{"id":126689,"date":"2025-03-03T13:30:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T18:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=126689"},"modified":"2025-03-03T13:19:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T18:19:45","slug":"knicks-different-lineups-mitchell-robinson-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/03\/knicks-different-lineups-mitchell-robinson-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Different Lineups After Mitchell Robinson’s Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knicks center Mitchell Robinson<\/a> made his much-anticipated debut on Friday night in Memphis after missing 10 months with a foot injury. A painstaking rehab process with many fits and starts came to a satisfying end when Robinson took the floor over the weekend. For a player who hadn’t played in live action since last May, the seven-footer looked remarkably like his usual self.<\/p>\n

Robinson posted six points and five rebounds in an overtime win. He even had a few smooth buckets, including a driving dunk on a fake dribble-handoff. New York’s longest-tenured player has slimmed down from his heavier weight of years past, looking more athletic than he was previously. Robinson has only played a total of 25 minutes in two games since his return. However, Robinson should only continue to improve with time, and his return immediately gives Tom Thibodeau<\/a> much more lineup flexibility.<\/p>\n

Knicks Different Lineups After Mitchell Robinson’s Return<\/h2>\n

Seeing as the Knicks are tied for third in the NBA<\/a> in offensive rating (118.7) and have been top-three all season, their offense isn’t an issue. It’s been the defense that’s let them down oftentimes this year, especially against the league’s best teams<\/a>. The numbers bear this out, as they are 19th in defensive rating<\/a> at 114.1. Their biggest problem has been Jalen Brunson<\/a> and Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, are both easy attack points for opponents.<\/p>\n

Towns in particular has struggled mightily to guard the pick-and-roll. He has slow feet and provides very little resistance to ball-handlers coming downhill at him towards the basket. Opposing offenses have consistently gone at him off screens this year, to disastrous consequences for the Knicks. His offense is so valuable to NY’s attack because of his shooting and partnership with Brunson, so he’s going to be on the floor for 30-plus minutes a game. Luckily, Robinson entering the rotation gives Thibodeau methods to protect him better.<\/p>\n

Playing Mitch at the Five Improves NY’s Defense<\/h3>\n

To help shield Towns, Thibodeau can simply insert Robinson at center and slide KAT to the four. This allows Towns to step up in switches without worrying about being blown by because Robinson is protecting the rim. The only teams this won’t work against are those who have five lethal shooters on the floor at all times. Boston is the only squad that fits that description, as even Cleveland and OKC have guys you can be comfortable helping off of. The unfortunate part is that New York and Boston are almost certain to meet in the second round. Robinson’s presence will still make a difference in that matchup, but Boston is much more equipped to cause them issues.<\/p>\n

It also helps KAT because he is more suited to guarding bigger wings one-on-one than a true center, and is less likely to be brought into screening action as the four. As a side note, this front-court should be the best rebounding duo in basketball.\u00a0 Regardless of who the other three players on the court are, slotting Robinson at center gives NY a much better chance of guarding opposing teams.<\/p>\n

New York’s All-Defense Lineup\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Thibodeau finally has his dream defensive unit to use in late-game situations. He’s already used it in several clutch possessions, and they’re un-scored upon so far. This group got the final stop on Ja Morant<\/a> to steal the game in Memphis. Thibs can now run out Miles ‘Deuce’ McBride<\/a>, Mikal Bridges<\/a>, Josh Hart<\/a>, OG Anunoby<\/a>, and Robinson anytime he needs a stop. This lineup has no weaknesses: they have two incredible on-ball defenders, a playmaker in Hart, a wing stopper in Anunoby, and a rim protector with Robinson.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knicks center Mitchell Robinson made his much-anticipated debut on Friday night in Memphis after missing 10 months with a foot injury. A painstaking rehab process with many fits and starts came to a satisfying end when Robinson took the floor over the weekend. For a player who hadn’t played in live action since last May, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5412,"featured_media":126718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12],"tags":[1616,215],"class_list":["post-126689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-tom-thibodeau"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126689"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126719,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126689\/revisions\/126719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}