On a night when Knicks draftee Kristaps Porzingis returned to the Garden to remind Knicks fans of what their team gave up on (or more like, what their team was forced to give up on because of trade demands LOL [lots of laughs]), Mitchell Robinson decided to make the opposite statement: there’s no need to mourn the loss of Kristaps when you’ve got dunking machine M-Rob on your squad.
Robinson’s not afraid to play defense. He’s not afraid of bodies crashing into him. He’s not afraid of crashing his body into the hard, sweaty bodies of other men. He’s not afraid to battle in the paint for rebounds and putbacks. He doesn’t stand at the elbow and shoot jumpers over people just because it’s easier than actually moving. He doesn’t demand trades for perceived slights against him. There are a lot of things that he brings to the team that Kristaps, in his current state, would never bring.
Sure, Kristaps is the better scorer. Nobody’s doubting that he’s better at getting buckets. But Robinson’s role on the team isn’t to get buckets. They have such scoring luminaries as Marcus Morris, Julius Randle, and Wayne Ellington to do the bucket-getting. All Robinson has to do is catch lobs and terrorize the opposing team with devastating blocks.
There are a lot of things that Knicks fans can be mourning right now, but Robinson is definitely not one of them.