league-worst 17-65 squad and has been part of their steady climb. Now they’ll aim to turn the Hawks into another rung on their ladder.
“Yeah, I’ve done seen it all,” said Robinson, 28. “This is Year 8 for me, going from not being in the playoffs, to the bottom of the East, to now one of the tops in the East. It’s been amazing. Long journey. Trust the process and here we are.”
Robinson averaged 5.7 points and 8.9 boards this season, but the numbers don’t so much lie as fall short of the truth.
“We’ve got to approach this collectively,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “He’s a terrific player that impacts the game in a lot of ways.”
In their April 6 matchup, Robinson had a dozen boards, three blocks and two steals in just 20 minutes off the bench to lead the Knicks to a road win. The league’s most efficient rebounder, Robinson could be the X factor against a team already undersized before losing Jock Landale to an ankle injury.
In the postseason, when games get slower, defensive and played in the halfcourt — where every rebound matters — Robinson has a golden opportunity to thrive.
“Yeah, everything matters: box-outs, rebounds, offensive rebounds, just the little details. Everything literally counts, and you’ve got to make the best of it,” Robinson said. “I’ve been in a couple of playoff series now. So, got a little experience. With that, I use that as motivation and know what to look for.”
Robinson led the league in rebounds per 100 possessions, offensive rebounds per 100 and offensive rebounds per 36 minutes. And his contrast with Karl-Anthony Towns is like a great fastball-curveball combo.
“Mitchell’s size, athleticism, ability to be a vertical threat, it gives our opponents different looks offensively just by substitution,” coach Mike Brown said, snapping his fingers. “So from that standpoint, it’s pretty neat. … Those two guys are different, and I like to have diversity within our team, especially within the same position.”
Though Towns is great in dribble-handoffs and even from the arc, Robinson is a physical, ferocious offensive rebounder and rim protector.
And the Knicks have gone jumbo with both playing together for 278 minutes in 51 games this season. Their rebound rate of 58 percent was the best of any two-man unit involving Mitchell, and could be a weapon to slow the Hawks’ fast break.
“He impacts the game on the boards in a really significant way. He does things that are selfless. The rebounds show up, but his presence — whether it’s the screening or rolling, the defending — there’s a lot of things he does,” Snyder said. “There’s no one guy for us that you can say that’s your job to stop him. … So we have to approach it collectively.
“They play them together, too. So, you look at all those different lineups. So you can chase matchups, or you can stay with what you think works for your team. I think you need to do both.”
